ooh Fri Night Lights is somewhere in the South? oh yeah Texas right.
well, a basically well-made character drama plus southern accents? ~sold.
[opening minutes: two guys in car, one saying he can't keep driving the other to practice, something about misplaced daddy love, and the other guy says but you have insomnia you'd be up anyway, and other says with so-pleasant-to-me accent: now, that was mean, matt. that wasn't nice. (?saying you have insomnia?)]
seiously this is some kinda big misdirected daddy love me thing here

and it's NBC, I can watch it online, if I can get the hang of doing that... (problem is what? too up-to-me. I stop & rewind, and I switch tabs to read things, and .. takes too long. and is it a bummer that I no longer have a computer with Intel Centrino onto wh can be downloaded the episodes from nbc.com? I could've collected Kidnapped, and Heroes, and the turning out to be lovely Southern film-y Fri Night Lights. or is it just as well, collecting videos might do me no good, I'm a reader not a watcher ~) so I am an nbc fan this fall aren't I.

From NBC, the best of the new season
yep yep Heroes -in its best moments it resembles the M. Night Shyamalan film “Unbreakable,” about a man who discovers a great secret about himself after a tragedy. It’s smart, serious and well-acted.
and in addition to Studio60, Heroes, Kidnapped, also Friday Night Lights, 30 Rock, and 20gdyrs "only weak spot" (also says less th praise re Kidnapped but I disagree, seems like going in ready to think that the premise is not enough for a whole season but I think it's great - explore all the ramifications personal and other from an ongoing crisis - huh no wonder I like Kidnapped - personal experience of crisis is my alley)
“Friday Night Lights” is a surprisingly effective adaptation of the 2004 film of the same name, following the lives of high school football players and their many supporters (coaches, girlfriends, family) in a small Texas town. It has a gritty, realistic feel to it that sets it apart from the typical teen drama.
The pilot comes from Peter Berg, co-writer and director of the film, and like the film it fully captures what makes football more than just a sport for small-town America.

and Laurel's review of Friday Night Lights [graded A solid B, maybe even B+.]:
I like this show a lot thus far and I suspect that I’ll like it even more as I get to know these characters better. It’s really not like any other show on the air right now, which is refreshing.
After I saw the pilot, I rented the movie as I hadn’t seen it before: it turns out, I like the show better than the movie– perhaps because there’s more time on the show to get into a lot more detail about the lives of these people, perhaps because this is lighter in feel (though there’s still no shortage of drama). This has a different town and group of characters, and presumably will tell a different (fictional) story unlike the book and movie which tried to follow real life events [ of a real town? ] to at least some degree. I didn’t find the similarities and differences between the movie and the show distracting.
There isn’t a lot of humor here, except in isolated incidences that flow from the characters. It’s not quirky a la Gilmore Girls. It’s a straight drama, and a good one.
Football is big in Texas (now that’s an understatement) and there’s a lot of attention paid to this coach and this team. Kyle Chandler plays the new head coach, who has a wife as well as a daughter in high school. His character is somewhat different from the one played by Billy Bob Thornton in the movie– more likeable, we see a lot more of his family life (especially his wife as played by Connie Britton who played Thornton’s wife in the movie). Chandler and Britton are great as a believable married couple who have an awful lot to deal with; Chandler seems like the coach you’d want were you a player. We follow the players on the field, at home with their families, and with their friends and girlfriends. It’s an interesting group of characters played by a strong young cast (most of whom haven’t had significant roles yet in movies or TV). The focus is mostly the high schoolers, we don’t see all that much of their families; so far the only non-students we really follow are the coach and his wife.There are, of course, all sorts of interpersonal dramas off the field – lots of interesting relationships. The football scenes are exciting, but the bulk of the episodes seem to be set in the week leading up to the games. The first episode shows bits of a game, the second didn’t show any game stuff. You don’t need to know or like sports to follow this show.