Peter Berg's spin-off show of his fine film, although buried over here on ITV4, was rightly one of the most acclaimed new series in the US last year.
Its set in dusty small-town Texas, where high-school football team The Dillon Panthers are demigods and the locals are obsessed with their fortunes. Gridiron action is kept to an exciting minimum across several gripping plot arcs. Instead, plenty of strong, cross-generational personal dramas connect the mighty, good-looking ensemble, led by man-among-men Kyle Chandler as the teams beleaguered new coach and family guy.
Shot docudrama-style with handheld cameras, long single takes and improvisation, it transcends soap and melodrama with rare, spot-on naturalism. All this, plus pert cheerleaders.
