VintageGent’s Menswear Daily

Friday Night Lights Makes My Friday Night

Guest post compliments of my friend Dong Wood

Direct tv has brought me many hours of great viewing. One of the finest is “Friday Night Lights,” which airs, appropriately enough, on Friday nights on NBC. Although this series has never garnered a huge audience, critics continue to appreciate its complex characters and realistic plot threads, and this year, both of its leads received long-deserved Emmy nominations for their work.

Kyle Chandler plays the tough but ethical high school football coach Eric Taylor, who molds students both on and off the field, making them into better players and people. His wife Tami, played by Connie Briton, also influences young people frequently in her job as first a high school counselor and then a principal. The two enjoy one of the warmest television marriages since The Cosby Show and struggle together with their teenage daughter Julie.

The Taylors anchor the show in familiar territory as starring students graduate from high school and move on to other ventures. Two teenage characters who have remained prominent from the beginning are the rugged Tim Riggins, a guy who is rough around the edges but wants to be a decent person deep down, and Matt Saracen, who starts out as a shy young man forced into the role of quarterback after the team’s star player is critically injured.

New characters emerge each season, winning our hearts and challenging our prejudices.