good back-story, and good acting

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I'm sure you've read the description, so shall not get into explaining the plot.This show is about the everyday life of you and I. Though it emphasises fotball, it really is about how life moves forward with the battles that one struggles with. I'm sure anyone could relate to these characters as we sure have grown up with one of them, or been one ourselves.A brilliant cast which no doubt deserves to be right up there with the hall of famers pours life into these characters, whom you'd fall in love with instantly.Friday Night Lights is a must watch, and a show to be remembered.

i was a fan off the movie this series was based on and the TV series did justice to the movie and Texas love of football.it also deal with issue around everyday life, that affected the team very well and in Kyle Chandler they had an excellent lead for this series.the young crew around him did there job well, and the football scenes were well put together and were good backdrop to the story off the team.the women in Friday night lights had good roles as well, Connie britton did a good job as the coach wife working around her husband job and bringing up the kids.overall an excellent sports drama series based on one of the better sport movies i seen.

At first I struggled with the pilot but I stuck with it and thank goodness I did. There are two parts to this show. The first part is my favourite but the second isn't too bad either. I shall explain below...There are some characters I had hated, rooted for and grew on. No two characters are the same and they all had their good and and not so good characteristics. In the end, I loved them all in their own ways. If you are worried this show might be the "typical" teenage show it is far from it. FNL involves teenage romance, friendship and stereotypes. But it also has real-life themes and problems. And of course, American football but it is a small part of what this incredible TV show has to offer. Once you watch this show you feel as though you are part of this family, team and community in this small Texas town. You go through their ups and downs, cheer them on when they are happy or feel their sadness during a tough time. I think this is what makes the show so great. If I haven't convinced you, just watch it, you will not regret it. But be warned, you will go through an emotional roller coaster as it unfolds but miss it everyday once its gone. Remember. Clear eyes, full hearts.

In 1988, journalist H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger moved to a small town in Texas to cover a local high school football team, the Panthers in Odessa, Texas. There he found a town which was obsessed with its team. The townspeople paid for things like police escorts when the team members would go to their home games and lavish social functions care of the female fans offering tea, coffee and cakes. They even chartered flights to away games. At the same time, Bissinger noticed darker sides of the town's obsession with their team, which included putting for sale signs in the coach's yard when the teams wasn't doing well, and making disparaging remarks about coaches and players who didn't perform up to expectation. He discovers some racist comments regarding African-American players who are not playing up to standard. Realizing this obsession with this high school team was more like the critical analysis of college or professional sports, Bissinger wrote about the experience and the team in a book called "Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream".In 2004, a film adaption of the book was released with Billy Bob Thornton as Coach Gary Gaines, Lucas Black as quarterback Mike Winchell, and Derek Luke as James "Boobie" Miles. While the film is relatively true to the players of the 1988 team, it leaves so much out of what makes the original book so starkly compelling. First off, the film decided to ax the journalist Bissinger from the story. While the story is from Bissinger's eyes in the book, and he was given access to the town and the team in a speech at a game to explain his function to write about the town's cultural obsession with the team, both positive and negative aspects, the film has no such perspective. It meanders from different players, coaches and parents, but never offers us the view of a journalist trying to understand the culture which has over the years developed around the team. Some of the most interesting aspects contained in the book, such as the escorts and charter flights, were completely removed from the story.From the book, we gather the team is literally the cultural focus of the entire town. While this aspect was very developed in the book, very little of this side of the story is explored in the film. We do hear some radio commentators criticizing the coach and players like an NFL team, but we see the fans of the team very little. We also see the for sale signs at the coach's house but we don't understand that these are disgruntled fans making it known they wish the coach to leave the team. The acting is pretty good, especially Thornton as the coach, and the players. The most interesting aspect is their star player, James "Boobie" Miles (Luke) who sustains a potentially hazardous injury at the beginning of the season. Miles clearly desires to go to university with a football scholarship and probably has his sites set on the NFL. However, as events unfold, all of his dreams may be thwarted.A decent film which could have been outstanding if they used the perspective of the journalist. Instead, we go from player-to-player and experience their stories, but I felt I wasn't quite pulled in. I needed something a little more substantive to keep me riveted. And Bissinger discovered some racism beneath the veneer which gets little exploration. Some of the town were very upset with the book, as if their dirty little secrets were exposed. I wanted to see some of the secrets exposed as they were in the book, but we get the sense the filmmakers balked at the idea because they didn't want the film to be as controversial as the book. Is it a good film? Generally yes. It is a great one? Could have been. I could picture someone like Tommy Lee Jones playing Buzz Bissinger, but alas, it was not to be.