It's a powerful moment. Also, think about the last time you saw faith portrayed on television—in movies even—in such a straightforward, non-judgmental manner. No irony; no snark; no comment really. That's just the way this group of people live and work and pay in this world, in this community.
This is our first foray into school and athletics. Which brings up lots of interesting questions. Answer 1 and 2 and pick 3 or 4—that's 3 responses:
1. What was your reaction to the episode? What jumped at you, positive or negative, in the episode? How so?
2. Follow up: who jumped out at you in this episode? In what way(s)? There's Eric, Tammy, and Julie Taylor: Jason Street the all-American QB and his perky girlfriend Lila Garrity: "Smash" Williams, the cocky running back: sullen, sexy Tim Riggins and his hot but not dumb girlfriend Tyra Collette: nervous, stuttering second-string QB Matt Saracen and his smart, quirky best friend Landry Clarke.
3. Coach Eric Taylor. Not exactly a tree-hugging Paideia type is he? Think about how he makes his point about team to hung-over Tim Riggins. So: is Taylor too hard, too mean, not caring enough?
4. One of the striking aspects of "Friday Night Lights"—based on the non-fiction book of the same name set in Odessa, Texas, home of the Permian High School Panthers, several time Texas state football champs—is the role that the football team plays in the community of Dillon. What role does the HS football team play in the community? And why? And how healthy do you think it is for a HS sports team to be regarded the way the Dillon Panthers are?
I apologize that this is late as it is. Tomorrow we will watch "Stand and Deliver" about an AP Calculus class. That should get you pumped up.
1) I really liked the episode, because I found that the characters were round and interesting to watch. They all had their strengths and faults, but were generally a good group of people. You could tell that even Mr. Perfect Quarterback had his moments of self-doubt and anxiety. I would definitely continue to watch this show just for the characters. I also thought the plot was very intriguing, and I love how they set the scene. Basically, I thought the whole episode was great and I think I'm going to continue to watch it at home.
ReplyDelete2) I really liked Matt Saracen, because he was very kind and much more humble than the other football players. I feel like he will be a very good person to replace Jason as quarterback. I also really liked Eric's wife Tammy. She seemed like a very down to earth person who will counteract all of the stress that Eric will probably be put under throughout the season.
3) I think that, while Eric is tough, he is definitely not too mean or not caring enough. We see at the end of the episode how he goes to comfort Jason's family at his bedside; he cares a lot about his players. As for the scene with Tim, it was harsh but I think Tim deserved it. He should have known that there were certain commitments he would need to make to the team, (not being wasted at practice would be one). I think Eric knows what to do to make them champions.
ReplyDeleteI liked the episode. It was interesting how they showed the personal lives of the players and coach as well as their lives with football and how they are superstars in the community. The 3 scenes that stick with me are when 1) Jason gets injured and everyone is circling him and his mom is crying. 2) at the end the game when everyone from both teams comes together and prays for Jason, and 3) at the hospital when the coach's daughter gives Lila a hug.
The two characters that jumped out at me the most were Matt and Coach Taylor. Matt stuck out to me because he never resents the fact that he doesn't really have a role on the team. He also stuck out to me because he was willing to come into the game and ended up leading the team to a win after Jason is injured.
I liked Coach Taylor. Yes, the punishment for Riggins is a little harsh, but by coming to practice drunk Riggins let the team down and was disrespectful to everyone who came to practice to actually try. I think Coach Taylor really cares about his players and wants them to do well. Before the game he pulls Jason to the side and tells him that he deserves to win. Taylor also calls Matt over after Matt has been screwing up in the game and tells him that he can do it, after Taylor talks to him Matt plays well. Then at the end, we see Taylor at the hospital comforting Jason's family and holding Jason's hand. I think he is a tough coach who wants his team to do well, but he wants them to do well because he cares about every player on the team.
I liked this episode. I thought it was very dramatic, but it fit. Football movies are the only type of movie or show that is allowed to be way over dramatic. It's just a rule. I liked the characters. They all had their own intentions, which mixed together in an interesting way. There was a sense of community that wasn't present in many of the other movies/shows we have watched, and it was refreshing, if not a bit of an exaggeration. Every character was different from the next, but they all had football that brought them together. It's something that Paideia doesn't really have. There are many aspects of Paideia that many people identify with, but there's no one thing that everyone does. Everyone goes to watch the football game. Everyone is worried after Jason is injured. Everyone is working together to help the team improve. It's pretty unrealistic compared to anything I've ever experienced, but in a small town where football is what keeps people going, it makes sense. I liked that there was something that was universal to their community. It made the conflicts between characters even more interesting (they fight each other, then on Friday night, everyone forgets their grudges and watches/plays football as a team).
ReplyDeleteObviously Matt was a very noticeable character in the same way that Todd was in Dead Poets Society. He was the scared-to-perform, nervous guy who ended up saving the day and inspiring everyone to do their best. He eventually led the team to victory, despite it being a very stressful game in which everyone was afraid for Jason's life. My favorite character, however, was Smash. I like how he ignored the racial background in order to play his sport. He denied that the reason people disliked him was his race. He did his best to overcome their prejudices in order to improve their team. He did his best even though many people didn't like him.
I'm not sure how I feel about Taylor. I think a coach has to be a bit mean in order to get the job done. A good coach is someone who is mean on the field (or rather tough), but nice otherwise. Taylor exceeds this. He is a tough coach because he wants his team to do the best they can so they can be happy with themselves. I think he is too nice off the field. It's a little weird how much he's trying to make them like him. He reminded me of Keating in a way. It was as if he wanted his team to be like him (although we don't really know what he was like). He wants them to be good football players, but he also wants them to be his friends. It was shocking to me when he held Jason's hand (when he was unconscious). I thought that was not okay, especially because he just started coaching them. Yes, he knows his team well and he wants his best QB to recover, but he can't know Jason very much at all, so it's not okay for him to touch Jason. This is also like Keating. Keating goes way too far in order to teach his students, and Taylor goes way too far in order to reassure his team's family and his team.
1) I really liked watching the episode. I probably was drawn to it mostly because I enjoyed the major theme of athletics. I thought it was interesting just how important football was for the high school. In contrast to Paideia, it’s a little funny just how polar opposites the two schools are. I also liked how there were a wide variety of characters in the episode and it set them up very nicely to the point where I’m interested in each of their story’s. I also liked how while the overall tone of the episode was pretty serious, there was still humor, which I thought was hilarious and was laughing out loud.
ReplyDelete2) Almost all of the characters jumped out to me in one way or another but “Smash” Williams really jumped out to me. I loved how his cockiness and over-confidence were portrayed in a really funny way, especially during his interview or when he tries to be smooth with Tyra. Matt Saracen also stood out to me. He was one of the only characters who didn’t really have much going for him. While he was on the football team, he didn’t really play much and he also lived with his grandma. Even with all that, he seemed like the nicest and most well-rounded high-schooler in the show.
4) I think the Panther football team plays an enormous role in the community of Dillon. I think that one of the main reasons for this is simply because the town doesn’t have much else going for it, and the football team is something people can come together on. Located in rural Texas and obviously not the most wealthy place ever, the football team shines out like a star. Just to increase support and attention, the football team is one of the best teams in the state and has a shot to win the state championship. In the show, we saw a ton of places showing support and team colors for the football team, even restaurants that weren’t affiliated with the high school. Personally, I don’t think that it is too healthy for a HS sports team to be regarded in the way the Dillon Panthers are. The way that some people treated the team was like a way of life and even though football is great and fun to root for, there is more to life; football is just a game. I also thought that it wasn’t fair on the players who were being put under way too much pressure by the community. The scout even tells Eric that he better not lose or else. However, I think that there is a fine line between too much support and too little. I think that at school’s like Paideia, the problem is too little support. For example, whenever there’s a ‘spirit night’ or senior night, only about 20 or 30 people go and there is not a whole lot of support shown for the athletic teams. I think the line is drawn at obsession, when anger replaces disappointment, and when unrealistic expectations are expected.
1) I really really liked Friday Night Lights. Even in the first episode the characters showed promise of becoming well developed and not entirely one-dimensional. The fact that they showed backstory also added to the characters and gave us a better understanding of them as well as gave some reasons as to why they are the way they are. The movie was plot driven and exciting-I was on the edge of my seat for most of it, and also rather funny. This show could very easily become a very serious, no smiling show, but the comical aspect of the show made the tension more bearable.
ReplyDelete2) The characters were all interesting, and I didn't feel that one of them was portrayed significantly more than any of the others. However, just out of sheer likability I enjoyed Matt's character the most. Everyone likes the underdog. He struck me as the kindest character, which became particularly clear when he was interacting with his Grandma. Seeing him rise to the occasion and succeed was exciting and kind of emotional. I can't imagine anyone being against him or saying he doesn't deserve it.
4) High school football not only plays a large role in Dillon, but I think it could be argued that football is the only role available to play. Everyone knows about football. We even see an old lady confronting, almost threatening, Jason about how well he is supposed to play at the game. Everyone is united by football, and seeing as it is one of the best teams, is some kind of hope for the otherwise small, rundown city. The football team is Dillon's pride and glory, and I think there is some sense of (nationalism-for football?) here. I don't think this obsession is totally healthy, but I do understand why it is taking place. The football team is good now, it makes sense why everyone wants to be a part of it. But what happens next year when all the good players graduate, the community will have nothing. This community is entirely one-dimensional and is leaving kids like the coaches daughter out of its line of vision.
What I loved about Friday Night Lights was how real the characters were and how genuinely raw the situation was. Nothing in the episode was over the top or unrealistic, without regards to the cheesiness at the end with the football team's impossible win. There really are places like this in the US, namely Texas, where football is the town's only hope. I also liked the style of the camera shots, how they were more up-close and personal with the setting and characters. Every person in the story had a complex personality that was easily displayed in the episode, and I could feel each character's pain, excitement, or love. Nothing was confusing or implied. I liked the show so much that I've continued watching it at home.
ReplyDeleteI thought that Jason Street was a very intriguing character because it seemed initially like he had no flaws, like he was perfect, but it becomes apparent that he is a very self conscious kid. His girlfriend, Lila Garrity, was annoying to me because she was too perfect, and she never seemed to lose hope in Jason's recovery. They never showed her mourning his situation, she always looked happy, and it looked like she was enjoying the publicity of being the "injured quarterback's girlfriend." In my opinion, I found Matt to be a pretty boring character in the grand scheme of things, but I think that his part of the story was vital to the episode. Tim Riggins and Tyra Collette seem to represent the loss of hope in this town. They're dangling by only one thread: football.
It is quite obvious that football is the one aspect of the town that creates a strong community and sense of hope for the people. Dillon is a run-down place with nothing to give but their outstanding team. The only chance of college for these high schoolers is through a sports scholarship. Coach Taylor comes into the town with all of the people's hope and expectation on his shoulders, which must be extremely hard for him and his family. Even the mayor of Dillon talks mostly about winning the State Championship in her speech. I think that in high school, it is important to find a balance between overwhelming school spirit and no school spirit. It's fun to join your school together as a community to support your sports teams, but it's also important to be able to take a break and be excited about other aspects of your life.
1. I really liked watching this pilot, and not only because I love football. I thought the plot was gripping and easy to follow and the characters were very interesting. Of course the moment that stood out to me the most was the scene where Jason gets injured. That to me was a very dramatic and nerve-wracking scene not only from a sports medicine/medical standpoint, but also from a viewer’s standpoint. I’m pretty sure I held my breath the last 3 minutes of the show.
ReplyDelete2. The two characters I found the most likable (not necessarily the most complex or interesting) were Jason and Matt. They both seemed very nice and humble, especially compared to some of the other players. The scenes where the team was playing and interacting with the younger boys was so cute and heartwarming. It was adorable when the young boys were complimenting Jason and it was really admirable how gracious he was in accepting the compliments.
4. To be honest, I was a little weirded out by how invested the community was in the football team. It seemed very strange to me to; have an entire radio station dedicated to the football team, have all the stores in the town close down on gameday, and to treat the players like celebrities. At Paideia, the sports teams are liked, I suppose, but nowhere near how much the Dillon football team is. At Paideia less than 50 people usually turn out for sports games, and the sense of community isn’t anywhere near what it’s like for the Panther’s football team.
ReplyDeleteI didn't enjoy watching this episode of Friday Night Lights, personally. To me, the show was long, uneventful, and boring. I used to live in a small, football crazed town and go to a small, football crazed school, so I didn't find the show particularly interesting or the plot surprising. The show spent a long time building up to the football game and didn't spend a lot of time going into the issues that the town itself was facing. I thought the fact that a radio station covered stories about the high school football team was slightly eccentric, especially when the news started speculating about the coach's ability, because that wasn't common in the small town I used to live in.
Matt Saracen stuck out to me because he seemed to be slightly removed from all of the football hype even though he was on the football team. I feel like his story would be the most gripping to me (a rags to riches football-based Cinderella-esque story, if you will). His relationship with his family also appeared to be close-knit and sweet, so I'd be interested in learning more about that. His best friend was very funny and added some light-heartedness to the intense show, so I liked that set of characters the most.
I think the town is small, dull, eventless, and hopeless when it comes to change and development. The football team, however, is the opposite; it's success breathes life into this dismal community and the residents of Dillion need the games to look forward to. The HS football team gives the town a reason to get through its mundane existence every week because without it, Dillion would have to face the poverty and its lack of progress outside of the high school sport. I don't think it's healthy at all for there to be so much dependence on the success of the HS football team. Dillion's interest in its football team places so much pressure on the players and the coach, and the tension that surrounds the football team's results can only lead to anger and violence.
I enjoyed the episode because it does a great job of introducing all the unique characters, but also adds suspense right from the very beginning, with Jason’s injury. I found it hilarious watching Smash’s ridiculous antics and Matt’s awkwardness. I also liked the episode because it does a great job of giving the viewer an in-depth look of the significance of high school football in Texas.
ReplyDeleteThe character that jumped out to me the most was Tim Riggins. When we are first introduced to Tim, we find him passed out on a couch surrounded by beer bottles, his brother, and Tyra. Riggins is a very mysterious character, and in the first episode, we really don’t know much about his back-story.
Dillon, TX pretty much revolves around the Panthers and their season. The team has such a big significance in the town because there really isn’t much else there. Everyone in the community goes to the game or roots for the team because it’s the only thing the town can pride themselves on. Although it is good for a small town like this to have something to root for, it is completely unfair to the players and coaches of the team. The entire team has a massive responsibility to do well year after year. As seen in the scene at the car dealership party, everyone and their mother came up to Coach Taylor to give him advice or talk to him about his inaugural season as head coach. If the team doesn’t well, Taylor is out of there as head coach and the players will gain bad reputations as players.
I loved this episode. Friday Night Lights is one of my favorite shows of all time, and I'm so glad that we got to watch it. It's such an interesting show, and I feel like it's the post accurate portrayal of high school that we've seen so far. The plot is really riveting and most of characters are so easy to relate to. Most sports shows and movies are so focused on the teams and the games, but there's really so much more to Friday Night Lights. The show really emphasizes the backstories which is what makes it such a great show. What really sticks to me from this episode is Jason's injury. I felt horrible for him because he really didn't deserve such a gruesome injury. I felt even worse a few episodes later when I found out he was paralyzed from the waist down.
ReplyDeleteMy two favorite characters from the show are Matt and Smash. I like Matt because he's such a good guy. He takes car of his grandmother, has a job on top of being QB1 for the Panthers. I don't know how anybody couldn't like him. At the same time, I really like Flash because of his cockiness. He's hilarious-- especially in his interviews. However, if he wasn't such a good running back, he'd drive me crazy.
High School Football is everything in Dillon Texas. The whole town has the team's back. Stores are even closed on gamedays so that everyone can be ready for the game. I would love to play football for them. Their athletic culture is completely different from what we have at Paideia. Our athletics are nowhere near as important as they are at Dillon. The entire school goes to their games, but here we're lucky to get 30 students at games and it kind of sucks honestly. I wish we took athletics a little more seriously.
I enjoyed the show, or I enjoyed it as much as I could given that it was about football and I don't particularly like football. The contrast among all the different players was really interesting to me. I get that they wouldn't all be the same, but some of their personalities were pretty interesting, like I thought Smash was hilarious.
ReplyDeleteLila kind of jumped out at me as well. I felt so bad for her when she was crying outside Jason's hospital room. And it was really adorable when she and Jason were kissing and she kept asking him if things were true. Tim Riggins really annoyed me. I hope for his sake later in the series he gets a backstory that explains why he seems so unpleasant to me around. And I really liked Matt. He seemed like such a sweetheart.
I kind of have mixed feeling about Eric's toughness on Tim. On one hand, it pretty much ensures that none of them will ever come to practice hungover again, because being in Tim's position looked like it sucked. But on the other hand, it seems pretty harsh to subject someone who's already not in the best physical state to being run over by big football players over and over again, even if he's a big football player himself.
ReplyDelete1. I loved Friday Night Lights. The characters are portrayed well and hilarious, but also manage to bring in a serious undertone of how important football is to this community. The negative aspect for me was the drunk Tim and how he never learns from it. Also the fact that the quarterback is left paralyzed from the waist down. The positive would just be the hilarity in the show. The main person who I felt brought that was Smash and Matt. Smash’s overall pompous and arrogant character is entertaining and Matt has an adorable, quirky character that makes me laugh.
2. Matt Saracen has always been one of my favorite characters. And Landry. One, I love the relationship between Landry and Saracen. They are hilarious and cute together, constantly bickering about stupid things. Two, I love Saracen’s relationship with his grandmother. He takes such good care of her and it shows how good of a person he is as well as the sweet person he is. Plus his grandmother is entertaining as well, such as when she told him he needed to get new friends. Three, his lack of confidence on the football field as well as with girls is extremely endearing. Overall his character is wonderful.
4.It plays an unhealthily large role in the community. The scene where everyone holds up their championship rings displays the enormous responsibility that is on these boys backs. All of those men in the community have taken home championships. Also it shows that once they took home their championships they didn't do much else with their lives. They stayed in Odessa and raised their sons to have glory days at Permian High School just like them. The parents show the future of their children, which is never to make it out of this town. Also, later in the show the team loses one game and the coach walks out into his front yard to see many for sale signs. The fact that the community would do that over one loss to a coach and be that upset shows how much of a role high school football plays in this community
I personally did not enjoy this film very much. It centered primarily on football, and while I found the characters' dynamic personalities very interesting to watch, I lost track of the story during the moments when the game(s) were described meticulously in terms of football tactics. I also do not find it very realistic for a town to be focused entirely on a sport. While this may actually be the culture of a certain football-crazed school, I find myself unable to enjoy such a story when I rarely pay attention to football shows.
ReplyDeleteI liked Smash due to his comical character, and this attribute of him ultimately made him stand out from the other serious football players. I did not like Lila and her relationship with Jason. It seemed as if she merely liked Jason for the fact that he was a quarterback and important player on the team. Had Jason not been as great and important a player (or perhaps not even a football player), I doubt if Lila would hold the same love and admiration for him. In addition, Lila always reminded me of the girls in my previous public school who slacked in school-work and cared only about cheerleading and dating popular athletes.
I suppose that football plays a huge role in Dillon for letting it shine, given that Dillon is indeed a dull and unprogressive town where nothing exciting goes on constantly. I think that Dillon made a correct decision to develop its football program that helped lionize the community nationally, but I would personally not encourage this kind of mindset. I find it very unhealthy for the community to become so undeveloped in order to maintain its only glorious attribute, but I guess that for many talented athletes who trained for the Olympics, they have had to give up school generally had kill themselves over hours of practice and work-outs. I think it also comes down to what one community or individual wants ultimately. At the same time, I think the entire country of the USA would particularly recognize Dillon as a special community that differs from many states for its football prestige, and I think the USA would support them in their efforts for this reason.
1. I loved the pilot of Friday Night Lights. It managed to strike a very careful balance in every area, and resulted in something that wasn’t overdone. I’ve never really been much of a football person, not having grown up on it or developing an interest later on. In fact, I’ve always found football completely uninteresting. However, Friday Night Lights completely changed my view of it. The first shots of Dillon gave the impression of an average town in Texas, with not much to do and perhaps a little run down. Football was the one thing that really brought people together and gave them purpose. Even despite the characters’ differences, from the moody, above-it-all Tim Riggins to the ever humble, sweet, and slightly stereotypical-football-player Jason Street, everyone understood and appreciated the importance of football. The sense of community and the portrayal of religion throughout the sow also really intrigued me. Religion wasn’t flashy, bragging, or condescending, as it often is portrayed, but rather necessary and humbling. The Friday football game was a really cool scene. It was fast-paced, exciting, and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Even though Jason Street’s injury was tragic, it was pretty incredible to see Matt Sacaren rise to the challenge after having thrown the ball into another player’s helmet.
ReplyDelete2. All the characters were very interesting to watch, but I probably liked Matt Sacaren, Julie Taylor, and Tyra Colette the most. Matt Sacaren was shy, clearly, caring, and lacking a lot of confidence. We see him thoughtfully taking care of his grandmother and staying mostly under the radar. In the beginning, he denied he even really played football, despite the insistence of his buddy Landry Clarke. When the whole team stood together at the car dealership pep rally, Matt looked pained to be standing with them; he didn’t feel like he belonged or had a right to be up there, even though no one was really paying attention to him at all. It was very interesting to see his progression throughout the show; it was impossible not to love the scene where he threw the football and managed to score a touchdown with the help of another player. Later in the hospital, he didn’t look overjoyed to have won, but concerned for Jason Street, and still as though he was undeserving of his success. He seemed very kind, and kind of an outsider, which I liked. Julie Taylor was also a really interesting character. She didn’t like associating with the football players and didn’t use the fact that she was the football coach’s daughter to get ahead or around. I liked the scene where she read Moby Dick and tried to tell her dad about how Dillon related to the story. She kind of kept to herself, and had different interests but clearly loved her family and liked football as much as the next person. There was also something about Tyra Colette that I thoroughly enjoyed. She was very confident and loved to stir up trouble. She struck me as someone not to mess with, because she would find a thousand ways to make your life completely miserable without ever getting in trouble for it.
3. Eric Taylor seemed like a nice man to me. He was definitely family-oriented and kind, but was facing a lot of pressure easing into the role of head coach. I think, though at times harsh, he was just trying to feel out his position and make his authority known. Ultimately, Taylor cares about leading his team to success and his individual teammates. At the end, even in the face of deep crisis, (Jason being injured) Taylor still managed to rile up Matt to win the game and kept positive for the sake of finishing. I think he didn’t always make the best decision, but I feel that as he continues coaching, he will keep learning and improve.
I really enjoyed this episode. As a pilot episode, I thought it did a great job of setting up what is to come for the rest of the TV season. What stood out to me was how these football players are all at the top of the pyramid and then the relationships they have with people, place those people on the lower levels. Everyone is connected to the team; everyone and everything revolves around the team. So perhaps a better analogy would be more like a chain in which the football team stands in the middle. I liked this set up for a TV show. I thought it was a brilliant idea and am interested in how the rest of the season turned out.
ReplyDeleteMatt Saracen was the first to jump out at me. I knew right from the beginning that he would have an important role in the show because of the fact that he was set up to be this useless backup QB. He also stood out to me because of the beginning scene with his grandma. It was such a heartfelt scene and it gave the audience a sense that this is a character with a good heart, with compassion, which also got me to believe in his importance later on. Sure enough, in the end we were rooting for him after Street’s tragic injury, to put the team on his back and win the game. Once again, I want to watch the rest of the season just to see his character unfold.
The role the football team has here is a large one. It involves pretty much being the sole representatives of the school and the community, the face, which means their role also involves winning, to make a good name for the school and community. Aside from this, they provide an event for the community to gather around, to come together. They are what everyone looks up to, who everyone wants to know because of their popularity not just school wide, but outside the community too. People know who they are and they can do the one thing everyone loves. From just imagining, I’m not quite sure this setup is healthy in a highschool. All the attention is put on this one event and the overall happiness of the community depends on whether the team wins or looses. Then again, I’ve never experienced a situation in which this was the case, and I’m sure the team comes with a good amount of pros such as excitement amongst members of the community, or perhaps the simplicity of an event to look forward to. Either way, one can be sure a football team like that of the Panther’s would indeed change a school.
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ReplyDeleteI love this episode. It’s a great intro into a great show, and I think it perfectly captures the essence of Dillon’s football mania and sense of hominess. And that’s what jumps out at me in this episode—the warm feeling of team spirit and bonding over sports and faith. The last part of the episode, with Street in the hospital and the whole team and community praying and going to see him, always makes me cry—both because it’s sad about Street and because of the intimacy and bonds we see between the team. Texas forever!
ReplyDeleteMatt Saracen has always been my favorite. He is so sweet and earnest in this world where many people are just the opposite. And there’s something about his general bumbling awkwardness and his limited football experience that is so relatable to the average viewer of the show (or at least to me). A lot of the characters on Friday Night Lights are admirable and almost larger-than-life in their personal lives and athletic abilities, but Matt seems so real and adorably un-perfect.
The community of Dillon is completely centered around the high school football team. I think it’s partly because they’re so good and bring credit to the name of Dillon, but I think it’s also a tradition in the community. We see the middle-aged men with their state champ rings—clearly football glory in Dillon has been around for a long time and so is taught to be a priority to each generation. Also, many of those men probably didn’t go to college didn’t amount to much after high school—their high school football days were their glory days. However, I don’t think the level of obsession with the team is healthy. There’s something almost ridiculous about the idea of all these adults being so obsessed with the performance of 16 and 17 year old kids. And the amount of pressure the players must feel when the whole town is constantly watching them and critiquing them is crazy.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that stuck out to me was how unrealistic the football game was. I've seen the first few seasons, and each game becomes more and more unrealistic. The way in which the characters are introduced is very clever, and I can look back and see how the show makes the characters likable from the start. Everybody loves Matt and Mr. And Mrs. Taylor, but the show's genius is in how the viewer is rooting for the characters who are underdogs. It's harder to do that in the other shows we watched, but in Friday Night Lights you feel immersed in the characters, because the characters feel so real.
Mr. and Mrs. Taylor always jumped out to me in the show, and they especially do in the first episode. The way in which they parent Julie is different than parents in most shows. I would say the parents in freaks and geeks were realistic, but you really believe Mr. and Mrs. Taylor are real life parents. They are logical unlike other parents in shows, and are likable despite being responsible parents.
Football is more to the town than just a game—it's the means by which the community is made up. Football brings the people in the town together, and it is how the people of Dillon relate to each other. Besides family, there is not much to care about in Dillon, it seems, but everybody cares about the football team. I think it is very unhealthy because the kids lives peak in high school. They are celebrities, and then for most, when they turn 19, they are forgotten and replaced.