“Friday Night Lights” Season 1 (2006-07, NBC), episodes 1-5 – This present-day adaptation of H.G. Bissinger’s late-’80s expose on Texas high school football is more about the team than individuals. That’s why episode one could focus on the stud quarterback and then, after he gets paralyzed on the gridiron, switch focus to the meek second-stringer in episode two. Even the coach (Kyle Chandler) is low-key enough that the show is allowed to revel in the big-skied glory of its simple-minded world.
– John Hansen, “Vote with your remote,” Brainerd Dispatch, Nov. 2, 2006