[Rogan]

I missed Friday Night Lights when the television series started up a season ago, but it recently came out on DVD, and I am catching up.

I don't watch a lot of television, but Friday Night Lights has got to be some of the best drama on television right now. Best of all, it is not a police/lawyer procedural piece of crap like most of the Law and Order/CSI infestation. It is about high school football in Texas, where the players kneel and pray before every game, and the head coach is god standing on a precipice.

I'm two episodes into the first disk and it is absolutely riveting. The show is smart. The coach's daughter says in episode one, "Moby Dick is actually the perfect metaphor for this town. The cold black sea representing the season in all its uncertainties. The magical white whale is the Holy Grail." She goes on to point out how the handful of African American players are like Queequeg, Tashtigo and Daggo, Mellvile's 'exotic savages' who do the highly skilled work of harpooning.

There is no better dramatic acting on television, and the show has an awesome score that frames images of small-town-life in Texas in a way that reminds me of some of the best moments from Sling Blade.

I'm sure most people on this board would find something to like.

Cheers,

R.F.