‘Friday Night Lights’ Season 1 review
“Friday Night Lights” Season 1 (2006-07, NBC), episodes 1-5 – This present-day adaptation of H.G. Bissinger’s late-’80s expose on Texas high school football is more about the team than individuals. That’s why episode one could focus on the stud quarterback and then, after he gets paralyzed on the gridiron, switch focus to the meek second-stringer
‘Friday Night Lights’ review
“Friday Night Lights” – The film expertly pares down the book, but H.G. Bissinger’s story, as sweeping as the west Texas oil country where it’s set, is too big for a two-hour movie. Still, the key moments are there, including a dramatic coin flip to determine Permian’s playoff fate. Hollywood wouldn’t dream up anything that
‘The Killing’ isn’t dead after all! Plus: 9 other resurrected shows (TV commentary)
With the awesome news earlier this week that AMC changed its mind about “The Killing,” which it canceled a few months ago but has now resurrected for a third season (to air later this year), I thought I’d take a look at a few notable resurrected (or un-canceled, if you prefer) series through the years.
John’s top 10 TV shows of 2011
For me, this was the year of “What’s going to happen next?” Who killed Rosie Larsen? Will Emily get revenge? How long can Bridget fool people into thinking she’s Siobhan? What would you do in a zombie apocalypse? And … how is Amber going to pay the rent? While many of the best plots of
Fond farewell: ‘Friday Night Lights’ (TV review)
I’m not married and I know that if I ever lived in Texas I’d die from the heat, yet I always respected “Friday Night Lights,” TV’s best show about marriage and best show about Texas. On Friday on NBC (and before that on DirecTV and on DVD), it bowed out after five seasons with a confident 90-minute
First episode (of new season) impressions: ‘Friday Night Lights’ (TV review)
“Friday Night Lights” (7 p.m. Central Fridays on NBC) continues to do the little things well: In the fifth-season premiere, Landry goes through his own version of “American Graffiti,” playing one last show with Crucifictorious, saying goodbye to Matt’s senile grandmother (who thinks he is going to SMU, not Rice), reminiscing in the Alamo Freeze parking
John’s top 10 TV shows of 2010
This was the year when TV changed from low-definition to high-definition and from squares to rectangles (I still have a square, and I know I’m missing some things off to the sides, but at least I can hear everybody). Also, TV has never before been as accessible; unless it’s on a premium network, rare is
On ‘Friday Night Lights,’ why can’t the football stuff be good too? (TV commentary)
Critics have often emphasized that “Friday Night Lights” isn’t just for football fans, because so much of the drama happens off the field. That’s completely true, but what’s not often mentioned is the flip-side of the equation: The on-field stuff is often unrealistic or melodramatic enough to turn off football fans.
State of Television Address: Returning shows (Commentary)
With last week’s “Glee” season capper, we’ve come to the end of the TV year (more or less), and I’m ready for my State of Television Address. Usually it’s a three-parter, but I’ll skip the section on canceled shows, because I took individual looks at the four big ones last month. I’ll start with my
‘Friday Night Lights’ introduces us to our new favorite team (TV review)
The NFL draft hype has finally passed, but we still can’t escape football, because “Friday Night Lights” (7 p.m. Central Fridays) has just started its fourth season on NBC (following its run on DirecTV, which I don’t have). Although I’m not a big fan of America’s new national pastime — I prefer the old one, baseball —