Friday Night Lights turns 10: Why Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler are the greatest on-screen couple

Coach Eric Taylor and wife Tami remain the jewel in Friday Night Lights' crown

Jacob Stolworthy
Wednesday 05 October 2016 08:32 BST
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If you're a longtime Friday Night Lights fan, you'll now be battling the urge to take an evening off to watch an episode or ten. Otherwise, you're a newcomer and you'll probably be wanting to do the same anyway. One thing's for certain - Snuffy Walden's theme music will have warmed your heart on this chilly October day.

It's been ten years since Friday Night Lights made its humble start on US network NBC. Based on creator Peter Berg's film of the same name which was itself adapted from the H.G. Bissinger book, the series ran for five seasons and told the story of a high school football team in the rural (and fictional) Texan town of Dillon. In fans' eyes, each season is as well-liked as the last - despite season 2's writer's strike-induced shaky start, that is - with word of mouth ensuring it's stuck around as the only suitable televisual companion for your Sunday morning lie-in.

While all the acting talent involved bring their A-game - Zach Gilford as shy quarterback Matt Saracen, Taylor Kitsch as angst-filled bad boy Tim Riggins and Adrianne Palicki's strong-willed Tyra Collette to name a few - it's Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton that prove Friday Night Lights' crown jewels.

From episode one, married couple Eric and Tami Taylor is the show's beating heart. Eric - clad in that famous blue jacket and baseball cap combo - is Coach of the Dillon Panthers; you can most likely find him giving inspiring pep talks to his team, always culminating with the mantra: Clear Eyes, full hearts- you know the rest. Tami is Dillon High's kindly guidance counsellor, the kind of woman even the most disrespectful pupil will end up liking after long enough.

Sorry Tony and Carmela, Ross and Rachel - even Skylar and Walt: put these two together and you get the greatest married couple in television history.

The writing talent should be commended, but it's a credit to the duo's talents that these characters work so well on screen (between Chandler and Britton, three Emmy nominations and one win - for the latter in 2011 - were earned). Often times, it's difficult to remember you're watching two actors at work, their transcendental chemistry refusing to relent until the final episode. Consequently, you covet their scenes together more than any of the on-pitch action.

Eric and Tami are people you want to know - people you do know; they are the parents of your childhood best friends, the ones who had a plate of dinner waiting for you whenever you dropped by. They are a representation of stable home life - perhaps even your own parents. This makes it all the more disheartening when we see their close-knit relationship rocked by specific events, whether it involves their daughter Julie (Aimee Teegarden) or potential job commitments elsewhere.

Watching these moments unfold in Friday Night Lights brings to bear that sinking feeling you may have felt as a child when, in the safety of your own bedroom, you heard your parents arguing downstairs. If two actors can evoke such emotions by reading words from a script, you know they're doing something right.

But the viewer is never left in any doubt - Eric and Tami are two people truly destined to be with one another forever. It's in these moments where the heartstrings are tugged and TV magic occurs.

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Take, for instance, "Underdog" - the penultimate episode of season 3 - which follows Coach as he takes his team to the State Championship final for the biggest game of his career. Sitting on the hotel room balcony with his wife, he lets slip a moment of rare concern.

"I have no idea what's gonna happen tomorrow, babe," he tells her.

Without hesitation, she looks at her husband and replies: "Well, you're gonna win. Or you're gonna lose. Either way, the sun's gonna come up the next morning."

These were the only words that could get Eric through the night and provide him with hope - even when his team lose the very next day - and Tami was the only one who could speak them. Coach may be the driving force behind the Panthers but it's Tami that gives him purpose; one would struggle to exist without the other - much in the same way that, without them, the show's legacy wouldn't be as fervent ten years on.

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