19 Pineapples for a Show That Bears No Resemblance to MTV's Two-A-Days
How many ways can you spin a Texas football drama?
It seems:
Every scene has already been written.
We've heard every hyper-motivational half-time step-it-up-and-turn-it-around-boys speech.
We've met every hero.
And, well, every highly likeable backup quarterback who will be asked to make good at a pivotal narrative juncture.
Right?
Nope.
I watched the pilot of Friday Night Lights tonight. And I'm undeniably hooked. In short: it's awesome.
The NYT agrees. Check out this review:
"Lord, is “Friday Night Lights” good. In fact, if the season is anything like the pilot, this new drama about high school football could be great — and not just television great, but great in the way of a poem or painting, great in the way of art with a single obsessive creator who doesn’t have to consult with a committee and has months or years to go back and agonize over line breaks and the color red; it could belong in a league with art that doesn’t have to pause for commercials, or casually recap the post-commercial action, or sell viewers on the plot and characters in the first five minutes, or hew to a line-item budget, or answer to unions and studios, or avoid four-letter words and nudity."
That deserves some serious pineapples.
*If you're patient, you can watch the entire pilot online.
posted by jayniek at 9:35 PM
3 Comments:
i love imdb: looks like one of the executive producers of friday night lights was the executive story editor on my so-called life.
though i still don't know if i could stomach a show about high school football and texas. just don't know about that.
I dunno, homes. It's not bad, but there's some shit that just drives me crazy.
Like, they are the Dillon Panthers. Why the hell do they have a P all over everything? It should be a D. That would be like the Longhorns putting a huge orange L on their helmet. Doesn't work that way.
And, the radio announcers. Why do they have two microphones? One handheld and then the headset mic? Really, two mics?
And, three, a player goes out of bounds, thus stopping the clock. The announcers say they stopped the clock. And the next sentence after that, he's explaining how they clock is running and they are about to run out of time. Ughh. Have they never seen a football game?
So, do I have way too much time on my hands? Yes. Should I be ranting about this at work? Probably not. Did I enjoy doing it anyway? Yes.
kate- that's VERY interesting. because the odd shot framing (often from below) and quick cuts reminded me of MSCL. even before you mentioned that. excellent detective work.
and paul. i give you the inaccuracies... but i'm willing to overlook them for the pilot. yea, the game sequence was pretty much all over the place, but it was so intense and rapid, i almost didn't care.
also, i'm a "nice person."
Post a Comment
<< Home