FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

shannon_walford Addicted and obsessed in this show, and am now feeling empty and lost now that I've finished watching it. Seriously one of the best shows I've watched, casting and screenplay on point!

xxxNomadicxxx This show brings it all, drama on and off the field. It has strong character development, throughout season after season. It doesn't stick with one set of actor, develops as the season go with different actors well developed story lines. It has just the right amount of football that it's not repetitive or used as a filler or easily predictable, but enough action that you feel the drama and pressure of the players on the field. This show hooked me from the first episode, till the last without slipping or sacrificing it's fan base with pointless episodes to fill their pockets with money. Great series!

ElessarAndurilS Friday Night Lights sat on my Netflix watch list for over a year before I gave it a chance. What a shock! I'm expecting a show about a football coach and a lot of game clips, instead I am quickly introduced to one of the best family drama's of excellent quality I've ever watched! Rare to see a positive drama in any context in recent years, yet this show portrays a loving couple and their family standing up for what is right in the face of a HIGHLY DYSFUNCTIONAL town with many dysfunctional people. But the story grows, and transitions in such an excellent way (excluding the abrupt end to season 2 I wasn't expecting - cut short by writers strike in 2008) the writing and story are excellent. Was casting 25 year old people as high school students a bit much, yes, but not uncommon... and when doing so to portray exceptional high school athletes; I totally get it, some of these high school football players DO LOOK 25 and they needed actors to look and play the part. Makes me give that a bye, along with the exceptionally pretty girls as that is also common practice.The important part was to me was how much of the story was character based, portrayed real life situations that as a parent I've had to deal with regardless of what I do because life happens to us all. As a father of 3 daughters some of it made me LMBO as Eric Taylor has to (try) and hold his temper in check and deal with his daughter growing up. I've said some of the things he said, and been in the same situations with some of my children so it really resonated with me as real. The transition from the Panthers to the Lions was a bit of a stretch as well with the first two seasons not really indicating there was a "wrong side of the tracks" in Dillon, but the shows introduction sequence does show a town with a lot of shuttered businesses, so it is not a stretch that there would be a lot of struggling families. True in so many small towns in this country.The best part was the shows ability to evolve and stay positive and life affirming in the effect this couple had on it and the way they ended it was very satisfying. One of the best quality family drama's I've seen.

classicalsteve 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.