This Friday’s Fandom 411 couldn’t be more appropriately titled!  It’s Friday Night Lights and it’s heralded by our own FanLib cheerleader Maryilee.  Give me an "F"!  "Give me a "N"!  "Give me "L"!  What’s that spell?  One hot TV show.

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It’s HOT under the Lights! Smokin’ hot. If you aren’t watching Friday Night Lights, you are missing out on the most gorgeous ensemble on television. Not only are the characters beautiful but they are complex and nuanced. It’s not often you get that combo in a TV show.

Kyle Chandler plays the central character, Coach Eric Taylor. He, with the emoting hair and strong jaw, can be tough as nails with his players but just as sweet as honey on a biscuit with his family. In dealing with pressure to win, his character is forced to make some tough decisions. Nothing is black and white, it’s all shades of gray.

His wife, Tami, played by Connie Britton, is the moral center on the show. Together, Chandler and Britton have fantastic chemistry. It’s so great to see marriage portrayed on television as sexy and real. They argue and bicker, like all married couples, but there’s no nastiness to it. Even when they fight, you know that they love each other. The viewer can become invested in them as a couple because they have such a strong relationship that nothing will break it.

What I adore is how it focuses on the little moments that make up life. The way it’s filmed makes the viewer feel like the proverbial fly on the wall. The actors get lots of leeway to ad lib and they don’t have to worry about hitting marks or lighting.

In fact, there a several things in the first season that probably would have been edited out of any other show, but were left in because they were real moments. For example, in one episode, Coach Taylor is having an argument with a rival coach. In the middle of it, Kyle Chandler reaches over and plucks a bug off the other actor and flings it away. The other actor thanks him, and they continue with their argument! It’s all done in totally in character.

It’s not like anything else on television. It’s shot entirely on location. If a scene needs to be in a jewelry store, it’s shot in a real jewelry store, and often, the actual employees play themselves. You can’t get much more real than that!

Before you go thinking, ‘Boring!’ let me just say, Friday Night Lights isn’t just about football. It’s about people and relationships. Football is just the driving force that propels the characters to do the things they do.  The producers, writers, directors and actors have built these incredibly real characters. It completely sucks you in and makes you care about these people.

Writing fanfiction for the show challenging and fun. Most fanfics focus on the teens. A favorite pairing is brooding Tim Riggins and good girl Lyla Garrity. A close second is the sweet relationship between Matt Saracen and Julie Taylor, the coach’s daughter. I prefer to write about Coach and Tami. They are so fun and sexy.

**Cynthia adds, don’t forget poor Jason Street whose life was abruptly changed when he suffered a spinal cord injury while playing the game that was to be his future! 

Whew! It’s getting hot in here!

Here are some FNL stories that will get you in the swing before Friday’s big game.