Sure, I have already written about the spiritual themes, the social issues, and the family values of NBC’s best drama, “Friday Night Lights.” But watching the season three premiere of the show last week, I had a small revelation: For a great series about football, it also has some of the most authentic, intelligent female characters on TV.
In last week’s episode alone we saw the coach’s wife, Tami, become his boss at school as she took on the daunting task of principal; the feisty Tyra told the chauvinist school counselor she will get into a college despite his lack of support; and former bimbo cheerleader Lyla chastised a rally girl for throwing herself at Riggins. These are women who are not diminished by all of the Texas-style testosterone flowing around them, yet neither are they man-haters.

My smugness about my feminist insight–it is usually my more intelligent fellow blogger Donna who writes about this topic– was short -lived as I discovered that over at Slate magazine , there is an interesting post that also discusses the females on “FNL” and muses on why the women on the show don’t seem to have girlfriends. It’s an interesting point, though I think the answer is simply a logistical question of balancing a large cast on a TV series. Shows like “Lipstick Jungle”– which “FNL” has replaced on the NBC schedule– are supposedly about the great bonds of female friendship and represent how far women have come in terms of career, choices, relationships, etc. Yet truly those characters are far more cartoonish and stereotypical than the women on “FNL.” In fact, Lyla and Tyra are fiercely fighting against the roles small town Southern society is trying to foist on them. And Tami has always been a character who is smart, sassy, yet a devoted wife and mother.
So I don’t know if any Idol Chatter readers -especially women–still need a reason to check out this show, but if you do, maybe you can make this Friday a ladies night at the next Panther football game.