I Love Television

This sentiment may be totally square. There was a long period in my life, during college, that I didn't watch much TV because I was trapped in the bubble called Baldwin-Wallace College. It seemed that when I began emerging from this bubble, I encountered many people who claimed they "didn't watch TV" and they always said it with this air of superiority that didn't sit well with me. I don't necessarily scoff at these folks, because really, the early and mid-2000's were rife with a lot of crap that did seem to want to eat away at your brain (Fear Factor, Wife Swap, Flavor of Love, just to name a few mindless reality gems).

However, when a television show is good, and I mean REALLY good, I would potentially trade it for a quality film or book. A good TV show combines the best of both media: in-depth character development and plot-lines, with visual stimuli. For me, there are four television shows that I hold in higher regard than all others, even though I love a good many more.

My So-Called Life is arguably one of the best teen-oriented dramas to grace the small screen. It's a show completely of its time and place (the 90's, the midwest) and can't be separated from those things. Angela Chase could not have existed today. Granted, it looks a little dated now, but that's part of its charm. For a child of the 90's, looking back feels like a happier, warmer place, a place where the Twin Towers are still standing and Bill Clinton's comfortable drawl lulls us to sleep at night. But MSCL is not, in and of itself, a happy, warm show. It's raw and realistic (except for when it's not, i.e., the Halloween and Christmas episodes) and pulls at your heart because you know an Angela, Rayanne, Patti, Brian, or if you're lucky (or completely unlucky) a Jordan Catalano. Its gritty realism and angst is what earned it a cult following and critical acclaim; it's probably also what got it yanked off the air after only 17 episodes.

Freaks and Geeks has a few parallels to MSCL: a teenage female protagonist who, when we meet her, is shedding who she was for something more subversive; a jilted former best friend; and outcasts no one's parents would trust. However, F&G somehow still doesn't look dated even though it was created in the 90's and set in 1980. There are more laughs, more character development, and more crushing blows to everyone's ego. The painfully real scenes are somehow MORE painfully real (Nick's rendition of "Lady", Lindsey's out of it parents).

Six Feet Under...I have few words for. Its only really weak spots were in Season 4, its the only thing that maybe made me feel even remotely okay about dying, and watching it feels like coming home. Cap it off with the best series finale in the history of time, and SFU is probably my favorite show of all time.

LOST hasn't finished up yet, but there isn't much that could happen in this final season to make me regret my utter enthrallment with the show (unless it's all a dream, or in a snowglobe, or the thoughts of Vincent). LOST watches like the best Stephen King novels read. The characters are all lovable and hateable and as equally developed as the most beloved King characters.

So why the rant about TV? Because I may have just added a fifth show to my list of all-time favorites. When my friend Kat first recommended Friday Night Lights to me I said "What? Really? Football?" But saying FNL is a show about football is like saying LOST is just a show about an island or that MSCL is just a show about a girl with a crush on Jared Leto. Any show could have any of these premises: it's what the writers do with these premises that makes them great. FNL is gritty and intimate. It's a take on slice-of-life, in the way plots enter unceremoniously and occasionally exit unceremoniously. It's a show about characters, in which the town of Dillon plays the starring role. The emotional reactions of the viewer don't usually come from grand gestures or major developments, but from the minutiae of the characters' reactions to things, from a pep talk by Coach Taylor, from small triumphs and defeats.

If you like any of the shows I've listed above, I implore you watch at least the first few episodes of FNL. It's a show about characters, about sad people in a sad town.

I think revisiting Dillon, Texas on my TV may eventually feel like coming home. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.