Any fan of Peter Berg’s miracle of a TV sports drama “Friday Night Lights” knows that there’s a vital component to the show that’s irreplaceable. It’s not the actors, characters, storylines, or even football for that matter (though all of these are instrumental to the show’s success), but rather the location. The authentic Texas atmosphere that permeates the show from its first moments to its last with vast open fields, a blazing sun, the inherent fighting spirit of the locals, and the supportive community that worships high school-to-college football are all pivotal. Without the Texan setting, “Friday Night Lights” would not have worked.
Berg understood as much from the beginning. As he explained in an interview with NPR, the filmmaker was adamant about using real places and locals to create the backdrop and milieu that “Friday Night Lights” wanted to capture. “We had to shoot the show in Texas,” the producer told NBC from the beginning. “It’s just too unique of a culture, and the network was very supportive of it.” That approach paid off tremendously. With a goal to avoid bad Southern accents, Berg knew that “putting the show in Texas was and is a critical aspect to why this show [worked] creatively.”
That decision spawned a five-season run that proves it was for the best. It’s one of the many contributing factors as to why “Friday Night Lights” is so highly regarded in the history of television. With several Emmys under its belt, the NBC-turned-101 Network drama still holds up.
It was Texas forever on Friday Night Lights
In an age of television remakes and reboots, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that “Friday Night Lights” is getting its own, too. It’s hard not to feel skeptical about it — the series finale in 2011 was simply pitch-perfect — but the slightly promising news is that Berg, original showrunner Jason Katims, and executive producer Brian Grazer are all returning for this new iteration. Understandably, the original cast (including Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Zach Gilford, and Minka Kelly) will not return, but we might get a Taylor Kitsch cameo if we’re lucky.
Unquestionably, the reboot will have a tall order to measure up to the original. Based on H. G. Bissinger’s novel and inspired by Berg’s film of the same name, the show was such a lightning in a bottle series that perfectly fit in the zeitgeist of the mid-to-late aughts. It almost feels impossible to recreate that kind of spark. Additionally, the times and the culture have changed so significantly since then that the new series would have to come up with something so different yet equally engaging to top what Chandler’s Coach Taylor delivered the first time around.
But if there’s one aspect of the reboot that has a chance to match the original, it’s bringing the same kind of energy and authenticity that Texas has to offer now. If Berg and his creative team can pull that off once again, they might have a shot to please both old fans and new viewers alike. After all, with clear eyes and full hearts, “Friday Night Lights” can’t lose.