• Friday Night Lights Picked Up

      A post about by Regina Avalos on March 28th, '09

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    • A couple of weeks ago, we heard rumors this one NBC series being picked up being picked up for not just one but two more seasons. Well, those rumors were confirmed this week. NBC has decided to pick up Friday Night Lights, and yes fans of the series will be happy to know that the series will be around for two more years. The series will hit DirecTV first in the fall, and then come to NBC at midseason. An odd arrangement, but it seemed to work this season for the series.

      However, there are changes ahead for the series. At least two of the stars on the show will not be returning for the full season next year. Minka Kelly and Adrianne Palicki will only return next season to wrap up story lines. There are others that might not come back either because of other commitments. So why is this series coming back? It sounds like it will be a dramatically different series when it does. I watched most of season one, but I didn’t watch much after that. The series became too predictable to me. However, it does have fans. Will they be tuning in?

      In other NBC series, they have chopped up Chopping Block just after the series aired three episodes. Chop chop. That’s a wrap. Quick ends are not uncommon on television, but somehow NBC keeps Heroes around. Does anyone understand that? Yeah, me neither. Stranger things have happened though.

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    • Lights Still on for Friday Night

      A post about by Josh on March 18th, '08

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    • “The little show about life in small town America might be at the forefront of something that will change the way people watch TV.”

      No show has had more brushes with death than Friday Night Lights. It took a major uproar from the show’s hardcore fan base to get the second season onto NBC’s line-up last year. A third season seemed to be a stretch, especially during the writer’s strike. Still, vocal FNL aficionados have convinced NBC to give the show a second, third chance.

      I, for one, applaud. Having (miraculously) lived through high school sports myself, I find the show continuously ringing true at every level. The unnatural pressures put on high school athletes, the little cultural things surrounding high school sports, the middle aged fans who seem to be living vicariously through the players on the field. No show is better at showing the pressures and oddities of small-town American life like Friday Night Lights.

      That said, it can’t go on like this forever. Or can it? NBC agreed to show FNL’s third season after making a deal with DirecTV. The show will be aired first exclusively on DirecTV before being shown later on NBC.

      Is this a one time deal that will fall by the wayside before people start talking about season 4 of Friday Night? Or is DirecTV onto something? A loyal fan base will bring in guaranteed viewers every week. While their numbers might not be big enough to attract broadcast networks, offering exclusive cult shows like FNL might be a way for DirecTV to win subscribers away from the competition.

      The little show about life in small town America might be at the forefront of something that will change the way people watch TV.

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    • The Second Season of Friday Night Lights

      A post about by Josh on November 30th, '07

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    • Imagery relating to The Second Season of Friday Night Lights

      When watching TV, I am often bored. If I’m lucky, what I’m watching will make me laugh or sit up on the edge of my seat. Never am I challenged or asked to think too much. At least not by a show on broadcast TV.

      Except by Friday Night Lights. The show is challenging because it’s not neat. I mean that in a good way. The show lets us in on small town Texas; a place that eats and sleeps football. The relationships are complex: a head coach and his supportive (?) wife, a team and their star running back (who seems to be playing for himself more than his field-mates). The hand-held style in which FNL is shot just adds to rawness/realism of the story lines. I find the whole effect brilliant.

      The problems with this show? Ratings.

      Perhaps NBC is trying to be too true to the name by actually airing the show on Friday night, which is broadcast TV’s graveyard shift. Perhaps the show is a bit too raw, with too many downers. Most people probably have enough reality in their own lives. TV is escapism and FNL isn’t escapist enough.

      It seems that the show’s writers (may they come back to work soon) are edging the narrative a little more towards mainstream. Season Two features a murder/death mystery and a heavier dose of romance. But these new angles won’t make-or-break the show. There are enough people in the audience who feel that FNL is an excellent window into small town America.

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    • Friday Night Lights may have a new home

      A post about by Chris Garrett on November 16th, '07

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    • Imagery relating to Friday Night Lights may have a new home

      Friday Night Lights has to be one of my favourite shows at the moment. It covers some pretty gritty story lines whilst maintaining it’s focus on the football angle. Past sports dramas aimed at teens, like One Tree Hill, have tended to lose their sporting focus in favour of more traditional storylines, to maintain strong audience figures. FNL has refused to do this and thus has won great critical-acclaim.

      Unfortunately, it’s ratings are currently flagging, and have been since it first aired. I was somewhat amazed when NBC decided to bring it back for Season 2 and we were thrown straight into some big story lines, perhaps an attempt to bump the shows viewers, but unfortunately this hasn’t happened.

      Three changes in time slots and Kevin Reilly (entertainment president at Fox) calling the show a womans show don’t bode well for the show, but there is hope! ESPN is desperate to add more original content to it’s portfolio. Playmakers, it’s early attempt at a scripted drama following the lives of players in a fictional football team, was canceled as a result of pressure from the NFL.

      So perhaps Friday Night Lights could be the perfect replacement for Playmakers? The NFL can’t complain about the way it depicts players like it did with Playmakers, because the players aren’t pros and their not really depicted that badly anyway.

      I’ll be interested to see how this rumour plays out, hopefully ESPN will give FNL the adrenaline boost it needs :)

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