Are you prepared for some extra soccer? When it comes to a “Friday Night time Lights” reboot, I do not know if I’m.
As first reported by Puck and confirmed by IndieWire, a reboot of NBC’s “Friday Night time Lights” collection is within the pitch stage at Common Tv. “Friday Night time Lights” is a kind of titles the studio is all the time trying to mine, an individual with data of the scenario instructed IndieWire; OG collection creator Peter Berg, its showrunner Jason Katims, and producer Brian Grazer are on board. Ought to we be?
“Friday Night time Lights” was an unimaginable present that ran from 2006 to 2007 on NBC. The one downside is “Friday Night time Lights” ran for 5 seasons between 2006 and 2011.
OK, so it wasn’t all unhealthy in these later years; for a lot of followers and critics, it wasn’t unhealthy in any respect. It’s a Season 4 episode (“The Son”) that’s broadly thought of the perfect of the collection, and the collection finale is usually lauded for touchdown the airplane. However I’m nonetheless not over what occurred in Season 2 — and what occurred to Season 2.
The writers strike of 2007 shortened the second season of “Friday Night time Lights” from 19 episodes to fifteen. The collection wasn’t prepared for the work stoppage, which lasted simply over three months, and 4 hours of story had been simply deserted. It was bizarre then, and it’s a lot weirder now given the best way we devour TV. A streaming binge of “Friday Night time Lights” rolls Season 2 proper into Season 3, and with out the context of what occurred practically 20 years in the past, the transition can really feel like a fever dream.
The unintended Season 2 finale aired on February 8, 2008, simply 4 days earlier than the WGA strike ended; “Friday Night time Lights” returned for a 3rd season on October 1 of the identical 12 months. Between these dates, sufficient time had handed for the Dillon Panthers, as soon as once more below its on-again/off-again Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler), to not win one other championship. However we don’t see that occur. We additionally don’t see what occurs with that entire Landry-killed-a-guy factor.
The brief model is that Landry (Jesse Plemons) killed the dude who assaulted Tyra (Adrianne Palicki). Landry and Tyra practically turned an merchandise amid their shared secret, however with the disappearance of Episodes 216-219, it was by no means spoken of once more. Landry didn’t go to jail for manslaughter, he simply saved enjoying criminally unhealthy soccer. (Plemons is a good actor, he’s simply not that nice an actor.)
I’m undecided if it’s truthful to name the Landry homicide a jump-the-shark second — in spite of everything, this was simply the thirty first episode of “Friday Night time Lights”) and Fonzie (Henry Winkler) jumped a shark within the 91st episode of “Joyful Days” — nevertheless it was wildly melodramatic for a collection about teen soccer. Most critics will let you know that “Friday Night time Lights” was in a position to regain its footing, and that in a means, the strike might have saved the present from its massive mistake. I’m unhealthy at compartmentalizing.
Landry breaking unhealthy a couple of years earlier than Plemons joined “Breaking Dangerous” is universally accepted because the low level of “Friday Night time Lights.” Maybe Katims, Berg, and Co. deserve the prospect to reboot the collection and see it by means of. (The brand new WGA contract with the studios expires in 2026, so let’s assume forward this time.)
Or perhaps we simply don’t must reboot an excellent reboot.
Simply two years earlier than “Friday Night time Lights” premiered, “Friday Night time Lights” the film, directed by Berg and launched by Common Footage (the film-studio sibling to Common Tv), got here out. And that “Friday Night time Lights” (2004) was based mostly on “Friday Night time Lights” the ebook (by Buzz Bissinger, 1990). “Friday Night time Lights: A City, A Workforce, and a Dream” tells the true story of the 1988 Permian Excessive College Panthers soccer workforce from Odessa, Texas, as they make a run in the direction of the Texas state championship. So far as I can recall, none of their defensive backs kill a man.
In 2011, Berg instructed TV critics {that a} “Friday Night time Lights” sequel movie — properly, a movie sequel to the collection — was within the works. The plan was deserted by 2013. In 2018, Selection reported {that a} new standalone movie impressed by Bissinger’s ebook and produced by Grazer, was within the works. It actually appears to be like like that has since been deserted.
So right here’s a thought: Can we simply let sleeping Panthers lie? Oh wait, I forgot I’m attempting to cause with the identical firm that’s presently rebooting its reboot of The UK’s “The Workplace.” ‘Spherical and ’spherical we go.