'Friday Night Lights' Is Still Outstanding

I have sung the praises of NBC's 'Friday Night Lights' since its first season, and I will continue to do so. For the neophytes, the show centers around a small West Texas town where high school football is king, although the show actually has very little to do with football at all. Now in its 4th season, the show gets richer and richer. What has impressed me the most is something that few shows can accomplish. With a turnover of about half of the cast, FNL has maintained its high quality. The old characters that are still there continue to evolve, and a group of new characters are proving to be just as intriguing. The older chatacters and new ones interact seamlessly. I have always said that FNL feels more like real life than almost any show I've ever seen, and the way characters have come and gone and new people come aboard and the show goes on is case in point. FNL is about high school, afterall, and people graduate and move on. I appreciate that the show respects the high school time table and moves characters along and introduces new ones. Kyle Chandler's Coach Eric Taylor continues to be the soul of the show, but he is surrounded by an incredible cast of ever evolving characters. Anyway, we are about five episodes into Season 4, and it is as strong as ever. You should be watching.


ABOVE: Zach Gilford's Matt Saracen has moved from star quarterback in previous seasons to delivering pizzas in his post-high school life this season. Sounds depressing, but the Saracen character has never been so interesting and well crafted than in Season 4 so far. Gilford was simply stunning in tonight's episode, "The Son," an episode that asks the difficult question of how do you grieve for someone that you hate? TV is rarely this great.