Though a big fan of Peter Berg’s movie, which it’s based on (loosely), I was a little late to the game when it came to the TV version of Friday Night Lights—on a kneejerk level, I was sceptical of shows based on movies since the whole Fast Times debacle oh so many years ago. Still, all the critical acclaim heaped on the show caused me to take a look when it came out on DVD recently, and I was an instant convert.

How into this show did I get? Let’s just say, on one hungover weekend, I managed to blast through something like nine hour-long episodes of the show’s first season (the second premiered a couple of weeks ago). Like the movie, Friday Night Lights is set in a small Texas town where everything revolves around the high school football team. Unlike the movie, set in the late ’80s and based on the non-fiction book by H.G. Bissinger, the show is set in the present day. The characters are reminiscent of Berg’s version, if not exactly the same, and it shares something of the movie’s visual style and doc-like directorial approach.

It’s very smart TV, and you’d be mistaken to think it’s just a football show: the real subject is the town and how the characters relate to the game and each other. The writing is generous, the acting is great and every once in a while, there’s a big exciting football game to keep up the tension. Well worth renting.

I feel kind of dirty saying it, but I really enjoyed Hostel Part II. I liked the first one too! You could tell that director Eli Roth was intent on not making a cheapie knockoff sequel—with this one, you get a movie that’s as funny and gross as the first, with a couple of truly disquieting moments and some very good reversals. It’s out now with an unrated director’s cut, and the first film has been reissued as well.

by MARK SLUTSKY