Friday Night Lights

[TeaLeaf]

Anyone else followed this series on ITV4?

TL.

[T-Bag]

ITV4? I gave up on watching ITV when it went past 2. What the show about?

[ChimpBoy]

Not seen the series (I watched Playmakers before that on FX channel which was very good though, so I was all gridironed-out) but the Peter Berg film is probably the best sports film I have ever seen.  I'm racking my brain for something that comes close, but I can't think of anything right now.  I'm sure the trolls will be out soon to put me down though - Mighty Ducks anyone?
 
As I remember series 1 was hyped but it sort of ran out of steam.....

[TeaLeaf]

Friday Night Lights is an NBC television series based on the 1989 book and 2004 film of the same name.

It started with a book:

In 1988, investigative journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner H.G. Bissinger decided to spend a year chronicling a season of high school football. The school he chose was Permian High in Odessa, Texas. Odessa, a West Texan town of about 90,000 people, exhibited a lot of the characteristics of the boom-and-bust mentality of a place whose reason for existence depended on oil and Middle Eastern politics. During Bissinger’s season, Odessa was in the midst of an economic downturn, a town with an alarmingly rising crime rate and such bleak prospects that Money magazine rated it the fifth worst place to live in the United States. Football, Permian High football, was what held the town together. And hold it did, with crowds of 20,000 flocking to see games on Friday nights, and thousands watching every practice and internalizing every success and failure of the team.

The Permian Panthers was no ordinary high school football team. Its win-loss record was unrivalled in the state, and the team had won five state championships. The ultimate honor for every boy in town was to play football for the Panthers. For every girl it was to become a Pepette, a cheerleader who baked cookies for the players during off days and dazzled the crowd to the tune of the school fight song on game days. In Odessa, everybody defined themselves in terms of the school football team and lived vicariously through it. So obsessed were the townspeople that they hardly raised an eyebrow when the football team chartered planes for away games at $20,000 a ride while the teachers scrounged around for money to buy textbooks and teaching materials.

Bissinger’s riveting narrative of Permian High’s quest for the state championship is interspersed with vivid portrayals of the players, some who shine in the spotlight and others who find that they don’t quite measure up when it counts. Booby Miles, an African American running back, figures that the 1988 season will be his coming-out party, a season where he will lead his school to the championship and attain his dream of playing football for a major college. Booby has so much faith in his ability that he burns a number of bridges – academic and social – in his journey. In a poignantly told chapter, we find Booby’s dreams shattered as his foot is caught in the artificial turf during a game. Unable to come to terms with the loss of his athletic ability, Booby becomes a cautionary tale of football obsession gone awry.

The erudite Brian Chavez is a study in contrast. The top student in his class, Chavez exhibits a passion for brutality on the field but realizes that there is a world beyond football and one beyond the insular confines of Odessa. It is little wonder that Chavez ends up graduating from Harvard after high school. Then there is the troubled Don Billingsley, who tries to live up in vain to the glory and expectations of his father, spirals into an abyss of drugs and alcohol, and somehow comes up unscathed in moments that count.

The book’s merit lies in the fact that, while it details the excesses that happen in Odessa because of the town’s obsession with the Permian Panthers, its reader realizes the genuine passion the town, the players, and the coaches have for the game. While it is appalling to read about the town’s hatred of African Americans and Hispanics and its almost complete disdain for anything that gets in the way of football, Bissinger succeeds in getting us to root for the team and read with bated breath the account of the team’s fortunes on the field. The description of the pivotal game against Carter High is told with such a sense of immediacy that we feel that we can almost will the result to be different.

The current edition of the book is a look back after ten-plus years of the book’s publication. In the afterword, the author looks at its impact on the town. Apparently the book evoked such bitterness and antipathy because of what residents saw as its negative tone that Bissinger’s life was threatened. However, well-meaning citizens saw the book for what it was – a brutally honest portrait of what high school football means to a town and how this passion can alter priorities, often to the detriment of the town. Recent news reports seem to indicate that Odessa has toned down, albeit only slightly, its passion for football and has begun to reassess its priorities.

Then it grew to a film.

http://www.fridaynightlightsmovie.com/

Then it became the series.

http://www.nbc.com/Friday_Night_Lights/.

The thing I have enjoyed about it is that it because it sprang out of an investigative journalist's work it examines and deals with many of the negative sides of the situation, not just the rah-rah positive that the 'cheerleaders' for this type of story would have you believe.  Small-town America can be a strange place and many of the problems are dealt with.  The series is clearly highly stylised, but I have enjoyed it immensely none the  less.

The book is fascinating.  The film is good (but has to gloss over so many parts due to time restrictions).  The TV series is highly entertaining and well worth watching imho.

TL.

[ChimpBoy]

Aye, I bought the book after seeing the film - the film deviates a fair bit (the playing career of Booby for example) but is an excellent read nonetheless.
 
If you like American Sports books in general, then try "Moneyball" - a truly excellent read about Baseball and a visionary manager called Billy Beane who sacked his scouts and instead hired statisticians to find players. The premise might not sound like a page-turner, but it really is a great story.

[TeaLeaf]

If you like American Sports books in general, then try "Moneyball" - a truly excellent read about Baseball and a visionary manager called Billy Beane who sacked his scouts and instead hired statisticians to find players. The premise might not sound like a page-turner, but it really is a great story.

Ordered via the dMw Amazon affiliate link :thumbsup:

TL.

[RizZy]

I watched a bit of the 1st series, but I'm not good with watching things like that, I forget when there on most the time & keep missing em, seemed pretty good from what I remember, the fact that I play American footy aswell no doubt helped.

[TeaLeaf]

I read Moneyball and it was indeed a very good read.  The time period is also recent enough to be almost current and that makes it all the more entralling as many of the names are known or recognisable.  A recommended read even if you are not a baseball afficionado (which I am not).

Also bought The Blind Side by the same author which is a story about the changing role and economic value of left tackles in the NFL over the years.  To say that is all the tale is about would vastly undersell the book itself which covers a wide range of surrounding areas too.  Like the baseball book it is scarily current, to the extent that a chronicled figure in the book is not yet drafted!  Another fascinating read into the world of the NFL and in particular the people who play left tackle.

Both books are highly recoemmended.

TL.

[delanvital]

That was an interesting read!

[TeaLeaf]

Bumping a very old thread from 2007, but I wanted to ask a question.

In this nasty credit crunch where many shows are being cancelled, what made DirectTV and NBC yesterday confirm an order for not just one more series of Friday Night Lights, but for two series (4 & 5) when in the US where they are broadcast they usually only get 4.0 million viewers?

Don't get me wrong, I'm delighted, I own Series 1,2 & 3 on DVD and love it, but I think it says a lot about the quality of the series and importantly the feedback from the critics.  This series has received much critical acclaim and is well worth the time to watch and follow.

TL.

[TeaLeaf]

.....and at the risk of thread necromancy becoming acceptable, Moneyball hits the cinemas this Friday with Brad Pitt in the lead role.   Clearly it's Hollywood trying to make some dough off the back of The Blind Side's success, but seeing how excellent the book was there is a chance (as there was with The Blind Side) that it might actually turn out to be a good movie!

Both books are still highly recommended, I'll let you know how the film pans out next weekend.

[TeaLeaf]

I'll let you know how the film pans out next weekend.

If the SWTOR queue does not go a bit quicker I'll be going to see Moneyball tonight!

[TeaLeaf]

I was lauding this show back in 2007 when it first showed on ITV4.    It's a great series which ultimately ran for 5 seasons and is now going to be shown on Sky Atlantic/HD.   But don't take my word for it, the Guardian newspaper says you should watch it too!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/feb/13/friday-night-lights?newsfeed=true

Even DigitalSpy think you should watch it:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/ustv/tubetalk/a365505/friday-night-lights-why-you-should-watch-sky-atlantics-new-show.html

You do not need to like american football to enjoy this series, so if you missed this series the first time around then set your PVR and make sure you watch it this time around.   Friday Night Lights immerses you in the life of a small town community deep in America's heartland, where the life of high school students collides at full speed with not just their own hopes & dreams but those of their home town and all the pressure that accompanies the carrying of someone else's dreams.  No subject is taboo, religion, alcoholism, education, family relationships, the rules applied to 'sports' letter-men, the economy, politics, race relations etc.  Even the difference between the haves and the have nots are as large as you believe them to be.  

Sky Atlantic have secured the rights to the first 2 series. and if they fail to show Series 3, 4 & 5 then just come talk to me or Sheepy, both of us have all 5 seasons on DVD.

The series starts tonight on Sky Atlantic/HD tonight (Sunday 19th February) at 8.00pm.
(also being shown on Tuesday nights at 8.00pm, next Tuesday is Episode 2)

Watch it, you will not be disappointed.

[Padding]

The last 4 posts here where from TL and it seemed a bit lonely so im jumping in to say HI! :byebye:

[smilodon]

TL has lent me the book and movie DVD, book is great but very odd not to be reading it on my Kindle. Movie to be watched.

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