There are sports dramas, and then there’s Friday Night Lights . While All American and other series have explored the heightened drama that unfolds on the gridiron and in the locker room, no show in modern history has consistently done so with as much heart as FNL. ESPN columnist Bill Simmons once hailed it as “the greatest sports-related show ever made.
” Many critics would add that the contest is not a particularly close one. Now, Variety is reporting that Universal is developing a reboot of the beloved series, which ran from 2006-2011. Surely some fans are excited about the prospect of returning to the world of Texas high school football.
But the prevailing mood at the moment is one of utter confusion. And the question on the minds of many FNL devotees is simply: Why? Network execs often can’t help themselves from messing with perfection by returning to proven properties. But in this case, the move is particularly baffling for a number of reasons.
For starters, the original Friday Night Lights is simply not that old. Thirteen years might be an eternity in the entertainment industry, but FNL holds up incredibly well, and it’s still available on Netflix . And this is not a situation where the show is of historical interest to young people because it depicts a bygone era of unrecognizable customs and beliefs.
Members of Gen Z might watch Friends or The Office to peer in on a different world, but Friday Night Lights is almost shockingly contemporary in its themes and .