Music, Style & Culture

Friday Night Lights

Catch the much-loved movie spin-off from the beginning on Sky Atlantic.

Season One begins on Sky Atlantic 14th February.

It wouldn't be hyperbole to call Friday Night Lights one of the most criminally under watched television shows of all time. Critically acclaimed from its very first episode right through five years of blood, sweat and tears, the tales of Dillon - a small Texas town heaped in football history - deserve a wider audience. Just like Sky Atlantic's more recent acquisition Luck, Friday Night Lights may have a sporting background, but at the heart it's a character driven journey like no other.

Starring Kyle Chandler (Early Edition, Super 8) and Connie Britton (American Horror Story) as Eric and Tami Taylor, we live their life together through the triumphs and the tragedies. Even if you've never seen a second of American Football, you will be drawn in by the people and their passion for the sport. The players, the supporters and the town itself put their all into the sport and live every game like it's their last. Just like One Tree Hill with basketball or movies like Field Of Dreams or even Cool Runnings, Friday Night Lights puts emotion first and foremost. Once you strip away all the complexities you find heart and soul, and a place you long to be a part of.

Featuring a soundtrack by Explosions in the Sky that elevates every scene, we are introduced to a wide variety of different characters - your typical High School jock, geek and beauty queen alongside older and wiser parents and teachers. The most important thing about the cast is that they're not one dimensional. Schools may be covered in hundreds of tv shows and movies, but in Friday Night Lights they have a depth and development that pushes them beyond your typical teen drama. We see behind the facades, with every action having rhyme and reason, and how football is the only thing keeping some of them going. It might be their only hope of a future career, of helping a poor family, or the only way to live up to a parent's expectations. Such motivations apply to all of us in any situation, making the show relatable and empathetic.

The Taylors' innocent and sheltered daughter Julie (Aimee Teegarden) becomes interested in not-so-typical football player Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford), both often stealing the show with their honest and heart-warming scenes. Saracen's best friend Landry (Jesse Plemons) is the goof of the piece with big dreams of making his family proud with a girl beyond his reach, Tyra Collette (Adrianne Palicki). Brian "Smash" Williams (Gaius Charles) shows himself to be the most football-driven guy who gets caught up in the pressure alongside Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch), another player who struggles to balance his home life with his ambitions. Riggins has a complicated relationship with Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly) which develops after the events involving Jason Street (Scott Porter) in the very first episode.

This is some of the best young talent to come through television in the past decade. Kitsch has gone on to start as Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and has the lead role in Disney's John Carter later this year. Other movie stars include Teegarden (Scream 4) and Palicki (G.I. Joe: Retaliation), while Kelly took a main part in the short-lived Charlie's Angels reboot this season. There is no doubt that this show wouldn't be what it is without the talent involved, and the show's producers deliberately gave the cast a freedom to perform that shines through in every episode. These are actors that truly understand their characters, and nothing ever feels forced or scripted.

It's hard to sell an English audience on a show about American Football, but Sky Atlantic have made a wise move picking this up. Look at the calibre of the rest of their catalogue - Game Of Thrones, The Wire, Battlestar Galactica - and know that Friday Night Lights slots alongside these shows with as high a calibre as any of them. This is a rare opportunity to watch from start to finish, with the DVD releases sadly lacking in this country, so sit back and visit Dillon, Texas. It'll be up there with the best trips you've ever taken.