The series just wrapped its third season, and has been renewed for two more. It focuses on a small town in Texas where high school football is a way of life. If the team does not win, it lets the whole town down, and it loses many of its players the chances for college scholarships. The funny thing is though, football is really secondary to the characters on the show. It is just the backdrop for larger stories.

The drama is set up to center on the game typically played in outdoor stadiums on Friday nights, but it is not the game that works as the driving force behind the show. All of the characters introduced in the first season become well developed, each with their own story arcs continuing through to the most recent season, and they are all connected in ways beyond football. The coach’s daughter may fall for the quarterback, and the cheerleaders may still be the most popular girls in school, but these characters are far from clichéd card board cutouts of other characters on teen shows because of the many layers demonstrated by the actors playing them.

It should be noted that once you become attached to the high school kids on the show, you will feel the sadness that comes from them graduating and leaving, but also the pride that comes from the realization that they are growing up. FNL does what other shows featuring teen casts do not: it allows them to become adults. The focus is not on a single group of kids, but on a community. As the football players and their friends graduate, they go to college, or get jobs outside of their small town. Cast members leave the show. New members of the team are introduced, and the game continues.

The show is spectacular because it is so grounded in reality. The storylines are not too over the top. They are gritty and very real in their portrayal. The star player is not always the star. The perfect cheerleader might throw away her pom-poms for something better. That athlete cheating his way through high school cannot keep it up forever. The coach may not even always be the coach. “Friday Night Lights” is able to be entertaining while maintaining that grip on reality, and it is more than enough to keep me watching.