Drama

I'm a sucker for good drama.

No, not the daily drama of middle school and teens, but a well crafted movie or tv drama.

When I was living on my own for the first time, I got pretty lonely on Saturday nights (during one of those dating dry spells.) On night, bored with reading and listening to my room mates record albums, I flipped on the little color tv in our tiny living room. I lost myself in the beginning sequence of a cop show and slowly came aware of my surroundings one hour later. I had, through serendipity and pure luck, stumbled upon the pilot episode of Hill Street Blues.

A few years later, I saw an advertisement for a show set in post-WWII, middle America. What happened to everyone when they returned from the war? Homefront, a break out show for ABC was critically acclaimed, but didn't survive past Season 2.  Even Dear Abby, (Abigail Van Buren) got involved and  urged a letter writing campaign to save the show.  Unfortunately, network execs didn't listen to the fans.

One fall I read in TV Guide about a ground breaking new medical show. It sounded intriguing so I tuned in.  A one hour pure adrenaliene rush is what I discovered in ER.
I admit I stopped watching after the original actors left the series. It was good, but not as sharp as it had been during those years with George Clooney and company.

My son came home one day and told me about a show he wanted to watch on Friday night. He was interested because it was about football. I decided to watch with him, even though I wasn't sure I wanted to watch more football!

I was wrong about the show as were so many other people who wrote Friday Night Lights off as a "show about football." It was another finely crafted series, with all of the elements I loved in a good drama: realistic storylines, well defined characters, terrific dialogue, and a killer theme song.

I was thrilled to see Kyle Chandler and Jason Katims head writer of Friday Night Lights win Emmy Awards last night for their outstanding work. Ironically, Kyle Chandler once starred in Homefront.

I cannot begrudge Mad Men for winning best drama series. I'm hooked on that show as well. After all,
who can resist a good drama?

How Marriage Works

Musings: Day Two...

Friday Night Lights was not a show about football. It was a show about the power of relationships.

The relationship of a favorite teacher, coach or mentor and the impact that he or she can have on a young person's life. The powerful pull of peer pressure on a teen. How family support, or lack thereof, can impact a teenager. But most of all, what a solid, loving marriage can look like.

Over and over, the critics (including a mention on NPR this weekend), lauded the portrayal of marriage by Coach Eric Taylor and his wife, Tammy (Kyle Chandler,and Connie Britton) as, "The most realistic marriage on television."

For me it was the relationship I wished for, and did not have in any shape or form. Friday Night Lights began as my marriage was failing. I realized that what I thought was a partnership was in reality, a dictatorship.

I what I craved was Eric and Tammy's marriage, but hey, it's Hollywood, the land of make-believe. Watching their interactions, their arguments, and their playfulness on screen gave me hope that it is possible to forge such a relationship. To do so the two key elements must be present: deep love and a mutual respect for the other person.

We, as parents so often forget that our child's perceptions of how a relationship works is based on what they observed in their own parent's marriage. For those of us who have moved on to our second marriage's it's a chance to let our kids see how a good marriage works.

As I was watching the show with my son the other night I realized that Friday Night Lights has opened up dialogue with my teen-aged sons on a variety of difficult topics: teen drinking, sex, dating, friendships, loyalty, perseverance and what a good marriage is, and isn't.

Friday Night Lights reminded me that although our child's peers become more influential as they grow towards adulthood, we still have plenty of gifts to give our children. A model of a good marriage is one of the most important.