Review Shooter: Friday Night Lights

Friday Night Lights is the 2004 drama film that documents the coach and players of a high school football team^[1] and the Texas city of Odessa that supports and is obsessed with them. The book on which it was based, Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream, was authored by H. G. Bissinger and follows the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team as they made a run towards the state championship.

Being a fan of the television show that’s based off the book and the movie, I thought I would check out the movie to see how it compares. Sadly, I feel like I would have appreciated this film more if I saw it before the television series. Not to say that this is a bad movie, but I feel that it compresses a lot of the subplots and characters that the show takes time to explore in richer details.

It was also odd to see some of the characters from the movie, mainly the coach’s wife and the main team booster, being played by the same character who portrays them on the television series.

That said, if you have never seen the television series, I would recommend checking out the movie and then investing into the show, which I believe is still streaming on Netflix insta-watch.

Recommendation: Watch if its on or its on Netflix.