Perhaps the problem lies with the brilliant summer marketing campaign that was launched for the program. Fallon advertising was hired to develop a core audience among high school age viewers, and set about to do that by targeting Bebo.com, a teen-popular portal similar to MySpace.com. Bebo is set up around school communities and when users join they are asked to list their school, and then are joined into a private category in which they can communicate with their peers, in addition to the larger scale community interaction. So suddenly, overnight, every high school’s community page, and basically every page in Bebo started running Friday Night Lights promos, and a scholarship sweepstakes was announced in conjunction with the site which would reward ten $5000 scholarships to high school age entrants. The news of this campaign was picked up by main stream media and plastered throughout the collective consciousness of would-be viewers for several weeks before the October 3rd premiere.

The push for high-schoolers was again brought to the forefront with another contest aimed exclusively at their age group. NBC paired with Toyota to give away $50,000 to a high school’s football program, along with a trip to the set and a walk on roll for the grand prize winners. The contest was run in conjunction with an early viewing in movie theatres throughout 50 towns across the US. But these viewings were again limited to high school age participants. Any adult who wanted to see the pilot early would be turned away (according at least to the management of the nearest venue to this publication), a fact that probably delighted the target audience, but again further cemented the notion that this was a show for teens, to the exclusion of any potential older fan.

So while these campaigns for the bottom end of the 18 to 34 demographic were successful, they were perhaps too successful in that they created a pre-conceived notion in the older demographic that this was a show that was not for them. A review, however, of the “buzz” among that age group on the internet would indicate that perhaps that strategy mis-fired. While to a middle aged adult, the difference in age between a 17 year old character, and the late 20s-something actor portraying him doesn’t seem that significant, even a few years is very noticeable to the younger age group. One particular telling quote on a fan message board comes from a high school aged member, who describes the show as “a bunch of old guys pretending to be a high school football team”.

The argument could be made that the underlying theme of Friday Night Lights is not really about football. In fact, it is actually a pretty dark show with a very adult context. In the final minutes of the pilot episode, the star quarterback, Jason Street (Scott Porter) suffers a massive spinal injury. In the second episode we learn that he is paralyzed, and will never walk again. We see the boy’s parents dealing with the blow, and the town reeling from the fact that they may not have a winning season now (rather than feeling much concern for Jason). But the bigger picture, and more important and interesting story than the football, is the injury and its consequences.

Here is the all American kid who had everything going for him, and it is suddenly taken away. He has to redefine his worth, and decide to go forward, or decide that his life is over and choose to give up. Here is his girlfriend who is not willing to accept the prognosis and who refuses to talk about the situation with Street, and the best friend who can’t bring himself to go see his injured friend, or to admit his own pain, but who breaks into tears while watching replays of the injurious play by himself.

Most importantly for the story so far is the reaction of the Football team’s coach. Eric Taylor, played excellently by Kyle Chandler. In one of the most moving sequences in dramatic television in years, Taylor visits the injured Street in the hospital during the second episode. The anguish is telling on his face as he assures Street that the team is saving his place, and that it is people like him that make people like Chandler’s character want to coach. The acting from Porter is also outstanding, as he tries to hold it together in this sequence, but ultimately looses that battle and his façade crumbles into tears of frustration and grief over what he has lost.

The show is set against a backdrop of football, and the crazy obsessed town people who don’t care about anything but needing a ‘dubya from week to week, and who will run the coach out of town if he can’t deliver. But that is only the backdrop for the deeper and much more significant and adult story that is playing out.

Another powerful and telling scene occurs a bit later in the same episode in which Taylor confesses to his wife that he realizes that the injured boy was his “meal ticket”. And without him as a player, he is now “screwed”. He must move on and think about his job and supporting his family (which by the way is just barely making it financially), and the realities of life will not allow him to dwell on the loss that his suffered with the injury to the boy he has mentored since he was in the Pee Wee leagues.

Overall, the themes of Friday Night Lights are very adult in nature, and do hit a nerve with the adult audience. The abject horror of a serious life altering injury befalling one’s child is something to which any parent can relate. The intrusion of real life interfering with the ability to properly grieve a loss is also a very adult theme. It would not be surprising that the show’s darker tones may not resonate with a younger audience who still see themselves as invincible and immortal. But damn, if they can bring a nearly middle-aged male viewer to tears, the show is doing something right.

This is a show that deserves watching, and luckily NBC seems to see the possibilities and is willing to give it a further shot.  Friday Night Lights is one of the most moving and dramatic series ever to hit the air waves, and is in no way something meant only for the teen audience. It deserves a shot, and it deserves a viewing, if for no other reason than to see what the hell all the crazy reviewers are going on about.

 

Friday Night Lights airs Tuesdays at 8/7 Central on NBC.