Ellen Gray: 'Friday Night Lights' aging well

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS. 8 p.m. Friday, Channel 10.

THERE AREN'T many high school shows - or shows, period - that get better in their fourth seasons.

Too often, as original characters move on, or worse, discover a fine, but hitherto unmentioned college on the outskirts of town, the writing gets a little desperate, the drama a bit less believable.

"Friday Night Lights," which returns to NBC Friday after its latest 13-episode run on DirecTV, has never followed any other show's playbook.

It isn't about to start now.

The game-changing shift in last season's finale that sent Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) to the reopened East Dillon High and left his wife, Tami (Connie Britton), behind as principal of West Dillon, created opportunities for the Texas-based drama, which in Season 4 introduces new characters, lets some older ones move on and takes the football stories in a new direction.

Let's just say that what Eric's facing at East Dillon gives new meaning to the term "rebuilding year."

As for the drama, well, the day-to-day lives of people who are trying to keep their heads above water in a tough economy continue to supply whatever's required after teens and their hormones are accounted for.

It doesn't hurt that those teens operate in a world where it's still considered OK for parents to put up a fight as their kids begin to move beyond their control. Not all of them succeed - far from it - but even the worst of them seem to acknowledge the job description.

Maybe that's why shows like the CW's "Gossip Girl" and "90210," where money is hardly ever in short supply but parenting often is, need to create obstacles for their adolescent characters that seem far removed from real life (my apologies if your life actually involves your wicked uncle using your long-lost mother in a scheme to steal your luxury hotel).

"Friday Night Lights' " one attempt to manufacture drama rather than find it in the lives of its characters resulted in a Season 2 plot line involving an attempted rape, accidental death and a hidden body. It's a mistake that hasn't been repeated.

One mistake that has - year after year - is Emmy voters' overlooking of Chandler and Britton. The two halves of one of television's most believable couples do more with a sideways glance than most actors can with an entire soliloquy.

But then, on "FNL," subtlety counts.

Maybe even more than a little something for the mantel.

When I reviewed the DirecTV season premiere back in October, I'd seen one, maybe two, episodes of the new season. (Season 5, scheduled to be the show's last, reportedly begins filming this summer.)

Now that I've seen all 13 (several more than once), I can at least tell those who didn't get to see it in its first run that this new-to-you season of "Friday Night Lights" is more than worth the wait.

Though Nielsen reported this week that the number of prime-time comedies had declined this season, the quality seems to be increasing: Even if you don't count Fox's "Glee," the sitcom situation's looking up, thanks to newbies like ABC's "Modern Family" and "The Middle" and NBC's "Community."

If you haven't seen "Community," tomorrow's episode (8 p.m., Channel 10), in which the college is taken over by the paintball game to end all paintball games - and an excuse is once again found to render star Joel McHale shirtless - would be a funny place to start. *

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