by Michael Kazin

Like most people, graying intellectuals have a weakness for cultural nostalgia. I was born near the zenith of the baby boom. And like many people of the same age, I tend to believe, or imagine, that fiction, painting, professional sports, and especially popular music were more creative and nuanced, less derivative and commercialized, when we were young than they are now. One could have a good argument about the aesthetic merit--old and new--of each of the fields I mentioned. But any debate about the quality of television programs should be over very quickly: What's available on TV today is far better than what was on offer in the days of wine and Nixon. And I'm not just talking about such premium cable shows as "The Sopranos" and "The Wire" that provide fodder for New Yorker writers and cultural studies professors. Many a prime-time drama on the broadcast networks provides a quality of plot, acting, and cinematography largely absent from "Bonanza," "Perry Mason," "Star Trek," and other vehicles of beloved memory. A good example is "Friday Night Lights," currently running Wednesday nights on NBC. On the surface, this is a simple story about a good high-school football team in a small Texas town whose residents take every game more seriously than the Super Bowl. But Peter Berg, the executive producer and chief writer, has created an absorbing little world out there on the prairie. Each of the intersecting and ongoing sub-plots mixes tension, humor, and pathos--and avoids even the hint of sentimentality. The actors, none of whom has previously sniffed a leading role, speak and move in unpredictable yet always credible ways. The show handles every subject--from steroids, to racism, to the sexual frustrations of the erstwhile star quarterback who was paralyzed during a game--in fresh and serious ways. And the fast-food places, windswept fields, and metal bleachers all look strangely attractive, at least on my new HD set. I don't miss the Cartwrights or the Klingons at all.