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Season 3 – Friday Night Lights

Play trailer Poster for Season 3 – Friday Night Lights Oct 2008 Drama Sports Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 18 Reviews 96% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
"Friday Night Lights" centers on the rural town of Dillon, Texas, where winning the state football championship is prized above all else. Coach Eric Taylor guides a high school football team through pressure-filled seasons while dealing with struggles relating to his own family. The interactions between the team members, current and former players, supporters, coaching staff and regular townsfolk address many of the issues facing small-town America.
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Friday Night Lights — Season 3

Friday Night Lights — Season 3

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Critics Consensus

Fueled by realistic depictions of everyday issues and elevated by an outstanding young cast, the third season of Friday Night Lights finds the series continuing to shine.

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Critics Reviews

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Keith Phipps AV Club 02/06/2015
B+
I could probably watch an hour of Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler bantering every week, but Friday Night Lights offers much more. The cast members who started out good have only gotten better. Go to Full Review
Ken Tucker Entertainment Weekly 02/06/2015
A
I've seen the entire season already on DIRECTV, and trust me, it only gets better, deeper, and richer. Go to Full Review
Stuart Levine Variety 02/05/2015
If this is game over for Lights, the series goes out with its legacy intact, no matter what Nielsen says. For three seasons, the cast of little-known twentysomethings played their respective students with exceptional clarity, charm and authenticity. Go to Full Review
Jeff Dooley Bullz-Eye.com 11/06/2019
4/5
Friday Night Lights got back to what it does best in Season Three: delivering scenes that are equal parts engaging, action-packed, thoughtful, well-acted, and funny. Go to Full Review
Tara Thorne The Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia) 11/17/2018
Television's best drama returned in fighting shape for its third, most affecting year. Go to Full Review
Ed Bark Uncle Barky 02/05/2015
Eric and Tami Taylor continue to have the most interesting and endearing relationship of any prime-time married couple. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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THE NASHVILLE I @Nshvlleindie Jun 24 Having to recover from the abandoned S2 and the writer's strike, the third season manages to re-establish itself very well. There's a fair amount of growing pains in this season, ending the 1st half of the series and setting up the second. Nevertheless S3 was pretty good and should be enjoyed. See more Regal R 03/01/2023 70/100 - Honestly not a bad show. Some of the characters and writing is a bit odd. Its hit or miss. It's either really funny with great, witty dialogue, or it flops to some weird writing with plot holes, bad pacing, etc.. It wasnt received well and its hard for me to rate this because the first 2 seasons are mostly great. Season 3 is kind of bad. Season 4 gets revamped with michael b jordan but is still meh. season 5 is a bit better. Like I said the show is both good and bad, hit or miss throughout the episodes, I kind of wish the characters stuck to their character type instead of every single character changing to the opposite of who they started as. It makes the show kind of hard to watch because it's very predictable when you know if X happened last episode, the character will do Y next episode. Unrealistic in that aspect and breaks the 4th wall. Wroth watching though, its a drama for sure but its decent. See more 08/30/2021 Friday Night Lights (90%) (A-) Gets back into the day to day drama that makes the first season so good. Starts to make more development for once side characters and it does a really good job here. The characters that are introduced in this season are fleshed out well and add a lot to the overarching story. Tim Riggins is solidified as the man. See more 01/13/2019 This is one of my favorite shows ever! I watched it a few years ago and am currently rewatching it. I don't even like football, but this show has depth that goes way beyond football. You'll laugh, cry, and cheer with the variety of characters. See more 02/25/2017 One of the hallmarks of the first two seasons of "Friday Night Lights" was the show's ability to really use its ensemble cast to the fullest. Each week would shine the spotlight on a different character scenario or two, and if those weren't the ones that appealed to you...well, you knew that the next week it would be something different. While this third season does a good job of moving certain storylines forward, it also turns rather repetitive at times in terms of the areas it really focuses in on. For a basic summary, Season Three is one in which we (as viewers) say goodbye to some established figures and welcome some "new blood" into the fold. Because the writers strike of 2007 completely screwed over Season Two's "ending", the beginning episodes of this year basically just get us back up to speed. From there, a few things given to us in this installment include: -Mrs. Taylor's new role as school principle and the new perspective it gives her on certain issues. -The continued evolution of the Tyra/Landry & Tim/Lyla relationships. -Jason Street doing everything he can to provide for his new "family" -The ongoing foibles of Buddy Garrity. -A new QB threat to Matt Ceracen. There are some parts of Season Three that work very well. The chemistry within the Taylor family is still the backbone of the show, and it still never fails to produce emotion in nearly every episode. The "new QB in town" angle is also probably the strongest one of the entire season. Tami's new turn as school principle also brings up some moral dilemmas that prove quite interesting. The trouble with this season, though, is that all the other angles fall under the following two categories: Either they are done too quickly (Smash Williams, Jason Street), or they linger on for far too long (Tyra's rebellious streak, the ticking time bomb that is Tim Riggins). More specifically, the characters of Tyra & Tim (who really stood out in the Second Season) are given more screen time but less character development in the sense that they don't seem much different from beginning to end. It is probably a case of the writers knowing that such drama works with most viewers and being a bit scared (in the wake of cancellation) to stray too far from the formula. Overall, then, I can't rate Season Three of "Friday Night Lights" nearly as well as its two predecessors. Whereas those earlier seasons were high drama with pockets of repetition, I felt that the formula was flipped in this case. The ending of the season set up a scenario that looks like it has great potential to produce an entertaining fourth season, so I'm not giving up hope just yet. I'm just a bit concerned that the show has "slipped" a bit with each subsequent season so far. See more 10/22/2015 While the previous two seasons established Friday Night Lights as a great show, it's the third season that really augmented its status to excellent. While the show hardly shakes up its formula, it does a much better job this year with conveying it's plots, and scrapes off some of the melodrama. Also stronger performances, and better written relationships make this season what Friday Night Lights is all about. See more Read all reviews
Friday Night Lights — Season 3

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Episodes

Episode 1 Aired Oct 1, 2008 I Knew You When Coach Taylor is unsure how strong his team will be without Smash; a new star player (Jeremy Sumpter) arrives on the scene; a season-ending injury results in Smash losing his college scholarship. Details Episode 2 Aired Oct 8, 2008 Tami Knows Best Smash has confidence issues as he works with Coach Taylor to prepare for college tryouts; Tami finds that the community cares more about a new screen on the field than education; Matt faces a tough decision about his grandmother's care. Details Episode 3 Aired Oct 15, 2008 How the Other Half Lives Coach Taylor is pressured to make some changes to his team for an upcoming game; Saracen feels the heat as fans lose faith in him; Tim tries to get out of debt. Details Episode 4 Aired Oct 22, 2008 Hello, Goodbye The new bad boy in town woos Tyra; Saracen's mother tries to re-enter his life; Smash leaves Dillon for the first time. Details Episode 5 Aired Oct 29, 2008 Every Rose Has Its Thorn Cash's dark side comes to light; Jason thinks he knows how to bring him and Erin back together; coach Taylor makes a decision that leaves Matt debating the future of his football career. Details Episode 6 Aired Nov 5, 2008 It Ain't Easy Being J.D. McCoy The new quarterback, J.D. McCoy, becomes a victim of hazing; Matt and Julie get closer after spending some time together at the lake; a woman claims that Cash owes her child support. Details Episode 7 Aired Nov 12, 2008 Keeping Up Appearances J.D.'s skills are put to the test at Friday night's rival game; Landry thinks he is over Tyra when he meets Devin, who seems to be the perfect girl. Details Episode 8 Aired Nov 19, 2008 New York, New York In hopes of getting his family back, Jason follows a job opportunity to New York; Tyra is torn between following Cash on his rodeo tour and her college dream; Tami tries to talk Coach Taylor into buying a new house. Details Episode 9 Aired Dec 3, 2008 Game of the Week Dillon is in the spotlight when the Panthers' game is selected as the nationally televised game of the week; Riggins decides whether to meet with a college coach; Tyra sees the truth about Cash and finds herself in a desperate situation. Details Episode 10 Aired Dec 10, 2008 The Giving Tree Buddy Garrity is forced to tell Lyla about his financial troubles; when J.D. meets a girl at school, his father worries he is losing his focus on football. Details Episode 11 Aired Dec 17, 2008 A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall Saracen's grandmother's mental health rapidly deteriorates; Lyla learns that she has been accepted to her dream college; tensions between Joe and J.D. escalate. Details Episode 12 Aired Jan 7, 2009 Underdogs The McCoys' and Taylors' friendship is on thin ice after Joe and J.D.'s scuffle; Buddy tries to make amends with Lyla; Tyra and Landry try to rekindle their romance. Details Episode 13 Aired Jan 14, 2009 Tomorrow Blues Matt prepares for college; Lyla's dreams are in the hands of an estranged uncle; coach Taylor feels uncertain about the future. Details
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Season Info

Executive Producer
Peter Berg, Jason Katims, Brian Grazer, David Nevins, Sarah Aubrey
Network
NBC
Rating
TV-14
Genre
Drama, Sports
Original Language
English
Release Date
Oct 1, 2008