blown away
Oct. 16th, 2010 12:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerI've watched a lot of television, and I've seen a lot of movies.
I'm well familiar with the standard tropes of "small town America" and "sports as a metaphor for life" and "the big game".
But I have to say that I can't recall being moved as deeply by a narrative, being seized as immediately by characters, as I was by watching the pilot of Friday Night Lights.
I'm not much of a fan of American football. I'm not a big fan of Texas and its ethos of exceptionalism (with due apologies to my Texan friends, like the Attorney). But this penetrates so deeply into both of those subjects and takes the tropes I named and uses all of them so brilliantly to introduce a cast and a story and build both of them into something real and urgent that I was completely blown away. The skill of the acting, directing, and editing is worthy of a feature film. Actors like Kyle Chandler, Taylor Kitsch, Jesse Plemons, Gaius Charles, and Scott Porter take roles that are so classic and overused (the football coach, the bad boy, the kid who's too smart for his small town, the athletic black stud, the football hero) that they are like flaccid skins, and they breathe air and life and colour into them in moments.
I tried out FNL after Lone Star, which I rather liked, died in a burning wreck following a head-on ratings collision with other, more established shows. I watched Lone Star after I heard an interview with Adrianne Palicki on NPR. Ms Palicki has a strong role in FNL, and I had heard good things about the show in the past, so I thought it would be worth a try.
I'm totally hooked. I have a full day (studying for my exams, working on miniatures armies for upcoming tournaments, taking advantage of the beautiful weather to get outside), but I'll be back to "Friday Night" when darkness falls.
I'm well familiar with the standard tropes of "small town America" and "sports as a metaphor for life" and "the big game".
But I have to say that I can't recall being moved as deeply by a narrative, being seized as immediately by characters, as I was by watching the pilot of Friday Night Lights.
I'm not much of a fan of American football. I'm not a big fan of Texas and its ethos of exceptionalism (with due apologies to my Texan friends, like the Attorney). But this penetrates so deeply into both of those subjects and takes the tropes I named and uses all of them so brilliantly to introduce a cast and a story and build both of them into something real and urgent that I was completely blown away. The skill of the acting, directing, and editing is worthy of a feature film. Actors like Kyle Chandler, Taylor Kitsch, Jesse Plemons, Gaius Charles, and Scott Porter take roles that are so classic and overused (the football coach, the bad boy, the kid who's too smart for his small town, the athletic black stud, the football hero) that they are like flaccid skins, and they breathe air and life and colour into them in moments.
I tried out FNL after Lone Star, which I rather liked, died in a burning wreck following a head-on ratings collision with other, more established shows. I watched Lone Star after I heard an interview with Adrianne Palicki on NPR. Ms Palicki has a strong role in FNL, and I had heard good things about the show in the past, so I thought it would be worth a try.
I'm totally hooked. I have a full day (studying for my exams, working on miniatures armies for upcoming tournaments, taking advantage of the beautiful weather to get outside), but I'll be back to "Friday Night" when darkness falls.
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Date: 2010-10-16 04:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2010-10-18 06:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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