Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose – I Love Friday Night Lights

A little while ago I started watching a show on Netflix that I didn’t watch a single episode of during its original 5 season run. And when people found out that I hadn’t watched it my Twitter stream filled up with messages telling me how much I would love it and how great it was and that they were excited for me and jealous that I got to experience it fresh from the start.

This show has sports and teen drama and small town life and everything that I fall for when it comes to a story.

I didn’t watch Friday Night Lights when it was on the air.

But I sure am glad that I’m watching it now.

Let me admit this, I have an addictive personality and a penchant for being overly empathetic and sensitive when it comes to fictional characters and their stories. I’m a sucker for well written and crafted personalities and the progression that takes them from beginning to end. I fall hard when there’s a reason. I get chills in the big moments of fake football games. I feel sad when characters are in trouble. I get mad when people are assholes and innocents are impacted by their selfishness.

I feel all of these things for a  TV show.

I also need to disclose the fact that I haven’t yet finished the series. I am currently cued up to watch episode 10 of season 3. And while that means I still have 2 and a half seasons to go, I had to start writing.

I was never QB1 when I was a kid. We didn’t even have a football team. But I was a teenager in a town where everyone knew everyone. Every student and teacher and mother and father had access to all the information and gossip they could want. And I lived a pretty visible life in that small town. That was my reality. And Friday Night Light’s Dillon, Texas reminds me of that.

I’m finding that when I feel connected or emotional about the characters or the storyline, that I also feel conflicted. When I step back from the screen I realize that I’m closer in age to Coach Taylor than I am to Matt Saracen or Tim Riggins. I know that I’m past my own childhood and whatever it was that I went through or dealt with. I’m a grown man.

But when I see Matt Saracen dealing with his grandmother as she struggles with dementia I am reminded of my own life and my ex-girlfriend’s grandmother who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when we were dating in my early 20s. I watched a strong family agonize over the medications and appointments and best steps for her care. I saw her on good days and on bad days and held my breath in wonder when she remembered to call me on my birthday and held back tears when she forgot her granddaughter’s name. I can not imagine trying to deal with that on my own at the age of 17 or 18.

I lived with my gran and gramp when I was 18 and 19 and I thank God that (while they weren’t the picture of health) they didn’t need me like that and I didn’t have that responsibility.

When Brian “Smash” Williams came back from his knee injury, humbled and scared and unsure of what he was going to do, I wanted to see him succeed. When the dude from the Alamo Freeze offered Smash the regional manager’s position I remembered being at Wendy’s in my early 20s with no plan, no money, and feeling like there was a chance I could just keep working there and moving up the ladder. I knew it wasn’t my future. I knew I had to do something bigger with my life. So did he.

And when that boy told his mother that he got into college and I saw the look on her face I was reminded of the way it felt telling my mom I was going to college and how proud she was of me. To this day one of the best feelings in my world is knowing that my mom is proud of me.

And Landry Clark. Damn. If you tell me that you watched season 1 of Friday Night Lights and said to yourself at any time, “I bet Landry becomes a really important piece of this show and joins the football team and actually gets Tyra Collette.” I would probably tell you that you’re lying. I find myself identifying with different characters at different times in this show. And when I look at Landry and his high school love life, I am reminded of being the guy that always wondered why he didn’t get the girl.

Then there’s Tim Riggins.

The screw-up football player who doesn’t have parents to raise him or guide him, just his less-than-perfect older brother. The teenager who drinks too much beer. Likes too many girls. Skips too many classes. Makes too many mistakes. But loves his friends with all of his heart and shows signs of wanting to be better.

I am hooked on this character and wanting him to succeed. I shake my head when he does something absolutely stupid like getting drunk and skipping meetings with college recruiters. I root for him when he tries to do the right thing like talk his best friend out of sketchy stem cell surgery in Mexico. I feel bad for him when he’s dragged down by people he loves like when Billy recruits him to steal a ton of copper wire. I’m scared for him when he’s in a tough spot like when he’s feeding ferrets for a meth dealer. And I cheer for him every single time he steps on to the football field.

Back to Tyra. The writers and producers and everyone involved nailed that one. She is another character who has gone further than I ever would have imagined. Her arc has taken her from white trash girlfriend of a screw-up football player to sexual assault victim to teenager full of potential and everywhere in between. And when she cries, it breaks my heart.

Combining her with Julie Taylor and Lyla Garrity gives this show a great range of female characters that have to deal with their relationships with their parents (3 girls, 3 different family dynamics) and love lives (what a teenage mess) and futures (I still don’t know, don’t spoil it for me) in their small town lives. I probably don’t identify with these 3 characters as much as I do with Saracen, Riggins, Smash, Jason Street or Landry because I’m not a woman. But I do feel for them in their moments of hardship and cheer for them in their moments of triumph.

Side note: I LOVED watching Tyra play volleyball. I love that sport and played it a lot in high school.

I’m over 1000 words into this post and I haven’t even talked about Coach and Mrs. Taylor. So here we go.

The relationship between Eric and Tami Taylor is strong but intense. It has ups and downs. It has arguments and misunderstandings and making up and making each other better. It is fictional and scripted and made for TV, but it’s not all smiles and fake and unbelievable. And I love it for that.

I also love that they are the kind of people and the kind of parents that I would like to think that I can be some day. Whether it’s dealing with their own daughter or helping a kid who is stranded hours away or mentoring young men who are desperate to figure out their future – they do it with dedication and concern and love.

These people love the kids in their lives, regardless of their last name, past, mistakes or parents. But they aren’t soft. I appreciate the way Coach Taylor holds his players responsible through extra work and stiff guidelines and an expectation of commitment, responsibility and team as family.

For years I’ve thought about coaching baseball some day. And while it wouldn’t be the same as high school football in Texas, I do hope that I could be the kind of leader and mentor that Coach Taylor is for his Panthers.

I love all of these characters and they way they have been developed. I love this show and the stories that it has told and how it has handled them.

And as a football fan I have to give some love to the production team in charge of filming the practices and games. It does not look like TV football in a cheesy way. It just looks like football.

It’s safe to say that within the next week or so I am going to finish watching the last 2+ seasons of Friday Night Lights. That’s the pace that I’m on. And I’m sure that when I do I will be sad that it’s over while also looking back at a great job done capturing my imagination and attention telling these stories with the background of football.

If you’ve seen the show and know what I’m talking about with this praise, let me know.

But PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don’t leave comments or send me tweets talking about the show if there’s a chance you’re talking about something I haven’t seen yet.

I know it’s been a long time since the show ended and spoiler rules shouldn’t apply. But I’m asking nicely.

Thank you.

Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose!