As any great Stallone–ologist can tell you, even Sly thinks Rocky should have been called Adrian's Story. And while macho victories earn the cheers, there's something equally brave about the woman behind any champ. Friday Night Lights, the NBC gridiron drama returning this fall for its second season, takes the extra step, showing that it's often the girls who take the hardest knocks.
The pretty young things who populate this chronicle of Texas youth are no mere athletic supporters. Kissing through tears, their hearts fracturing as loud as a lineman's femur, they're women–in–the–making and, as such, worth watching—even if it's sometimes their pom–poms that get them noticed.
It's a show about full–contact sports, of course—and the brutality of adolescent longing. Interactions are so raw, so refreshingly devoid of scripted blather, that for a second you might think that you're in Laguna Beach and not Dillon, TX. "We should have sex," the coach's 15–year–old daughter (played by Aimee Teegarden) informs her boyfriend, and a throbbing awkwardness ensues.
But thankfully, the love these girls offer is intense, honest, and far from easy. Cheerleader Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly) gladly accepts an engagement ring from the broken, wheelchair–bound, ex–QB—though it's doubtful he'll ever be able to consummate the marriage, and she hasn't always been true. Even the town hard–ass, Tyra (Adrianne Palicki), can't keep out of the emotional fray. "If I get in that car right now, I'm never coming back!" she screams at a lost cause. But it's clear even as she speeds off that she will return, much like besotted viewers this fall, time and again.
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