14 September 2007

it's about the love


our friends over at OaO, specifically mtg, seek the love in their television viewing, and desire (if I may be so bold as to articulate said desire on their behalf) entertainment that demonstrates why it is, in the end, that human beings interact in the first place--what the payoff is for living with/amongst fellow beings, and the good bits of that (not necessarily the happy bits--the good bits). The love. even in shows that 'fro' and I find to be full of the love, like, say, Deadwood, do not fit this criteria because of the nasty ickyness they also display in order to, in my mind, show you the love that much more clearly, that much more fully. The love, for example, between Swearingen, the bar owner and town boss, and Trixie, his lead whore. some things are difficult to see, but once seen are the more powerful for having seen them. But I digress. the love, in its more unadulterated form, can be found in Friday Night Lights, which, and I cannot emphasise this enough, is both entirely about football and not at all in any way about football. it is about the love. I say this now because Heather Havrilevsky over at Salon has given FNL the annual 'Buffy' award for the most underappreciated show on television. Link (subscription or short ad to watch first)
this is in large part because of the love:
But what's impossible to express, what can only be experienced by watching a handful of episodes, is that "Friday Night Lights" has so much heart and sweetness, so much love for normal people with big dreams, that it has the power to give you a lump in your throat every single week.

go netflix/buy season 1 and then watch season 2 starting 5 October. in hopes that there might be more of the love.

1 comment:

Lilita said...

Hear, hear! FNL has more love than any little engine that could show could seem to have and still the people are not watching. Stop the insanity! Program your tivo, rearrange your queue, stream at nbc.com religiously, and keep this little engine on the track!