pure idiot mystery

i just finished the first season of “friday night lights” on hulu, and i’m impressed, because it’s a show about high school football that totally drew me in. i went to a smalltown high school where football was a huge deal (despite the fact that we never seemed to win many games), and as a huge nerd, i was always resentful of how much glory DIDN’T go to our debate team sending people to nationals and our one-act play cast and crew consistently winning state.

but i digress.

i think the thing i like most about the show is how much it reminds me of autumn in a small southern town (that’s part of the reason why i like “all the real girls” so much, too). the costumes and locations are dead-on. i never thought i’d be wistful about leesburg, ga., but “friday night lights” successfully exploits this early-onset senility.

also, the soundtrack is amazing — lots of explosions in the sky, as well as jose gonzales, spoon, drive-by truckers and iron & wine/calexico. i think it’d be easy to play country music for the non-game scenes and hip-hop for the football games scenes, but the emotional timbre of the soundtrack matches the subtle emotional timbre of the show itself.

the show’s storylines get less subtle as the season wears on — it’s pretty obvious that peter berg was desperately trying to attract more viewers as the show failed to gain traction in the ratings, which leads us to more sex and storylines involving (obnoxiously) adorable children. i hear the second season is even more soap opera-esque, but i’m still going to watch it, because i am HOOKED.