Friday Night Lights - an early look

When I first heard that Peter Berg was going to make a series based on his movie Friday Night Lights I was curious. How would the series relate to the movie? And would the viewer lose anything by not having seen the movie?

Having watched the first two episodes of the season, I can safely say that if you didn't see the movie, you won't be missing anything in the series. There are some aspects and ideas from the movie that are brought over to the series, but this is a whole new story with new characters. Without giving any crucial plot points away, here is a first look at what NBC has in store for us with Friday Night Lights.

As with the movie, the series focuses on the obsession with football in a small Texas town. Here we are brought into little Dillon Texas, home of the Panthers. Kyle Chandler stars as Coach Eric Taylor. Coach Taylor is about to begin his first year as head coach of the Panthers, although he does have a long history of coaching star quarterback Jason Street (Scott Porter). Of course, we also see Eric struggling to balance his job working with the team while dealing with the sometimes crazy boosters of the Panthers.

One of the holdovers from the movie that I was excited to see was Connie Britton. She reprises her role as the coach's wife, though this time as a different character, Tami Taylor. My TV just can't get enough Connie Britton on it. And luckily for all of us watching, the scope of the longer series format means that she will get much more to do.

The major change from the movie is the larger cast. Where the movie was more centered on the team and football, the series has more room to explore outside characters. Cheerleader Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly), bad girl Tyra Collette (Adrianne Palicki), and the non football playing Landry Clarke (Jesse Plemons) all look to factor into the story in a meaningful way.

The look and feel of the show owes a lot to the movie. And that's a good thing. It has a unique style with lingering closeups and a terrific score. It's all very cinematic. The football scenes are great as well, at least in the pilot episode. I'm curious to see what will happen with those once the show is into the season long grind with the pressures of a 22 episode shooting schedule.

The thing that surprised me the most about Friday Night Lights was the tone. I thought it would delve more heavily into the Dawson's Creek angsty teen area. While there is some of that, it is on the whole a much more grown up drama. Chandler and Britton are great as the Taylor's and give the show a solid base that makes you want to root for these characters and, perhaps more importantly, keep tuning in to see what happens to them.

Probably the best thing I can say about the show is that when the 2nd episode ended with a bit of a cliff-hanger, I immediately wanted to see episode three. If NBC had been nice enough to send it along I would have stayed right there on the couch and kept going.

If you watch one new show this year, well, it should probably be The Nine. Everyone tells me that one is going to be great. But if you watch two new shows, give this one a look. Friday Night Lights premieres October 3rd at 8PM.