Mythology: Friday Night Lights
By Martin Felipe
February 3, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com

I'd vote for them in World's Greatest Couple
Coinciding almost perfectly with The Super Bowl, one of network television’s most acclaimed dramas, Friday Night Lights, ends its fifth and final season on Direct TV next Wednesday. I know that most people haven’t yet seen the recent episodes so don’t worry; I’m not going to spoil anything. I’m also going to avoid discussing the mythology of Dylan, Texas, such as it is. I talked about it last time. Nor am I going to go into that same old argument that it’s a football show that isn’t about football. This is true, I love the thing and am not even a football fan, but we’ve heard this before and know it. Fact is, no amount of cajoling can get people to watch this thing for some reason. Trust me, I’ve tried. In fact, I’ve encountered stronger resistance from fans of the sport than from non.

In any case, the non-football argument is well documented and beside the point. The point is that, the Direct TV run notwithstanding, the end of Friday Night Light’s run represents a major turning point in the history of network television. It is the final quality, acclaimed drama on the networks.

Fans of House may bristle at such a claim, but once the Lights go out, such procedurals will be pretty much all that’s left on the Big Four. It’s not that House, CSI, Law and Order, etc. are necessarily bad shows, but, as a TV writer I spoke to once said, every episode is a filler episode. Dismissive, but hard to argue. To use a pretty tired analogy cliché, Lights and other novelistic shows are fine dining, procedurals are McDonald’s. I feel dirty even using such a tired comparison, but even the most delicious fast food value meal is the same. Every time you eat it.

There are also a few genre shows still populating the networks - Chuck and Fringe come to mind - not to mention the prime time soaps, Desperate Housewives or Grey’s Anatomy to name but two, but the cream of the crop will soon exist pretty much on cable. HBO has Boardwalk Empire, FX has Sons of Anarchy, AMC has Mad Men, Sci Fi has whichever Galactica spin-off it’s airing this season…and so on.

Again, it all comes down to my argument that, for television drama, the novelistic, seasonal arc is pretty much the artistic pinnacle of the form. And, now that Friday Night Lights is coming to a close, the real brilliant examples are finding their home off network.

Not that I necessarily see this as so much of a bad thing. After all, there’s room for McDonald’s too, just so long as long as there is still an outlet for the good stuff. Man, I sound snooty writing that, but there it is. I know what I like, and my tastes lean more towards the Friday Night Lights of the television world and away from the NCIS sorts of shows.

And this isn’t to say that the networks don’t still produce some quality works. Even as Two and a Half Men perseveres through whichever scandal Charlie Sheen finds himself in this week, the networks seem to be going through a bit of a golden age comedy-wise. The one-camera sitcom, though rarely a huge ratings draw, has given us some brilliant recent comedy, even as Two and a Half Men and Big Bang Theory continue to carry the traditional comedy banner. Ushered in during the late '90s and early 2000s with shows like Scrubs, Malcolm in the Middle and Bernie Mac, the one-camera form reached perfection with Arrested Development. The tradition continues today with Community, Parks and Rec, The Office and Modern Family. And, of course, there’s How I Met Your Mother. Comedy gold, that one!

So Friday Night Lights' imminent conclusion doesn’t represent the end of quality, it rather reflects the shift in the television landscape that we’ve been observing over the past couple of decades. Even as folks like David Lynch, Joss Whedon, Chris Carter, and JJ Abrams explore the possibilities that the medium holds, others like David Chase, Shawn Ryan and Ronald D. Moore realize that there is a better home for this kind of storytelling than NBC or its ilk. And, as home video, the Internet and cable/satellite continue to evolve how we experience our entertainment, I’m glad there’s a home for shows like Friday Night Lights. It could have been canceled. It probably should have been. But it wasn’t. And we have 76 great episodes.

And as it rides off into the sunset, it takes the final traces of great network drama with it.