TVSquad

Entering into its fourth season (and second since the NBC/DirecTV deal), Friday Night Lights is a show in transition on numerous levels. The high school football drama returns tonight to DirecTV's 101 Network at 9 p.m. ET (NBC won't air this season until next summer) and for fans of the show, it's an episode they've long been waiting for.

Ever since the season three finale, as Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his wife Tami (Connie Britton) stepped on to the East Dillon Lions decrepit football field, Eric's new home, the tension has been at an all time high in Dillon, Texas. How can Coach Taylor, a man whom many consider to be a high school football wunderkind, start from scratch with a team that doesn't even exist yet?

The best NBC drama currently in production hasn't been doing much to help the Nielsen ratings. That's because the show, Friday Night Lights, isn't being shown on NBC right now. Season three has been unspooling on DirecTV and after eight episodes, the award-winning series is in the midst of a top-notch season.

In fact, after somewhat coming off the rails last season with Landry and Tyra's murder plot, Riggins and Street in Mexico, and Matt's involvement with Grandma's nurse, this year's shows are focused, complex and definitely back on track.

That starts with Tami and Eric. Coach Taylor remains as coiled as ever, only now the pressure to succeed seems even more intense because of the emergence of J.D. McCoy, the phenom freshman quarterback. J.D.'s pushy father and personal quarterback coach tick Eric off, but he likes the kid and has demoted Matt in order to give the more talented player a chance.

(S03E01) If you're fortunate enough to be a DirecTV subscriber, tonight you had the opportunity to see the premiere of Friday Night Lights. The Dillon Panther football team was back, as were all the characters who deal with real world life issues that have nothing to do with the grid iron. The best thing about Friday Night Lights, in fact, is that the show is only set in a sports environment. The drama is much more than who wins or loses a game, and that's what stays with you. There are no easy answers for Eric and Tami, Tyra and Landry, Tim and Lyla. Even Buddy has ambiguities.

That said, NBC will be back with these same Friday Night Light episodes -- season three -- at mid-season. Therefore, for people like me with the DirecTV dish, we're getting the shows in advance. TV Squad has decided to review the season premiere -- including spoilers -- so please, if you want to wait and be surprised, be forewarned. On the other hand, if you want to know what's happened since the end of last season, follow me after the jump.

The first season of Friday Night Lights is over, and NBC has begun to rerun some (but not all) of the first season episodes. Fortunately, you can watch the entire first season over on NBC's site.

I've been catching up with the first season online, after having avoided it completely when it originally aired on television. You see, I don't like sports, and I especially didn't like high school sports. In fact, I pretty much hated every aspect of high school. You can imagine a show about high school football was going directly on my "Never Watch In A Million Years" list.

(S01E21) In case you missed it, Joel wrote an interesting post a few days back asking whether Friday Night Lights has a chance at a second season. I bring it up because one of the things he praises the show for is how well acted it is. I completely agree with him, but as great as it has been all season, I think tonight might have set a new high mark.

I'm talking specifically about the argument Eric and Tami had over her proposal that she and Julie stay in Dillon while Eric goes to Austin. It's great writing to start with, and performed amazingly by Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton. Over the course of the previous 20 hours of television we have learned a lot about their relationship. They are one of the great television couples, but part of what makes them so great is their imperfections. We get the chance to see the happy, madly in love Taylors, but we also get to see the struggling, fighting Taylors. My favorite part was Eric's admission, "I'm not mature, I can't handle that." They are endlessly fascinating to me.

(S01E15) The previews for this episode gave away the main part of the story. Really though, it's something that has been coming all along. It just took fifteen episodes to get to it. They did a nice job pointing to that with the scene between Riggins and Smash at the diner.

If you remember, when we first met these two in the pilot, another reporter tried to play up the racial angle between them. From there, it was clear that at some point it would be an issue to be dealt with. Waiting this long to do it was a good idea. It's a heavy episode, and it carries more even weight after having 14 hours of background to help get us invested in these characters.

(S01E09) After a week off, the Panthers have another big game. And although there was a lot of hype about how tough this game would be in the promos, the game itself was almost an afterthought. As the show moves along there is less and less focus on the actual football. If my clock is right, we didn't get any actual game footage until 53 minutes into the hour. And that's fine by me. All three of the stories from this week were great, and the little bit of the game that we did get covered everything we needed to know.

First up, lots of development for the William's family. The Smash on steroids story seems to suffer from some of the time issues that the Street recovery does. It's all happening a little fast. Given that he just started on his cycle last week, I don't think he should be seeing a skin reaction or whatever the episode during his workout was. I'm willing to accept that time moves faster in Dillon though, because I really liked the William's family story this week.