Chicago TribuneMaureen Ryan

This year, the challenge is to create fresh, interesting story lines for new and returning high school characters, integrate the post-high school crowd into the show and mix the stories of the East Dillon team with those of the Panther players. It’s a tall order, but in the early going, the show seems up to it.

Slant MagazineKris King

On a whole, the new season of Friday Night Lights manages to retain its depth and heart-wrenching warmth despite a sea change in its structure and characters.

VarietyStuart Levine

The show's minscule budget has turned into one of its greatest assets, using real-life Austin locales and citizens to bring an authenticity that only adds to the drama.

Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob Owen

These are fantastic characters with socio-economic backgrounds we rarely see in TV dramas, and that's one of the many things that makes FNL unique. Whether you can watch the show now or won't have access to it until 2010, FNL continues to be TV worth watching.

TV GuideMatt Roush

This show delivers the dramatic goods with painstaking authenticity each week, and even when it isn’t trying to make you cry, you can’t help but get emotionally involved in the lives of these instantly recognizable and compelling characters.

New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley

It's a brand new ballgame. It looks to be a winner.

Newark Star-LedgerAlan Sepinwall

There's definitely a joy to this series, no matter how dire things get for its characters.

Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray

The season premiere delivers on the promises of last season's game-changing finale, which found Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) facing a massive rebuilding task as the coach of a school in a newly divided Dillon.

SalonHeather Havrilesky

In its fourth season, Friday Night Lights is just as thoughtful and restrained as it's ever been, with its focus firmly planted on the small-town disappointments of ordinary people.

USA TodayRobert Bianco

Is Lights the show it was when it began? No. But it's still better than most anything else on the TV field.