There are sports activities dramas, after which there’s Friday Evening Lights.
Whereas All American and different collection have explored the heightened drama that unfolds on the gridiron and within the locker room, no present in fashionable historical past has constantly completed so with as a lot coronary heart as FNL.
ESPN columnist Invoice Simmons as soon as hailed it as “the best sports-related present ever made.” Many critics would add that the competition shouldn’t be a very shut one.
Now, Selection is reporting that Common is growing a reboot of the beloved collection, which ran from 2006-2011.
Certainly some followers are excited concerning the prospect of returning to the world of Texas highschool soccer.
However the prevailing temper for the time being is considered one of utter confusion.
And the query on the minds of many FNL devotees is just: Why?
Community execs typically can’t assist themselves from messing with perfection by returning to confirmed properties.
However on this case, the transfer is especially baffling for various causes.
For starters, the unique Friday Evening Lights is just not that previous.
13 years could be an eternity within the leisure trade, however FNL holds up extremely properly, and it’s nonetheless obtainable on Netflix.
And this isn’t a state of affairs the place the present is of historic curiosity to younger individuals as a result of it depicts a bygone period of unrecognizable customs and beliefs.
Members of Gen Z would possibly watch Pals or The Workplace to see in on a distinct world, however Friday Evening Lights is sort of shockingly modern in its themes and pursuits.
Its depiction of small-town life and the challenges of highschool are as related now as they had been in the course of the Bush years.
Talking of politics, the altering state of the world might need factored into the choice to make the journey again to Dillon, Texas.
However a part of the enchantment of the unique collection was its timeless high quality.
Friday Evening Lights started life as a 1990 non-fiction novel by H.G. Bissinger.
It was then tailored right into a short-lived 1993 tv collection referred to as Towards the Grain (starring a younger Ben Affleck!)
Then it grew to become a 2004 characteristic movie directed by Peter Berg, who occurs to be a cousin of Bissinger’s.
After which it lived on into the Obama years as a collection that loved the sort of cross-demographic enchantment that we not often witness these days.
In every of those iterations, the names of the characters modified, however the city, the group, and the teaching workers remained centered on successful as a method of preserving the satisfaction of their neighborhood.
Sure, the unique FNL handled well timed points like racism, abortion, and substance abuse, however in lots of respects, it was a defiantly old-school present.
Would a brand new collection have the ability to keep the identical degree of populist enchantment? Can any present pull off that magic trick in these hyper-divided occasions?
No present must be anticipated to try for full political impartiality, and the unique FNL actually didn’t.
However within the 2020s, the present would possible immediate a thousand irritating thinkpieces alongside the strains of the present hypothesis about Yellowstone’s political alignment. And that’s the very last thing we want.
Additional dampening enthusiasm for immediately’s information is the rumor that the brand new model of FNL would deal with a completely new set of characters.
Meaning, after all, that Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, and the remainder of the extremely stacked forged wouldn’t be returning.
Britton appeared to substantiate that rumor in current remarks on the topic.
“I heard that they’re making one other Friday Evening Lights, which I discover weird,” she advised Selection in September.
For sure, it feels like she’s not concerned with the undertaking.
So yeah, the remake might be taking place, and we’re as anxious as a backup QB referred to as in after the star signal-caller obtained knocked out of the sport.
It’s a wierd feeling to see such a incredible present again within the headlines and really feel something lower than giddy enthusiasm. However in terms of this reboot we’re having a tough time summoning our “clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose” mentality.
Over to you, TV Fanatics! Do you suppose this Hail Mary might lead to a landing or would you quite see Common punt on this concept?
Hit the feedback part under to share your ideas!
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