Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Friday Night Lights: Ok for liberals to like

Yes, it's a football (melo)drama set in smalltown Texas where high-school football is king, but instead of docilely protraying jocks as heroes, apparently the series (and the film and the non-fiction book that both are based on) is a class-based critique of the "failures of Republican politics and the oil industry." What's also interesting is that the show formalistically plays with the ongoing structure of a serial drama -- in the first episode, the team tries to support and pump up the backup QB when he enters the game for the injured starter, and the backup ends up leading the team to a come-from-behind victory. Backup is hero! But wait, that's only the first game/show of the season (oh, the pun!), and he has to play the next game too, and the week leading up to the next game shows that the rest of his teammates aren't as confident in his abilities anymore. No neat happy endings here.

Stylistically, the series buys into a serious indie aesthetic of deliberately shaky camerawork and fast, snappy editing (oftentimes the show forgoes establishing shots when a scene transitions into another scene), and Explosions in the Sky for you post-rock nerds.

Also, Minka Kelly has a serious case of hott.

So, yeah, watch this show.

Indie rating: Explosions in the Sky - "Remember Me as a Time of Day"

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