Jason Katims writes families and young people with patience, warmth and room for actors to think. We value that care, especially in Friday Night Lights, but his sympathy can make him too ready to excuse a character's failings.
Fi1m perspective
In Friday Night Lights (2006), Kyle Chandler makes patience worth watching. We were moved by his steady authority, because it makes the programme's care for people under pressure feel believable. That is the chief reason we recommend Jason Katims's work: he takes ordinary worries seriously and gives actors time to make them matter. He is less reliable when kindness stops him asking awkward questions about a character.
His first television writing was on My So-Called Life (1994), created by Winnie Holzman. Claire Danes makes adolescent self-consciousness immediate, although the narration sometimes explains what her performance has already made clear. We should not credit Katims alone with the achievements of Holzman's programme, but its interest in young people working out how to behave runs through his later work. Roswell (1999) gave him an early showrunning role, combining teenage drama with genre elements.
Katims took over as showrunner of Friday Night Lights from its second series in 2007, following Peter Berg's pilot. The handheld filming, minimal rehearsal and encouragement of improvisation suit his willingness to let performances shape the drama. They cannot, however, make every slow passage compelling. He and his fellow writers sometimes become so concerned with doing right by everyone that too little happens. Creating Parenthood (2010–2015) gave him space to extend that attention across generations of a family.
About a Boy (2014) shows what happens when that sympathy becomes too indulgent. Katims and Carrie Kemper are among the credited writers, and the brisk exchanges serve David Walton and Benjamin Stockham well. The pair are appealing, but the writing makes their friendship too easy to applaud. Will's selfishness is treated as something enviable too often, and affection settles questions the programme has barely explored. The jokes are better when they notice a failing without immediately excusing it.
The later Dear Edward (2023) brought him back together with Connie Britton, who played Tami Taylor in Friday Night Lights. Its concern with people coping after loss keeps him close to the family and community stories that suit his patient approach. Start with Friday Night Lights, unless a tightly driven sports story is all you want.
Biography
Jason Katims is an American television writer, producer and playwright. Born on 30 November 1960 in Brooklyn, New York, he began as a playwright in New York before moving into television in the mid-1990s after being discovered by producer Ed Zwick. He wrote episodes of My So-Called Life (1994) and created the series Relativity (1996) and Roswell (1999–2002).
Katims served as head writer, executive producer and occasional director on Friday Night Lights (2006–2011). He won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series in 2011 for the series finale. He later created and executive produced Parenthood (2010–2015) and About a Boy (2014–2015), and has written feature films including The Pallbearer (1996) and The Vow (2012).
