By ANYA SOSTEK
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The TV series “Friday Night Lights” ó based on the book and the movie of the same name ó chronicles a fictional Texas town indelibly intertwined with its (now state champion) Dillon Panthers high-school football team. Even more so than in the first season, the second season of “Friday Night Lights” strays from the football field to deftly examine issues as large as evangelical Christianity and as small as a mother working up the trust to drop her baby off at day care for the first time.
For the viewer, watching the second season in real time was somewhat angst-provoking ó the abysmal 9 p.m. EDT Friday time slot, storylines left hanging by the writers’ strike and uncertainty over whether the show would be renewed for a third season. Thanks to a Hail Mary pass in the form of an NBC/DirectTV partnership that will save the show for a third season, fans should now relish the opportunity to relax with the DVD (Universal, $29.98) and appreciate the second season anew.
The bonus features on the DVD consist of three episodes with audio commentaries, a tape of an interview with about a dozen cast members from the William S. Paley Television Festival and dozens of deleted scenes. Commentary in the season’s first episode by two of the show’s producers is particularly worthwhile for the behind-the-scenes insights into how the show is filmed and for their explanation and defense of the boneheaded plot turn that started the season.