Friday Night Lights: It's 'Hail Mary' time
10/23/06 12:20 PM
By ED BARK
Fall's best new series -- nipping Heroes by a hair -- is down by three touchdowns in the Nielsen ratings with just a quarter left to play.
NBC's Austin-made Friday Night Lights (Tuesdays at 7 central, 8 eastern) needs to rally in a hurry or have its season suspended. That's a big shame because this is a gem of a drama that shines on two levels. Yes, it's primarily about a West Texas high school football team's impact on a small town without pity for losers. But sports aside, Friday Night Lights also excels as a heartfelt, sometimes heartbreaking look at kids, coaches and their families.
Whether on a practice field or under stadium lights, the football action is the best you'll ever see on a weekly TV series. That's apparently scared a lot of people off. Sports-themed dramas are tough sells, even when a show takes pains to paint larger pictures outside those lines. Watch Friday Night Lights and you'll get a look at the real-deal sights and sounds of an America that's largely been dealt out of prime-time. Authenticity informs every frame of this show, which looks and feel like nothing else this fall. Actually, like nothing else in a long time.
Still, most viewers are looking away and missing out on some terrific characters and compelling storylines. Friday Night Lights is in a black hole of a time slot, facing ABC's Dancing with the Stars, CBS' NCIS and now Game 3 of the World Series this week. NBC plans to give the show a shot on Monday at 9 central next week, where it will sub for the network's flagging Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Realistically, only a significant ratings uptick can save Friday Night Lights from a benching before the Nov. 2 start of the four-week November "sweeps" ratings period.
As has been written before here, let's win one for this Gipper. Let's appreciate the stellar work by Kyle Chandler as first-year Dillon Panthers coach Eric Taylor. Let's get involved in the stories of paralyzed star quarterback Jason Street (Scott Porter), his wayward best friend, Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch), and poignant backup QB Matt Saracen, whose dad is in Iraq and whose infirm live-in grandma leans heavily on her grandson.
Let's get deeper into what drives the team's star running back, "Smash" Williams (Gaius Charles). Let's commiserate with Street's girlfriend, Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly), who so much wants to believe he can walk again. And let's cheer the coach's wife, Tami (Connie Britton), who stands by her man but is no pushover.
OK, pep rally over. Only you can save Friday Night Lights. And you need to start right now. Otherwise game's over.