Friday Night Lights is the American Downton Abbey

Posted by MK | Filed under Just for Fun, Pop Culture

This post is mainly for my wife, as she is an avid fan of both Friday Night Lights and Downton Abbey. The fact that she can be emotionally invested in small town Texas high school football and the complex lives of the British aristocracy adds to her wonder. But here, my friend Erin brilliantly likens the two shows together:

Both plots are based essentially around keeping an empire from falling apart.  On Downton, it’s maintaining the Abbey and the Grantham fortune.  On FNL, it’s maintaining the Panthers/Lions.  But let’s look at a breakdown of characters, because that’s really where the money is.  Oh yeah, this has spoilers, so if you’re not caught up and you keep reading, I don’t know how to help you.

She goes on to do a parallel of the characters on the shows. This is really funny stuff if you’ve spent time in Dillon and at Downton:

Coach Taylor // Robert Crawley, Lord Grantham

Tami Taylor // Violet, Dowager Countess

Julie Taylor // Lady Mary Crawley

Jason Street // John Bates

Matt Saracen // Matthew Crawley

Buddy Garrity // Isobel Crawley

Tim Riggins // Lady Sybil Crawley

Landry // Lady Edith Crawley

Tyra // O’Brien

Becky // Daisy

Lyla Garrity // Lavinia Swire

Read her explanations of the pairings here.

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Permalink | Comments (2) | Feb 20, 2012

2 Responses to “Friday Night Lights is the American Downton Abbey”

  1. Lance Says:
    February 20th, 2012 at 9:01 am

    LOL…Erin’s conclusions are inescapable and ironclad!

  2. Tamra Says:
    February 20th, 2012 at 2:36 pm

    I am completely addicted to both as well. It was a sad day when the lights finally went out in Dillon. I’m hoping Downton Abbie hangs around for a while!!

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