Friday Night Lights – The Second Season (Universal DVD)
Picture: C+ Sound: B- Extras: C Episodes: C
I was no
fan of the film Friday Night Lights
(see the HD-DVD review if you don’t believe me) and then came the TV series,
which was only marginally an improvement.
You can read about that at the following link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5922/Friday+Night+Lights+–+Season+One
Of
course, the show gets all kinds of critical acclaim, but you never hear
specifics. In this, I expected the
makers might take advantage of any momentum and make the show better in its Second Season, but it decided to play
it safe and follow the same pattern that is everything we’ve seen before. I give the actors credit for giving it their
all to make this work, but anything produced by Peter Berg seems to be doomed
and no matter what keeps this show alive, the young crowd that could have made
it a hit will never take the name seriously because the original film (and
Berg) did not take them seriously.
All
fifteen hour-long shows are here, looking a little softer than the previous set
this time around in it’s anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 presentation, but
still looks better than most TV we get to cover produced today. Shaky camera work where it turns up is a
problem but color and the images are not as over-manipulated and made as phony
as too many productions do these days.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is better, with a good combination of
surrounds and good dialogue recording, but the use of hit songs is always
overkill and even condescending. Extras
include audio commentary tracks on select shows, deleted scenes and cast group
interview on DVD four.
- Nicholas Sheffo
