Watching TV Not On TV: “Friday Night Lights” is a Fantastic Show, I Think.
Things have been a bit slow here at my office. Combine that with my netflix streaming and the abundant bandwidth, I have just completed all three seasons of the TV series “Friday Night Lights” (in a mere two weeks). I started watching it when a friend, whose taste I highly regard, casually recommended it with the comment, “It’s better than ‘Mad Men’…” Whoa, buddy. What is this you say?
I will neither confirm nor deny it’s superiority to my beloved “Mad Men”, but guys.. it’s way up there. It is a perfect modern drama. I don’t know if I have ever cared more about any other television characters in any other show, ever. I rarely COL (Cheer Out Loud), but I do for this show, regularly. None of the characters are all good or all bad. They all have their faults and they all make mistakes and they all pay for them. Coach Eric Taylor and his wife, Tami are the best married couple on television. I don’t even want to google these actors real names for fear of learning their true identities and relationships. A friend started to tell me the actor playing Tim Riggins, let’s just call him Tim Riggins, is from Canada. “…But he still plays football right? RIGHT?!”
After finishing the series and stepping away from it for a week, I am trying to analyze why I like the show so much. Why, exactly, I find it so touching and why I got so involved with the story and characters? The writing, directing, and casting are all outstanding, there is no denying, but after watching this show I was ready to birth a baby boy and raise him to play football in east Texas.
Eventually I came up with a theory. I believe that part of the purity and reality of this show that I particularity feel, comes from the way in which I watched it. Back to back episodes, no commercials, not interruptions. I watched it exactly when and where I wanted to watch it. I never watched the show when it originally aired on television, I never fast forwarded through commercials on my DVR, then rewind a bit, now forward, now STOP! When quarterback Jason Street was paralyzed and found out he would never walk again (relax, it’s in the pilot), that moment was not interrupted by a commercial break from our sponsors telling me if an ex-boyfriend breaks into my house that I need a Brinks Home Security System, or suggests I am classy enough for a Carl’s Jr.’s Six Dollar Burger. There was not a week between each episode, there was, most often, a mere click of my mouse. When I wanted to see if Tyra’s hard work paid off and if she got into college, I just.. kept.. watching. It was instant. There was no time to become unattached. No time to go about my week and worry about other things (real things) than whether or not the DILLON PANTHERS WERE GONNA TAKE STATE! As creepy as it sounds, it was more like watching the events in real time, watching it with the characters, as it happened. This was my first show in which I immediately went from the last episode of one season to the first episode of the next season. It felt like I cheated, like free cable, or a Fast Pass.
Watching the entire series so closely together was similar to, now stay with me on this one, reading a book. LISTEN, when someone sees the movie of an adapted screenplay they undoubtedly leave the theater saying, “I liked the book better.” Duh. Because, for starters, you were more emotionally and physically invested. You had your nose in that book for way longer than 90 minutes. The book was a story you were following day to day. You were nestled warm in your bed, or in the bath tub, or in your favorite chair reading that book, rather than sitting in a sticky movie theater. You could start and stop that book whenever you felt like it. In those instances, having access to a complete television series instantly is like a book.
As much as I love the series, I do feel a certain amount of guilt for watching it all at once. I did not tune in. I did not watch the series the way the writers and producers originally presented the show. When developing story, I don’t think writers are considering commercial interruptions, but when they are writing a script’s structure, they do save cliffhangers for commercial breaks and episode endings.
Was this necessarily a bad thing, watching it the way I did? I am raving about the show. I am encouraging others to watch it. I didn’t download it illegally, I didn’t borrow a friend’s box set. Would I have loved it as much if I watched it once a week? The anticipation could have increased my enthusiasm. I will always feel like I cheated the show a little bit.
I didn’t support the show with TV ratings, which is all that really matters to keep a network TV show alive. The series is struggling. They shot season four and because ratings were so low only aired it on DirectTV, but because of a cult following demanding it, they are now re-releasing it on Friday night’s on NBC. So watch it.
