A new series that debuts tonight on ABC gets a helluva review from the New York Times.
It’s about high school football in Texas, which initially might sound awful to many (myself included). Nevertheless, the reviewer, Virginia Heffernan says you should give it a look.
If you want to read the full review at nytimes.com, it’ll be in The Arts section and the headline reads:On the Field and Off, Losing Isn’t an Option.
I didn’t read the book on which the movie was based, but I did see the movie. It basically says that the HS boys who play football in these little towns are like gods for a time, while the town feeds off their youth and prowess, often to the detriment of their health and education. Talented young players with knees likely to go at any minute being encouraged to play so they can win on more game. And mostly that is the high point in their life - nothing they do afterward can compare. If they stay in the same town they’re respected for what they did when they were 17, not 35 or 50 or whatever. Not exactly glorifying HS sports.
StG
Every TV season, a new show comes on that is supposed to be really good, that I suspect that I would probably like, and which I know that, for whatever reason (my schedule, my wife, my willingness to commit, etc.), I’m not going to watch.
For 2006, this is that show.
After the pilot of Ugly Betty sucked, I was so happy that I didn’t have any shows to TiVo this season; was gonna catch up on all the cable shows I’ve never seen, like 6’U and Deadwood, on DVD. But this looks like it might be worth checking out. I’ll watch tonight’s and then see. I like Peter Berg; I was one of the two people in the country who thought Very Bad Things was a masterpiece. And the movie Friday Night Lights was waaay better than it needed to be. So I’ll dip my toe in this and see if I pull out a plum.
What’s with all the commercials?
Seriously, my bladder just about exploded waiting for the first break, which didn’t come for 20 minutes. Not cool.
Oh Crap
It’s on NBC. Sorry.
Just watched this. Damn that was a great pilot. Most pilots have so much exposition before they find their stride, this one dove right in and every aspect worked for me. I hated that this was on opposite House and if it stays in that time slot I might have a hard time keeping up with it, though the DVR will help matters. After seeing the pilot I know I have to make the effort.
I loved the movie and I am eager to read the book. It’ll be interesting to see if they can keep up the intensity and drama they found in the pilot for a full season of shows, but right now this show is at the top of my list.
And I’ll be the first creepy bastard to comment on those ridiculous cheerleaders. Good god man, I went to the wrong school. They did a great job with the casting too, the players all look like the appropriate size for HS kids and they are all convincing as athletes. As with the movie they avoided having any big name celebs who might steal the show allowing for a real ensemble to develop.
Two thumbs up, way up.
I wonder who choreographed the football scenes for this thing. How is it possible for a receiver to get in front of the coverage on a Hail Mary play? In any real game there would have been six defensive backs in the end zone. I guess they’ve never heard of a prevent defense in this universe.
I really liked both the book and the movie but this thing is showing some of theweakness of television. It imitates the visual style of the movie but is thematically a little more toothless and the game sequence was cliched (plus we’ve seen that same storyline of the backup QB coming in to save the game in both Varsity Blues and Any Given Sunday).
I thought the acting by the kids was good (the kid who showed up drunk for practice was interesting to watch) but the coach was miscast. I know it’s hard to measure up to Billy Bob Thornton’s performance in the movie but this guy seems a little too young and doesn’t have much gravity or character. The scenes with his family are dead weight as well.
The show has more good than bad in it so far but I hope they’re not going to turn every game into a dramatic, last second win and I hope they get a little better at making the action look authentic. There was a little too much quick cutting, obvious editing of doubles in and out and unrealistic choreography (why was there no pursuit from the left side on that last play?), but it’s just a pilot. The show has promise.
Dude, these are highschool teams. I can’t watch real life NCAA football because the defense there is a nonexistant joke, and you’re complaining that the highschool defense isn’t up to snuff? The inept defense was what made it more realistic for me.
As for the cliche about the backup coming in, that was a major plotline in the movie, which was based on real life history. (Though the tv show is clearly not based on real life, but rather loosely based on the movie plot but updated to current day.) They apparently just switched it from running back to quarterback.
And we’ve not only seen it in the two movies you quoted, but we’ve seen it on the Patriots with Tom Brady, the Rams with Kurt Warner, the Giants with Jeff Hostetler, the Redskins with (whatshisname,) and those are just the examples of the backup coming in and leading his team to a Superbowl victory the same season they were pressed into service due to injury.
For single games, there are countless more examples.
My biggest gripe is that they bastardized the theme music. It’s very close to the movie theme, (ba dadada da da da da, ba dadada da da da da…) but not quite. The movie version is like a siren song to me in that it always forces my undivided attention. I find the tv version distracting because it’s so close but it never breaks into that lick that I keep waiting for.
I agree it was well done, but high school football, played at that level of intensity, isn’t something I can relate to. Basically, what StGermain said.
I’ll stick with Veronica Mars and Boston Legal on Tuesdays. Two hours of TV a night is enough anyway.
We got 20 minutes in and bailed. It just didn’t click at all with us. I hated the camera work and my husband hated the faux documentary feel. It’s a relief, really, not to be adding another show.
It wasn’t a question of athletic ability, though, but basic fundamentals. Even when I played grade school, you still rush three and drop eight on a last-play-of-the game, Hail Mary play. There’s no reason to blitz because the ball has to go the the end zone, so that’s where you pack the defensive backs. It doesn’t matter how athletic they are. It doesn’t require athletic ability to drop deep from the line of scrimmage. Nothing underneath the goal line matters at all and doesn’t need to be covered.
Plus, the scene didn’t make sense schematically. That last play started on the 30. The QB rolled out in the back field, got maybe 10 or 15 yards deep and then threw a BOMB that was made to appear as though it went at least 40 yards in the air before it was caught at the 30 – the line of scrimmage – and carried to the endzone from there. Even if we assume that the pass was only 15 yards in the air, it would still mean that not a single defensive player dropped into coverage for a hail mary pass on the last play of the game. Forget dropping back to the goal line, they didn’t even back off from the line of scrimmage. Was that supposed to have been an 11 man blitz? That play just made no sense no matter how you slice it.
I’m willing to forgive one lapse of realism in the action, but, man, I hope they tighten that stuff up. It’s going to become an irritant for football fans.
As a Texan living far from home, I’ll comment that it looked reasonably realistic for a small-town Texas high school deal.
Mack Brown as the zealous booster was pretty cool. He’d better heed his own advice come Saturday vs. ou.
Loved that “Westerby” was actually the hated Westlake High School, west of Austin. Beat those Chaps!
One missing necessity: it’s Texas, people, and people dip. Copenhagen, Skoal, whatever. Didn’t quite seem right without somebody having a pinch, or spitting. Also, where are the skinny kickers and FFA kids? And the acne?
Accents weren’t horrible, and I liked the fact that not everyone had a drawl from Mississippi. Not all Texans sound that way. I didn’t notice any Latinos at all - it seemed unusual for Texas as well.
One football note: at a powerhouse program like Permian… oops, I mean Dillon, the second-string guy gets plenty of snaps and plenty of props. He’s not a clueless loner who hangs out with the president of the poetry club or whatever.
Yeah, I think I might watch again next week…
To be fair, I’ll note that I haven’t seen the show yet (though I will), but even calls in the NFL are terribly stupid sometimes.
Did you watch the last play of the half on Monday Night Football this week? With one second left, the Eagles faked a 54-yard field goal (which Akers was capable of making), in favor of what was pretty much a slant pass.
This being real life, they were, of course, shut down, but dumbass play calls do happen from time to time.
I’m hooked. Even though I hated that I could tell something was going to happen to the star quarterback. I really like the coaches daughter. I’m expecting her to hook up with the new quarterback at some point even though she blew him off at the diner.
And…when Kyle Chandler was walking in slo-mo at the hospital, I was expecting him to blow up.
:eek:
I musta been out of the room during that!!!
I finally watched my tape of FNL this morning (having had to tape it for Mom
instead of my Gilmore Girls) and I enjoyed it way more than I expected (ditto for the movie, I didn’t expect my like for the movie to extend also to the TV show).
A family connection here- my brother works for the sound editing studio that
worked on both the movie & works now on the TV show- while he’s mainly the
equipment engineer, I believe he also has assisted with the actual editing on both.
A bit that I surprised & gladdened me- the prayers. Not even network TV can take JC out of Texas High School Football.
My biggest problem with the show is the idea that the 2nd string quarterback is a Sophomore who has barely played (even in practice, it seems). The faux documentary style bad camerawork is a bit annoying, too.
But I’m in.
Not a football fan. At all. At ALL. But this show is as much about football as Buffy the Vampire Slayer was about vampires; football is just the Maguffin. It’s the best new show this year, but I’m pretty sure that dooms it to early cancellation.
It’s not bad. It’s a slightly more pale imitation of the movie but the writers seem to have little actual knowledge of the game (there’s no such thing as a back-up QB who’s never taken a snap in practice) and it’s a little melodramatic for my taste (does every scene have to be a tear-jerker?), but it’s mostly watchable and some of the acting is good.
The pervasive religiosity is kind of off-putting, though. It might be realistic for small town Texas but that doesn’t make it any less of a turn-off. These are the same kind of people who want to teach Creationism in public schools – the same state that tried to prosecute two men for having consenusal sex . It makes the characters slightly less sympathetic for me. I wish they’d at least show one person in the entire town who wasn’t into all the prayer circles.
I’ll have to catch this…i read the book years ago-it was excellent. i’m particularly interested in how they portray the coache. HS football coaches are strange animals-on the one hand, they are father figures to a lot of these kids-particularly if the kid is from a broken family. on the other hand, some of these guys are relly hearless-like working a kid till his kness get all messed up-so he 9the coach0 can win a title-and not giving a damn that the kid will have messed up kness for the rest of his life.