 The pilot of Friday Night Lights received good to middling reviews . Virginia Heffernan of The New York Times gave the episode a very good review , and suggested the series could be good enough to transcend the medium of television . She praised the " intelligent performances " of the actors , and though she found the " Smash " Williams character less convincing than the others , she thought it improved towards the end . She also appreciated the use of audio to tell the story : the buzz of a surgeon 's saw or the sound of skin stuck to leather . Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club , wrote " I appreciate the feel for the high stakes attached to small @-@ market school sports , the knowing take on the high @-@ school caste system , and the details of family life . " Still , he worried that America was " failing to fall in love with " the show , and expressed doubts as to whether it would be allowed to survive . 
