Friday Night Lights

Gaius Charles, left, and Taylor Kitsch heat up the Alamo Freeze.

What if Friday Night Lights weren't a critically acclaimed drama—the television equivalent of being labeled "eat your broccoli"—but a sizzling teen soap? The cast wouldn’t change; Chuck Bass only wishes he could sweat dangerous charm like Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch), and tall drink of water Tyra (Adrianne Palicki) could walk away with the America’s Next Top Model title before Miss Banks knew her name. The plotline staples are already there: Pretty people fall in love, make enemies, track down long-lost relatives and win big once they’ve conquered only-on-TV odds. Lights is as easy to love as any guilty pleasure on the boob tube, and if its dowdy critical acclaim weren't so spot-on—its depictions of the same old tropes so delicately realistic—maybe it wouldn’t be such an underdog.

But that’s the problem. Friday Night Lights is just that good, so it’s just that low-rated. Still, in its return to broadcast television (starting last week after airing first on DirecTV), it delivers with the confidence of a hit series. Say you didn’t grow up in dusty Nowheresville, Texas, slinging burgers at a fast-food joint and lusting after the high-school quarterback—it doesn’t matter. After 20 minutes in fictional Dillon, you’ll be nostalgic for it anyway. Just try to find a reality show that feels as genuine; when Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) responds to his wife’s career crisis with “I’ll go get more wine,” it sounds off-the-cuff, not glib. When Tyra brings stripper sizzle to a class-president race, we’re as appalled-but-actually-impressed as her classmates.

Friday Night Lights has lost none of the tenacious spirit that inspired the late TONY Time In editor Andrew Johnston to find both a tattoo and personal credo in the show’s dramatic maxim (and football motto): Clear Eyes, Full Heart, Can’t Lose. And the best part about a show that could have ended up as 90210 with cleats? Since Lights lacks the self-loathing that accompanies other shows about nasty people doing nasty things, it feels as good for you as, well, broccoli. If broccoli tasted like really good pie.

Friday Night Lights airs Friday at 9pm on NBC.

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