Review: "Lights Out"

Patrick "Lights" Leary  (Credit: FX)

What better way to help put the "T" back in NYaT than by reviewing "Lights Out," the boxing drama that just finished its first season on FX?  Although I'm a little revved up, having watched the finale just a few minutes ago, I'll try my best to see the forest among the trees.  But if you watched along with me, I think you'll understand how difficult that might be.  Here we go.

I'll start by saying that "Lights Out" is the only fictional sports show on TV right now.  Gone are the days of Playmakers, Friday Night Lights, and Arli$$.  FX somehow stands alone in the sports niche, which I find amazing.  Think about how many successful sports films -- not just comedies, but dramas too -- are produced every year.  From Invictus to Seabiscuit to Million Dollar Baby, sports movies are all over Hollywood.  So how and why has the small screen abandoned the genre?  And how did FX beat every other network to the punch (get it?) by creating a very, very good boxing drama?

For the purpose of this review, the answers to these questions are irrelevant.  I'll let the TV executives figure it out.  I just hope that some other networks meet the obvious demand for good original sports programming.  While they're at it, why not get rid of some of the lousy reality shows that are clogging up the evening hours?  Does America really need another weight loss show?  Viewers can already choose from the following options: Biggest Loser, Celebrity Fit Club, I Used To Be Fat, HEAVY, and Shedding for the Wedding.  Six shows about fat people...six!  I know that people secretly like these shows because they feel better about themselves after watching even fatter people on TV, but come on.  We need to encourage the networks to invest more in quality original sports programming like Lights Out.  Attention all executives -- follow FX's lead.  Here's what they did well.

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