re: Looking for a new tv show to watch that fits certain criteria:

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what about the show, makes it so good?

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This is from 2007, but still rings true. LINK

Some spoilers if you've never seen it, so I will add spoiler free highlights

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2. The look. The handheld camerawork has been tagged another “challenging” aspect of the show; even though TV has become much more cinematic over the past decade, few network shows (Homicide: Life On The Streets being the groundbreaking exception) have gone with handheld, for fear of alienating viewers. In FNL, the freewheeling camera never calls attention to itself, but gives the fullest possible impression of this small Texas town and its inhabitants. The great advantage of handheld camerawork is its immediacy, the feeling that emotions have been “caught” rather than contrived. That’s most an illusion, of course, but it’s still remarkable how much the camera sees on FNL, from revealing close-ups to a very particular sense of place.

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It’s better than the book and better than the movie based on the book.... Characters like #1 booster Buddy Garrity, who puts the team above all ethical and familial considerations, are fully fleshed out, and the kids themselves have concerns that often supercede anything that happens on the field. I think the book and the film have given the show a great starting point and the writers are working toward that “novel-on-film” ideal Noel and I talked about recently.

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Coach Taylor and “Mrs. Coach.” The heart of the show, Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton have become perhaps my favorite onscreen married couple ever. Individually, both actors are brilliant...together, Chandler and Britton are extraordinary—funny, sexy, prickly as hell, and wonderful in how they understand and appreciate each other. Britton also serves her husband’s conscience: Whenever he’s inclined to put the team’s fortunes above something more important, she generally sets him in line.

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It is and isn’t about football. Most speculate that Friday Night Lights is a tough sell because people who don’t care about football aren’t likely to watch and those who do are either too busy watching ESPN or more interested in X’s and O’s than serial melodrama. I can’t really argue with that assessment, but I can say that the show handles its business on and off the field with convincing authority. It knows the big and small details of operating a high school football team—the drills, the plays, the formations, the sketchy recruiting situation, the bartering with state governing boards, etc. And, of course, it’s a first-rate melodrama, too. But by combining these two things, the dramatic stakes are raised all around: How will Smash (Gaius Charles) perform with a college scout in the crowd? What will happen to Coach Taylor and his family should they drop out of playoff contention? Or just as distressing, what happens if Coach’s success yields other issues? I won’t give anything away, but there’s a brilliant sequence in the “Mud Bowl” episode that illustrates just how well the football and the off-the-field drama are integrated.

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