Friday Night Lights-First Season (2006)

"The series transcends genre, it combines elements of teen drama, teen romance, adult drama, sports, and probably a few others.  Chris Beaumont, Draven99's Musings
"...unlike anything else on television...a slick, high quality production with strong acting and a compelling drama...  Peter Brown, If Magazine
"...heartfelt drama...one of the best-acted, best-written, best produced shows on television.  USA Today

Editor's Note Football is one of the most popular sports in America, but in Texas it's closer to religion. The first season of this award-winning show uses the game as focal point for each episode's structure, but the gridiron often takes the backseat to the more pressing issues of life in Middle America. The real star of the show is the fictional town of Dillon, a place that represents the struggle of hard-working-yet-flawed human beings getting through another year of life in a small community. The town's team, the Panthers, may be headed for the top, but can their coach (EARLY EDITION's Kyle Chandler) and the players keep it together as the pressure of their personal lives threatens to knock them down?

	Connie Britton
	Gaius Charles
	Kyle Chandler
	Zach Gilford
	Angela M. Catanzaro, et. al. - Editor
	Cary White - Production Designer
	David Boyd - Cinematographer
	Jeff Knipp - Production Designer
	Jeffrey Reiner, et. al. - Director
	Nan L. Bernstein - Producer
	Peter Berg, et. al. - Writer
	Sarah Aubrey - Executive Producer
	Todd McMullen - Cinematographer
	W.G. Snuffy Walden - Original Music By

Ultimate DVD
3 stars out of 5 -- "The show follows the wins and losses of the Dillon Panthers, and the texture of the lives affected by the game....[With] some genuine heart." 10/01/2007 p.118

Empire
5 stars out of 5 -- "Shot docudrama-style with handheld cameras, long single takes and improvisation, it transcends soap and melodrama with rare, spot-on naturalism." 12/01/2007 p.230

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "[I]ntriguing....The is ONE TREE HILL with the veneer stripped off and the dialogue polished up." 01/01/2008 p.167

Variety 8 of 10
In pigskin-crazy Texas, a coach saying "It's only football" is strictly a joke, recalling the old line about a big game not being life or death, "It's more important than that." Peter Berg directed the feature "Friday Night Lights" and has brought its ethos to TV mostly intact, crafting a serialized soap around the local high school team, whose first-year coach labors under an entire town's expectations. Earnest, beautifully shot and perhaps more organically religious than anything else in primetime, the series will have its fans..."Friday Night Lights" ultimately feels like one of those family programs middle America and conservatives pine for that too few of them actually bother to watch -- a portrait of decent, God-fearing folks wringing joy from America's game as an escape from their hardscrabble lives. - Brian Lowry