Clear Eye, Full Hearts

Rejoice and be glad.



Somehow, it has happened. NBC resisted the urge to go all "Arrested Development" on Friday Night Lights and the show is returning for a 3rd season.

Its a complicated deal with DirectTV paying for part of the production. It will probably boil down to DirectTV getting to show original episodes a few days before NBC does, but at least it will be back.

I am elated and overjoyed. I thought for sure this show would follow the same path as Arrested blazed previously. A show that everyone who did watch it, loved. A show that the majority of the public would not watch, due to some misconceived opinion (not funny, cliche sitcom for AD, just another high school drama for FNL), and a show that the critics all adored. While Arrested Development won Emmy's, FNL has been winning a wide array of critical awards (an Emmy, some WGA awards, SGA awards, Image, etc).

I have been watching this show since the pilot and really have no idea why no one else watches. It's beautifully shot scenes and brilliant writing has something for everyone in it. And although it strayed from being the poignant documentary about how the lives of an entire Texas town (and every Texas town, for that matter) rests on the shoulders of 17 year old boys is started as, into more of an all around dramatic, prime-time show (in order to draw in the average, dumbed down American television watcher), it is still easily one of the top 4 best dramas on television right now.

It has storylines that everyone can become involved it. Life in a small town, being in high school and relationships, being on a team, the drama found in every football game (although I do find it hard to believe that a team who made the state playoffs two years in a row would have every game go down to the wire. A small nitpick. They should probably think about firing their offensive coordinator if he didn't carry a few episodes on his back), the trials of parenting, the trials of raising a teenager, drugs, sex, racism, being a teen, a parent, a boyfriend, a husband, a once proud superstar with everything going for him, or a prized recruit that colleges are fighting over. Well ok, maybe not all of us can relate to the last one.

Picture The OC, but with football and a respected director writing and directing. At least one with a first name. I gave my season 1 DVD to my parents when I was home for Christmas and they had finished all 24 episodes in a month.

And sure, it has become almost hip to declare FNL the best show on television. Save FNL buttons were only recently replaced by OBAMA buttons on retro burlap messenger bags on the tight jeans wearing dudes taking the L train to Brooklyn. And I am not trying to prove I am cooler than you because I have been "in" on this show since the beginning. Hell, I have missed my share of good tv. I didn't start watching The Shield until 2 years ago, I blogged last week about watching Jericho, I missed out on the original Dexter on Showtime and then the censored version on CBS and it was a mere month ago when I watched the first season of The Wire.

Will Smash enjoy playing for a D-III school? Can the Panthers make the playoffs without him? Is Street going to be a father? Can Riggins get any hotter?

Between this and the news of the Arrested Development movie, I am beginning to have some hope for the future of American television.

Source: Nikki Finke