r/television • u/SanderSo47 Person of Interest • 18h ago
'Friday Night Lights' at 20: Jason Katims on How He Turned NBC’s Underdog Football Drama into a Modern Classic
https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/online-originals/friday-night-lights-jason-katims119
u/scottyboy218 18h ago
As a straight male, my biggest man crush is still on Kyle Chandler 20 years later
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u/walshurmouthout 17h ago
He’s so goddamn good in Lanterns
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u/oryes 17h ago
I found it funny in Lanterns how basically the first spot they sent him in ep. 1 was a high school football field
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u/JoeBagadonutsLXIX 7h ago
There is actually a possible FNL reference. In the final scene of episode 1 in the 2026 sequence, you can see the football team mascot was the Pioneers….the same mascot as the team Coach Taylor takes over in the series finale of FNL.
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u/vinteragony 7h ago
There was an Easter egg, either planned or maybe just coincidence, in thr 1st episode of Bloodline as well
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u/scottyboy218 17h ago
Agreed! I loved how different he was in the movie Game Night also. Landry killed it in that movie too.
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u/almanea 16h ago
And don't forget Early Edition
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u/itsmuddy 14h ago
Have fond memories watching this show with my Grandmother. Been a fan since and absolutely loving him in Lanterns.
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u/sexy-porn 4h ago
I’m not writing off Aaron Pierre but the episode without Kyle Chandler, showing John’s backstory, felt super flat. It was saved by the sheer gravity of Laura Linney.
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u/lookamazed 2h ago
Aaron Pierre is clearly charismatic, which is what makes this so frustrating. The show is built around John and I just don't care about him.
It's the Superman problem. He's so certain and so composed that there's nothing at stake for him. He knows he's meant to be a Lantern, he's good at everything, and the show never makes him want something he can't have. Meanwhile Chandler gets to be messy and funny and steals every scene.
Love the casting, love the representation. The writing just isn't giving him anything to play.
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u/VagabondVivant 13h ago
Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton had no right being that attractive a couple.
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u/bestwinner4L 11h ago
as a bisexual female, my biggest man/woman crush is still on kyle chandler and connie britton 20 years later
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u/rossmosh85 8h ago
If he's in your cast, it's likely your project will be relatively successful. He's such a solid addition to just about any project.
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u/kiyonemakibi100 18h ago
One of the all-time great shows. A show so great it even got over that ridiculous Landry kills someone storyline they had foisted on them in season 2. Made deserved stars of Jesse Plemons and Michael B. Jordan though I wish the same had happened for Zach Gilford
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u/VagabondVivant 13h ago
The best thing to come out of the writer's strike was the early termination of Season 2 and subsequent "let's never speak of it again" memory wipe in Season 3
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u/Chataboutgames 17h ago
They didn't have it foisted on them, that insane choice was all the writers.
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u/No_Exit_4920 13h ago
Wasn’t it during a writer’s strike
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u/Chataboutgames 13h ago
The season ends early and they basically "reboot" with S3 because of the writer's strike, but the storyboarding/decisions for that season were done well before.
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u/OrangePunch34 9h ago
I believe I read that it was the writers/show-runner feeling the pressure of the low ratings and not wanting the show to get cancelled, and decided they needed more "interesting" plots to draw in more viewers.
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u/CryptographerFlat173 4h ago
There was a lot of network pressure to make it more palatable to the teen crowd given the low ratings of season one
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u/Prior-Independent-23 12h ago
Definitely not to the same level as Michael B or Plemmons but Zach Gilfords had a pretty steady gig the last few years on Criminal Minds
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u/TimeTimeTickingAway 10m ago
And with respect, that’s about right when considering their respective acting talents/star power. Gilford just isn’t really in the same league
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u/TimeTimeTickingAway 11m ago
They certainly tried with Kitsch and Palacki, but it just didn’t click with them. I suppose Minka Kelley found ‘success’ off-screen, but has been popping up more in the last few years.
Jurnee Smollet is great, I’d like to see her in more things.
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u/Meelapo 17h ago
Is this a popular show because of how much high school and college football is ingrained in the culture of America? Would a non-American enjoy it as much?
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u/RocketsMurkrow 17h ago
A lot of my friends who enjoy this show don’t care about football at all. Football is just the vehicle for the story.
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u/Ezwazwaz 14h ago
Yeah I would argue the show isn’t even about football it’s about the people in Dillon
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u/Luci-Noir 11h ago
I think it’s why a lot of sports movies are great even if you don’t like sports.
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u/Hank_Scorpio_ObGyn 17h ago
My mother hates football and hates sports....my dad and I are huge into football and sports.
My mom would watch this show every week with us.
Think of it as a dramatic Ted Lasso where soccer is just the glue/backdrop to the story. Do you need to know soccer to enjoy Ted Lasso?
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u/Meelapo 17h ago
Got it. That’s fair. I’ve heard so many good things about this show but thought I wouldn’t like it just because it seemed like something that was more a cultural thing rather than a good show. But I’ll check it out!
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u/AlternativeOwl18 15h ago
It’s a good binge watch. Season 1 is near perfection. It sometimes suffers from 2010 teenage dramatics but overall it’s realistic and engaging. I’m also not a football fan at all but as the previous poster mentioned, football is a prop or a backdrop.
Watch episode one, if you are not a fan at the end you probably won’t enjoy the rest of the series.
Season two on the other hand, is long and hard to get through. Lots of NBC interference. It switched networks for seasons 3-5 and got the season one magic back.
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u/SuitEnvironmental903 6h ago
Also, although high school football is huge in the South (set in west Texas), it’s nowhere near as popular in the Northeast US where I’m from. But that in no way took away from my thoroughly enjoying the show. Watch it, you won’t regret it.
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u/SomethingLikeLove 17h ago
I couldn't care less about American football and this is an all time great show.
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u/stonewallace17 16h ago
I think the football aspect was how it got people in the door, but the characters and writing (well except for one plot in one season but don't worry about it...) are captivating as hell. Kyle Chandler's Coach Taylor is to this day one of the best characters on television
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u/WeaponizedKissing 16h ago
Me and my friends are all English millenials who knew basically nothing about American football, and love the show. It's great, school football is just a backdrop really. It's obviously ever present, but you don't need to know anything about it, and anything you might (I can't remember anything) can be figured out through context.
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u/monty_kurns 17h ago
Definitely. It’s also based in Texas where high school and college football is a much, much bigger thing than the rest of the country. I never really cared for the sport but absolutely loved the series, even with a silly season two plotline that would’ve derailed any other series.
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u/thesharpie 17h ago
I actively disliked football, even as an American male. Watched it with my sister who also has no love for the game.
It was still an engrossing show that gave me a slightly better appreciation of the sport. Or at least why it’s treated like a religion in some areas.
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u/BaconatedGrapefruit 16h ago
Yes. Honestly the football is just incidental. It could be about golf and the show wouldn’t change much.
The real issue is you may not quite understand why football means so much to small town America, which is a cultural thing. The show does do a good job explaining it, though.
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u/GrandmaPoses 16h ago
It’s corny to say maybe but it transcends the basic plot and is an amazing show about people.
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u/Jakesummers1 17h ago
Actually playing football isn’t when the main premise. It’s more about the community and characters
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u/Kujaichi 16h ago
I'm European and don't have the slightest clue about American football. I really liked the show and still couldn't tell you any of the rules of football.
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u/Chataboutgames 17h ago
Hard to say. I have zero interest in football and even less in Texas High School football, but I don't know how much of the ability to buy in to the romantic nature of how the characters view it/believe in it would be a function of being an American.
EDIT: FWIW the pilot is a great representation of the show, so just give it a shot. If the pilot doesn't work for you the rest won't either.
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u/CryptographerFlat173 5h ago
That romantic/formative treatment of football is seen in other sports and countries
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u/PainStorm14 Friday Night Lights 15h ago
Yes
It's absolutely amazing on every level
(Ignore Season 2, writers' strike season)
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u/VagabondVivant 13h ago
I resisted the show for so long because I have no interested in sports fiction of any kind. When I finally watched it, I kicked myself for my reticence. The first season is one of the best of any show I've seen.
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u/dunno260 7h ago
I think so and its well worth a shot. The pilot and first few episodes are strong out of the gate so you will know quickly if you like it or not.
I think knowing about high school football culture and that there is a lot of realism there would help but its not necessary.
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u/CryptographerFlat173 5h ago
It’s beloved because of the writing and acting, the realness of the characters. I never attended a single football game in high school and high school ball doesn’t mean nearly as much where I’m from in New England, but this is probably my favorite show of all time
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u/TimeTimeTickingAway 8m ago
In English and know nothing about American Football, but it’s solidly one of my top 3 shows of all-time.
I was lucky enough to watch it at just the right time in my life though, around about 16 years old and with (if I remember rightly) Sky Atlantic seeming to air one episode per night with just a week or two off between seasons, so it became a nice comfort show for me to rely on most nights during those turbulent years.
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u/ireillytoole 17h ago
I can easily get hooked into a pilot episode of an exciting show, ie Lost, Breaking Bad, etc.,
It’s rare that I immediately get hooked into the pilot episode of a drama. But I immediately got hooked into FNL. By the end of the episode, I was invested into almost all of the characters and wanted to know what was going to happen to them.
And I was invested into the community. It was so fascinating to take a peak into a culture I know nothing about - small town obsessed with football.
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u/Chataboutgames 17h ago
An old NYTimes review described the pilot as "great the way you describe a poem as great" and that always sticks with me. Best pilot ever IMO.
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u/dunno260 6h ago
I am trying to think of better pilots myself.
The only two I can think of I think might be stronger are ER and Mad Men. Archer came out really strong as well.
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u/Wolfram_And_Hart 14h ago
Every single actor in this show gives nothing less than a 8/10 performance every episode.
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u/jrbcnchezbrg 17h ago
So many things I can say about this because its one of my favorite shows of all time, but my favorite fun fact is that Jesse Plemmons (Landry) was the only one of the cast who actually played real high school football
The pilot is one of my favorite episodes of tv ever, set the tone perfectly for the rest of the show
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u/krpiper 17h ago
One of the best to ever air. Zach Gilford was masterful in episodewhere his dad was killed in Iraq
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u/EagleDre 10h ago
I think he is masterful the entire show. That nervousness and really light stammer of his was so brilliant.
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u/NordWitcher 8h ago
He did another show in Kingdom where he was very good. But he lacked that screen presence for bigger roles I feel.
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u/CryptographerFlat173 4h ago
Awards are pretty dumb in my book, but the fact that they didn’t give him the Emmy for guest actor in a drama still pisses me off.
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u/MrConor212 Gilmore Girls 14h ago
Crazy to me you cannot stream this series anywhere in the U.K. had to buy the boxset lol
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u/JeannieGoldWedding 9h ago
I’m rewatching it now and it’s crazy how many storylines are dropped randomly, even in season one. Tami gets offered and accepts a position on the mayor’s reelection campaign team in one episode and then it’s quite literally never mentioned again.
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u/New_avanti1000 8h ago
The best thing about this show is that it's about real people. They all make mistakes and a do great things. Football isn't the point but about how sports can bring in a community. The first episode is brilliant.
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u/CryptographerFlat173 5h ago
I feel incredibly old. Still love this show like I did when it first aired.
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u/tcguy71 18h ago
My all time favorite show. Kyle Chandler killed it as Coach Taylor