The Paramount+ TV lineup just got a major addition with the arrival of all five seasons of one of the best TV shows ever. The streaming giant just kicked off the month of May with dozens of new titles, and now streaming alongside the Battlestar Galactica franchise and movies like Flags of Our Fathers and Nacho Libre is an iconic mid-2000s drama that is frequently lauded by critics and viewers alike as one of the greatest television shows of all time.
“Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose,” and neither can fans of Friday Night Lights after all five seasons of the hit sports drama started streaming on Paramount+ on May 1st. The beloved series, starring Connie Britton, Kyle Chandler, and Taylor Kitch, ran for five seasons and 76 episodes on NBC, during which it picked up numerous awards. The series is based on H.G. Bissinger’s 1990 non-fiction novel Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream and follows the lives of Coach Eric Taylor, his family, and the members of a high school football team in the close-knit, football-obsessed town of Dillon, Texas.
You don’t earn a spot as one of the best TV shows of all time without good reason, and Friday Night Lights makes an incredibly strong argument for being on the list. The series is one of the most authentic TV shows ever, creating a town and an atmosphere that feels unscripted and lived-in and portraying its characters with honesty, including stumbles, awkward pauses, and real-life consequences. And while football was a major focus of the show and was used as a thread to tie the characters together, beyond the field, the series excelled at character growth, portraying life as a series of small decisions and chance occurrences rather than a fairy tale and allowing characters to grow, fail, and ultimately evolve. Friday Night Lights also never shied away from complex real-life issues, with racism, financial struggles, and social class embedded into the everyday lives of the characters.
During its five-season run, Friday Night Lights averaged an impressive 95% critic score and 93% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The show, which also established the definitive TV marriage with Coach Taylor and Tami, remains one of the best series ever and a fan-favorite rewatch years after its release. More than a decade later, the series is even set to return to the screen, with a reboot in development at Peacock from original creators Jason Katims, Peter Berg, and Brian Grazer. The series will focus on a new Texas high school football team under a new coach following a hurricane.
May is a big month for TV at Paramount+. Hitting the streamer on May 1st alongside Friday Night Lights was the two-episode Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries, all four seasons of Battlestar Galactica, and the first and only season of Caprica. The streamer is scheduled to keep the TV momentum rolling throughout the month with the debut of its new Yellowstone spinoff Dutton Ranch on May 15th, new seasons of shows like Criminal Minds: Evolution, and season finales of The Neighborhood, NCIS, FBI, and Ghosts.
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