Texas Forever: Friday Night Lights
By: Brandon Sparks
Tags: Coming Of Age, Television, Sports, Texas, TV Series

TEXAS

In the past, the CineNation Podcast has discussed the Texas genre, from literature to film, but rarely television. Within the Texas genre, we were able to determine its tropes. These tropes and themes included outlaw vs. lawman, family legacy and conflict, and ties to the Land. When it comes to the Land of Texas, there is a constant struggle between pride for the Land and the hope to escape it. Friday Night Lights captures this struggle, portraying characters who feel trapped in the town of Dillon and characters who see Texas as a symbol for freedom.

Many of the teenagers are looking for a way to escape Dillon, but they fear that they will never find it. In the show’s final season, there is a line spoken by Tyra Collette, (played by Adrianne Palicki) describing her hometown. She has returned after a long absence of being away at college, someplace she never thought she’d be, and she tells Julie that “[Dillon is] kind of like this drug. When you get outside of it, you see what it really is. But when you are in it, it seems like there is no other possible reality.” The town of Dillon holds onto these characters, and it won’t let them go. Even though these characters want to leave, it is never easy. Something is always holding them back. Relationships, football injuries, jobs, family, etc. For the teen characters, high school graduation isn’t the answer for them, it is the event that forces them to make a decision. At first, most of them decide to stay in town, believing that their fate is to stay in Dillon. Peter Bogdanovich explores similar themes and struggles in his Texas film, The Last Picture Show. The show doesn’t portray staying in your hometown as a bad decision, but it portrays it as a bad decision if the characters are doing it to run away from possible failure.

Gaius Charles as Brian “Smash” Williams (Photo Credit: NBC)

For example, at the beginning of season three, star running back Brian “Smash” Williams (played by Gaius Charles) has found that all of his scholarship offers have been rescinded due to an injury he received in his final high school season. He is now working full-time in a manager role at a local fast-food restaurant, his glory days behind him. The show also examines how our current system views black athletes once their abilities are gone.

Coach Taylor feels guilty for this outcome, and he wants to see Williams succeed. He puts Williams through rigorous training, finally getting him a walk-on tryout at Texas A&M. But, at his job, Williams is offered a regional manager position, allowing him to have some financial stability. He has to choose between an uncertain football future or a stable career. His entire life he has dreamed of becoming a football star, and now when he is finally given that shot, Williams has second thoughts. He believes he isn’t the same after his injury, even though his workouts say differently. He is giving into the comfort of Dillon. When he finally makes his decision, with Coach Taylor by his side, it might be one of my favorite moments in the entire series. It’s the first time in the series where we truly see one of the teenagers decide to either stay in Dillon or leave the only thing they’ve known behind.

Many of the young characters in Friday Night Lights fit into the category of characters that feel trapped in their small Texas town. But, there is one character who sees Texas as his fantasy. The character in Friday Night Lights that is the epitome of the genre is Tim Riggins (played by Taylor Kitsch). His famous line, repeated throughout the show, “Texas Forever,” sums up his pride for his state. For Tim, Texas is freedom. The freedom to live the life he has always dreamed of. To build a house on a patch of land he owns, start a family, and then sit on his front porch and crack open a beer. From James Dean in Giant inheriting a small piece of land where he discovers oil to Chris Pine robbing banks to save the family ranch in Hell or High Water, the ties to the Land are always strong within the Texas genre.