Friday Night Lights, 90210

Thanks to NBC's decision to make this show available via the internet, I've been able to keep track of things over the past two weeks.

As a refresher: This show (or the idea of this show) has been dear to my hear, despite the fact that I wasn't able to watch it until recently. Set in West Texas and about football.

Basically: I'm having a good time watching it. I don't know about every damn critic calling it art. An average episode of BattleStar Gallactica or Deadwood kicks its ass.

The Good:

• The coach. Comes off as intense and believable. You end up rooting for him.
• The student plotlines. The players aren’t a bunch of cliches. (Except for the pretty boy with nice hair who's also the toughest kid on the team. Right.)
• The music. The producers do a decent job getting Texas music onto the soundtrack. I don't say great job, but hell, what other show is playing Texas music right now?

The Bad:

• The coach. His character is always doing the right thing. Any coach on any level out there knows that success depends on massaging the rules. Period. (It’s too easy to pick on football as being the only place where this happens. Sheesh, any band director is aware of it, but whatever.) I’m curious if they’ll explore that next season. If there is one.
• The overdramatic plotlines. The events that happen are real enough, but they play the hell out of them. Hence, you can’t just watch a play during a early game in the season. You have to hear the announcers screaming at their fictitional audience: "I CAN’T BELIEVE THE COACH IS GOING TO GO FOR TWO. THE WHOLE SEASON – HIS WHOLE CAREER!!! – IS COMING DOWN TO THE NEXT PLAY. GOODNESS GRACIOUS!!! WOW!!! ETC!!!"
  Really. High school radio announcers are either fathers of the players or DJs with nothing better to do. They don’t talk like that.
• The constant re-enforcement of the fact that football is really really important. As in, a player’s academic eligibility comes in over the school's P.A. system. During a passing period. Or, the wild celebration in the school when the announcement is made. C'mon, the folks of Dillon do have other things to do with their time. We live in the age of X-box, for crying out loud.
• The actual football. Or the filming thereof. It doesn’t look real. The actors are jogging around at half speed and no offensive or defensive schemes are discernable. Sheesh.

More to come.