Let's just say I was hopelessly in love within 20 seconds of the pilot.
Why Friday Night Lights Made Me Fall In Love With It. Shamelessly. And Why It Also Makes Me Cry A Lot.
1. It made me give a shit about football. Football which is not soccer.
I was almost dreading the idea of having a football game be the epic closing chapter of every episode, the format being that each episode goes through an entire school week before finally capping off with the big game on Friday night. But by the time that game rolled around I had become so completely invested in the characters that winning the game became nearly as important to me as it was to the fictional high school kids on my screen. I didn't understand what was going on half the time - the extent of my knowledge of American football is that the quarterback is always the hot one who yells a lot. But watching the games on this show gets me all worked up and sweaty-palmed and nail-bitey. You start caring about these games, games played by teams that don't even exist, really. And that is no mean feat.
2. Best. Soundtrack. Ever.
Bright Eyes, Calexico, The Avett Brothers, The Black Keys, Whiskeytown, Wilco and Explosions In The Sky, just to name the ones I've already heard so far. The music directors or whoever those people are also have the cruel, wonderful ability to pick and choose and place these songs perfectly within a scene or montage to deliver the right amount of heartrending gutwrenching EMOTION. Watching FNL has turned out to be an incredibly emotionally exhausting venture. They seem absolutely hung up on this mission to make people cry at least 3 times per episode. If they keep up with this unrelenting spirit of causing soundtrack-induced misery, I will be an utter weeping mess by the time I get round to the finale.
3. It's pretty.
And by pretty, for once I'm talking about more than just the people in it. The entire show just looks glorious, from the wide shots of the Texan landscape to the stadium lights going on at sunset to the dilapidated houses on the outskirts of town to the crowds at game day sporting team colours. Even the title card is pretty. It's enough to make grown men weep, when they aren't already sniffling at the football and the camaraderie and all that manly stuff.
There are also other versions of pretty. Like, boy pretty. Giggle.
4. Kyle Chandler as Coach Taylor
I had a massive pre-teen crush on him while he was on that show Early Edition (newspaper from the future, psychic cat, something like that) and he is one of the biggest reasons why I fell in FNL love. He is perfect for this role, the often cranky hard-assed head coach who doesn't talk much but yells a lot and has a sincere determination to make sure every player under his charge reaches his full potential, not just in football, but y'know, in The Journey of Life. It sounds threateningly cheesy and Hallmarkian but it never ever veers into that direction. It just makes you weep and then you get all muddled up about how you so very much want Coach Taylor as your boyfriend but also as your Dad and it's very confusing and wrong somehow. It doesn't change the fact that Coach is one hell of a magnificent character, and I love him to utter pieces.
5. Kyle Chandler's Hair.
I'm not even kidding. His hair does as much acting as he does. His hair totally emotes. His hair deserves its own Emmy. During games it's all frazzled up and "Do not mess with me right now, I am coaching, motherfuckers" and then when Coach is just chilling out his hair is all like "I am chilling, you guys" and when he's dealing with a major athletic crisis his hair is all flat and calm and "Don't worry, I got this". In addition, when he is around people he doesn't like or trust, and is repressing his true emotions his hair is all "I cannot deal with this" and hides under his Coach's Cap. I notice these things.
And when he's feeling really bad ass, he breaks out the manly sunglasses.
Right there his hair is all "I am awesome and also will not be taking any bullshit today, kthanxbai".6. Realisticism.
Yeah I just made that word up. I was feeling adventurous. And yes, FNL is incredibly, beautifully, and often painfully realistic. And not just in that We-Use-The-Shaky-Handheld-Camera-Style-Of-Indie which means we are totally authentic and artistic, you guys. The show just feels real, from the places to the people to the conversations, so much so that sometimes you stop and catch yourself feeling guilty for intruding on someone's private moments. The teenagers talk like real teenagers would ; awkward and sometimes stuttery and over-enunciating stuff and using words they think make them sound cooler and having conversations about adult things that just betray how ridiculously young they are. The kids are attractive, but not in a Gossip Girl way - they look like people who might wake up in the morning now and then with a pool of drool on the pillow or something. For every dysfunctional relationship plagued with Daddy Issues and resentment, there is a wonderfully functional, not-perfect-but-real relationship to balance it off. The bedrooms look like people actually sleep in them. It's all gorgeous.
7. Matt Saracen
If there's one thing on this show I love even more than Coach and his hair, it's this guy. A shy, sweet, sensitive, stuttering sophomore and second-string quarterback (or a QB2 - you learn so much from TV, I tell you) who is thrust into the spotlight and the starting quarterback position due to unforeseen circumstances, and now he has to prove himself in addition to looking after a sick grandmother, working an after school job, maintaining his grades and keeping house (absent mother, father in Iraq). You want to weep for all the shitty things he has to deal with and also for the quiet courage with which he deals with it all, simply because it's his responsibility because there is no one else there to pick up the slack. His stuttering charm and painful sincerity and utter adoration for his grandmother all make for some of the most tear jerking scenes of all, and sometimes you just want to tell him to stop being so strong all the time and come home and let you put him on your lap and feed him cupcakes.
Seriously. Cupcakes. That's all I want to do to him. Honest.
8. Matt Saracen and Julie Taylor
The preciousest, awkwardest couple on TV. They are both so utterly sweet they will send you into diabetic shock long before they even go on their first date. If they break up at any point during the next 5 seasons I will give up on Love. Forever.
9. "Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose".
It's the team motto, and sort of FNL's version of "Live long and prosper". It usually comes at the end of one of Coach's inspirational game speeches, and by that time you're already choked up beyond belief, so when Coach goes all Texan drawly "Clear eyes full hearts.." and the team yells "can't lose" back at him, it's just the official cue for the waterworks to start.
10. It's not just about football.
Football has a lot to do with it, but it's mostly about the human condition. Nah okay that sounds a bit too pretentious. But at it's heart FNL really is just about people in a small community who all either hold on to football and the rituals that come with it because it's all they know how to do, or because it's the closest thing they know to religion or love or family, or because it's their ticket to a better life, or because their ability to carry a ball over a line makes them a god (in this town at least) and gets them laid. It's a wonderful, sincere, real, painful story about people, and after all the aliens and demons and alternate timelines and Apocalypses it's nice just to sit down and root for a drunk high school delinquent trying to throw a touchdown and be a hero for one night. Also, hot, tortured boys with daddy issues. I counted four of them so far. Yum.
In conclusification :
This is a really really really really really good show that everyone should be watching, and I'm living proof that you don't even need to like football or know anything about it to be able to enjoy FNL for what it is. Remember to bring the tissues and maybe watch something funny afterwards, to cleanse all the emotional turmoil. All that crying cannot possibly be healthy.
