Friday Night Lights TV show - general discussion

Cafe Society
1

I just finished watching the entire series on Netflix and I am completely blown away. It’s just an amazing show. It does so many things so well, at this point, I can outline some of the very few things that were slightly disappointing.

As I was warned, Season 2 was the weakest season, but I still enjoyed it. But as I finish the series, I wonder about so many characters and situations that seemed to be left hanging –

  • Tyra’s one-night stand in Season 1 seems to have led nowhere
  • We didn’t get any status updates on the fantastic Herc
  • Jason’s tattoo-artist fling in Season 2 seemed to have just disappeared. I thought they might date for a while.
  • Buddy took in Santiago in Season 2 and he became a pivotal member of the team, but there’s absolutely no mention of him afterward.
  • Lyla’s Christian boyfriend similarly disappeared
  • No explanation ever for Carlotta’s sudden departure
  • Exactly how did McCoy and Aikman get rid of Taylor? The whole thing seemed so unlikely. And what happened to the McCoys and Coach Aikman? By Season 5 they were just gone, after being so key in Seasons 3 and 4.
  • What happened to Garrity Motors? Why did it close? And if the business failed, how did Buddy get the money to open a bar?
  • No updates on Epyck after she was expelled
  • What happened to the trashy red-haired rally girl who starred in the “Drunk Puppet Girl” video and fought with Epyck?
  • There was really no story for Hastings, as was foreshadowed
  • Why did Waverly completely disappear after Season 1?
  • No mention of Tami’s sister after Season 2?
  • What happened to Julie’s favorite teacher whom Tami chewed out?
  • What happened to the sassy girls’ volleyball coach?
  • Did Matt’s mom leave town after he graduated?
  • How in the world did Julie end up going to a no-name school in Texas instead of the University of Texas or another prestigious university? That wasn’t very believable
  • Tim’s being years younger than Jason but their being best friends their entire lives. When you’re very young, even a difference of one grade level is a huge gap and it’s very unlikely that by the time you get to high school, you will have been life-long friends. Same with Matt and Landry being friends all their lives but being a grade level apart.
  • Never any blowback from Smash’s steroid use. I was expecting that at some point it would resurface
  • It was weird that Jess’s dad didn’t appear once during Season 5. Was there something going on behind the scenes?
  • In the funeral episode, was Matt’s father—in the video and in photographs—played by a different actor?
    I found this deleted sequence of scenes from Season 3 — - YouTube - I really like these scenes—Tyra and Landry shine as usual, but the best scene is one between Matt and his mom. They’re talking about a fight between Matt and Julie, and Matt says something like “It’s just so stupid, and every time I try to say something to Julie, she gets even more mad, and every time she gets even more mad, it just becomes even more stupid.” And then there’s a moment when Matt tries to pay his mom for a haircut. It’s just a very sweet scene, and it makes me really like Matt’s mom. I wish there had been more detail on the reasons why she left in the first place.

And this deleted scene from Season 4 — Friday Night Lights - Tim and Lyla Deleted Scene 4.06 - YouTube – I love it for the puppy dog eyes that Lyla gives to Buddy to get him to do what she wants.

2

I watched the entire series last year and really enjoyed it, but I had some of the same questions. One of the storylines I thought they were going to develop was the assistant coach that was apparently gay.

3

Yes that one too. There were a lot of minor loose ends.

But over all I’d say the ending for the Taylors was as good as you could get for a series finale.

4

Also missing after the first few episodes were the cheerleaders. It was all about the rally girls, but in real life it’s the cheerleaders who are paired up with star athletes.

5

I’ve heard Tyra’s one night stand in Season 1 mentioned before, but I didn’t see it as pointless. It was meant to show the lengths to which Tyra was desperate to get out of Dillon. And I think it was the beginning of her realization that she couldn’t rely on some guy to get her out.

6

I suppose I can accept that.

But here’s another lost plot – the cash gift left in Saracen’s locker.

7

If I remember correctly, the cash gift incident was in the “Mud Bowl” episode. Coach asked all the players if they had received cash gifts and Saracen was the only one who fessed up. Later it became clear that Buddy Garrity and the boosters were handing them out. It was one of the reasons Coach wanted to play on the empty cow pasture - to get back to a more innocent time, and remember why they started loving the game in the first place.

8

Well, okay, but that doesn’t really seem like much of a repercussion. Did we see anyone spending such funds? Isn’t Saracen’s handing over the money something that should have been reported to the administration?

9

There were a lot of things that probably should have been reported to the administration. I never understood why Coach Mac’s racially insensitive comments didn’t become an administrative issue. If he was a school employee then it should have been their decision whether to fire him, not Coach Taylor’s.

Like most shows, you have to fanwank some of this stuff.

10

One thing I did like about crazy Season 2 was Taylor Nichols as Mrs. Garrity’s new boyfriend. He’s perfect as an uptight vegan. Unfortunately we hot to see very little of him.