The Friday Night Lights reboot faces a big modern struggle

Friday Night Lights is getting a reboot, which will be a major problem thanks to modern medical understanding - but it could actually help the show.

The Friday Night Lights reboot is underway, but it's going to have to accept a massive modern struggle. The original series focused on a Texas football team, with Friday Night Lights as a celebration of all things gridiron. However, some revelations about football have emerged since the original series aired, and the reboot will have a hard time ignoring them. While Friday Night Lights could simply refuse to talk about the issue, the upcoming reboot is actually the perfect opportunity to address the controversy head-on.

Friday Night Lights is a 2006 series based on the 2004 film of the same name. The franchise has become universally loved, leading to the recent announcement that a Friday Night Lights reboot is in the works. The reboot will consist of two parts, starting with the Friday Night Lights movie. Then, a new Friday Night Lights TV show will be released, continuing the film's story directly. The Friday Night Lights reboot is sure to have some major differences from the original series, and it may add a new story that addresses football's major struggles with modern medicine.

Why Modern Medical Understanding Is A Friday Night Lights Problem

of The Friday Night Lights reboot will have a question to address modern medicine's understanding of football's impact. Recent research has shown a link between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and soccer, and an increase in chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) can be traced to sports such as high school football. This new understanding of medicine has become part of the national discourse, and the Will Smith movie "Concussion" even addresses the subject. Debate over how to respond is rampant, which will create problems for the Friday Night Lights restart.

The recent discussion of TBI and CTE will completely change the tone of Friday Night Lights, as some viewers may not be so eager to watch a group of kids who could have serious health complications for each other. If the coaches in the Friday Night Lights reboot realize these risks, the series will project them in a nefarious way, completely subverting Coach Taylor's inspirational heroic image in the original series. It will be very difficult to get Friday Night Lights to work without fixing this issue, as there may be issues with the way the restart solves the problem.

How A Friday Night Lights Reboot Could Try To Avoid The Issue

if The Friday Night Lights reboot wanted to avoid talking about CTE issues, and the original Friday Night Lights timeline might help. The Friday Night Lights movie takes place in 1988, long before modern medical understanding of things like TBI and CTE. If wanting to avoid talking controversy, the reboot could simply set its story at this point in time, which would allow the series to end easily. Simply ignoring the controversy seems unlikely, so changing the time period for the restart seems like the best way to avoid the Friday Night Lights restart issue.

However, this timeline option does not appear to appear when Friday Night Lights restarts. Big changes are coming for the upcoming Friday Night Lights reboot, with the film and TV series set in 2015. By 2015, the football-related risks of TBI and CTE were well known, meaning that a reboot of the topic was inevitable. If the Friday Night Lights reboot wants to avoid discussion, the movie and series will either have to change the time period entirely, or come up with another creative reason not to bring up the controversial topic.

Why Friday Night Lights Should Tackle The Real Trauma

While the Friday Night Lights reboot could have avoided controversy, the series was actually supposed to address the traumatic brain injury discussion. The TBI-centric storyline will add a thematic layer of social commentary to Friday Night Lights, making the upcoming reboot deeper than its predecessors. Most importantly, the medical storyline will be a great way for the Friday Night Lights reboot to differentiate itself from the original series. This storyline fits naturally into the narrative in a way no past adaptation has done.

It seems irresponsible to focus on football without addressing modern medical understanding if the Friday Night Lights restart. TBI and CTE have been hot topics for years, and the Friday Night Lights are the perfect way to focus the discussion. Making the Friday Night Lights reboot stand out from the original will be a challenge, but the traumatic storyline is the perfect way to do it.