You know that feeling when you really just want to sit down and relax while watching your favorite show? You reach for the remote, but… wait… oh come on! You have no show to watch. Well, you can consider that dilema solved, with this show for you to binge watch during the summer so you don’t have to experience that feeling: Friday Night Lights. Even though it has a lot to do with football, I just want to make it clear that you do not have to be into football to watch this show, I know I am not. Even though it is about a high school football team and their coach, once you are watching the show, you realize that it isn’t just about that. It is about the lives of each of the players, and very much about the life of the coach and his family.
It certainly helps that Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler), who is the coach of the Dillon Panthers, is a very charming guy. I think I have laughed harder at this show than I ever have. Even if he isn’t trying to be funny, Eric Taylor manages to make me laugh every time. Though the show has it’s many funny moments, it also has it’s serious parts. These kids lives are basically the opposite of paradise, but they manage to handle them. They live in a small town where everyone is obsessed with football, and so much pressure is put on these kids and their coaches to win because football is kind of, well is all some of these people rely on.
Every Friday night, the Panthers play a game of football. The lights go on, and the game begins, creating the title, Friday Night Lights. This is such an easy show to binge watch. It. Is. Just. So. Good. After they took the show off of Netflix people thought there would be no way to rewatch their favorite episodes, or to start watching it if they hadn’t, but luckily they put it on Amazon Prime and Hulu for folks to enjoy. I am not the kind of person that would want to watch football in my freetime, but now when I watch Friday Night Lights and they are in a game, I find myself yelling at the TV to, “Throw to him!” or “Pass to the left!” or simply just, “Go! Go! Go!” So, this show can even make someone who is not into watching a football game, into watching the Dillon Panthers play.
Friday Night Lights was first a book that was based on a true story, then a movie, and now a show with only a couple of the same cast members. In the show, Kyle Chandler plays Coach Eric Taylor. I think it is safe to say that everyone is glad to see him playing the part. Playing Tami Taylor, Eric Taylor’s wife is Connie Britton, who you might know from Nashville or the fairly recent show 9-1-1. Some of the most popular football players are played by Taylor Kitsch (Tim Riggins), Zach Gilford (Matt Saracen), and Gaius Charles (Bryan Williams otherwise known as Smash). There are other players who come and go along with the seasons, such as Scott Porter (Jason Street), Jesse Plemons (Landry Clarke), and Michael B. Jordan (Vince Howard). Some other main cast members that should be mentioned are Minka Kelly (Lyla Garrity), Adrianne Palicki (Tyra Collette), Aimee Teegarden (Julie Taylor daughter of Eric and Tami Taylor), and Brad Leland (Buddy Garrity father of Lyla Garrity).
I hope that by now, I have convinced you to watch this phenomenal show in your freetime over this upcoming summer. I’ve watched many different shows, and this one is way up there on my list. So if you have liked my recommendations so far, and even if you haven’t, I bet you will look forward to watching this show whenever you can. Luckily, they are reruns of the show, shown on Amazon (with Prime, no need to pay for all of the seasons) and Hulu so you do not have to wait for one day each week just to watch one episode. So I hope you take my advice, and get through your summer with some binge watching of Friday Night Lights.
By: Quincy Rane 2024, Reviewer/Critic
Photo credit: Movie Fone
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