<p>I agree that I would have liked to have had a mention of Lila during the last few weeks. Even if she was not going to return in a scene. Heavens, she was Buddy’s daughter. I found it odd that her name never came up. She deserved a mention.</p>
<p>And this was TV, so I get that Dillon needed two high schools as part of the plot, even though it was not really big enough for two. We never knew there were two high schools in town until Coach Taylor ended up there…</p>
<p>Exactly my thoughts, sunnyflorida! She was a big part of the show for a long time AND she was Buddy’s daughter.</p>
<p>I’m going to miss Buddy! He had his flaws, but I always enjoyed his love of Dillon football.</p>
<p>I also really liked Buddy the last two shows.</p>
<p>[A</a> bittersweet farewell to “Friday Night Lights” - Friday Night Lights - Salon.com](<a href=“http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/2011/07/15/farewell_friday_night_lights_open2011/]A”>http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/2011/07/15/farewell_friday_night_lights_open2011/)</p>
<p>Another great send-off.</p>
<p>sunny - when Buddy was declaring his support for Tim, he did mention that his daughter fell in love with Tim. So Lila got mentioned, if not by name. Maybe the director didn’t want to confuse people who now associate her with Parenthood :)</p>
<p>I know, but I felt that was hardly a reference, that’s all. She was such a major story line for the first few seasons. My only beef, really. </p>
<p>I was a little disappointed that Luke did not end up going to college, but I thought his getting on the bus to go into the military fit the whole “Texas small football town” storyline. He was not cut out for college, just as Tim was not. Luke had more sensibility than Tim, but it was clear after his visit to the D3 college that he did not feel that he would fit in. At least he was true to himself.</p>
<p>I liked seeing Vince’s girl in Dallas, and on the sidelines as well. While Coach Taylor did seem a little uncomfortable with a young woman’s role in football, he knew darned well she was smart, she knew the game, and she belonged. I was glad he stood behind her.</p>
<p>I also liked the way Vince had to pass long to win the game at State. That went against everything Couch T stood for. He was not about the long, flashy passing game. Vince learned that from his Dad. Coach had to “suck it up” and give Vince’s dad a ticket in person, as he knew Vince would not. And he had to almost tip his hat to his dad in letting Vince throw the Hail Mary. And his dad was there to see it. At first, when I realized that this was going to be a “win it all on the last play” I was disappointed. Here we go again. Until it all maid sense. In that few seconds, I understood why Vince would be able to throw, why Coach would be able to let him, and I knew in that second that Coach was going to Philadelphia and not staying in Dillon. The ending truly was “Clear eyes, full heart, can’t loose.”</p>
<p>Interesting that you see it as Coach Taylor “sucking it up.” I see it as almost in your face, Coach having to show him how to be a father.</p>
<p>If I’m not mistaken, the original Friday Night Lights book was a portrait of the way Permian Panthers football dominated the town of Odessa, TX, which has about 100,000 people. I think Dillon was meant to be a thinly disguised Odessa (so not really as small a town as it often felt on the show). That size town could support one or two high schools, depending on the demographics at any given time.</p>
<p>I grew up in Mass., in a town about the size of Odessa, and while it didn’t reach Texas proportions, high school football and basketball were huge, to the point that they far eclipsed academics. We lived about a quarter mile from the football stadium, and every Sat. that there was a home game (no money for lights, so no night games) our little side street was filled with the cars of game attendees (sometimes our driveway too). The football and basketball players were the stars of the school, everyone knew their names. Everyone attended the pre-game pep rallies in the school auditorium. It was exhilirating. Very different in my kids’ high school, where games weren’t very well attended and most kids couldn’t have cared less–I think they missed out.</p>
<p>MommaJ, Odessa does have two HS: Odessa Permian and Odessa High. One of those uncles of mine who joined the military eventually ended up in Odessa. 
While I knew the book was about Odessa, in my mind Dillon always was smaller – too small for two high schools. I would look for clues as to the size or whether it was patterned after a certain city in the area. The electronic marquee at the Alamo seemed out of place in too small a town, though even my dad’s hometown of fewer than 9,000 has a DQ with an electronic marquee. I never thought of Dillon as a town of close to 100,000 like Odessa.</p>
<p>DH and I were away, and away from TV, over the weekend and just finished The Last Show on DVR. H had found the show the first season and when I finally made time to watch I was hooked, too. It was the first TV drama we made a point to watch together every week since Hill St Blues and LA Law (before and right after D was born and we got too busy for a long time). </p>
<p>I started sobbing during The Proposal and pretty much kept it up throughout. I’m happy with the way things turned out, but long for more. We need a non-crimesolver, non-medical replacement. Parenthood? Would it be too hard to catch up with the characters and story?</p>
<p>Parenthood is great, but I’d recommend going back to get caught up whether through Netflix, Hulu, or whatever means available. Jason Katims, the main writer for FNL, is also the head writer for Parenthood and you’ll see several familiar faces. Minka Kelly (Lyla), Michael B. Jordan (Vince) and the actress who played Vince’s mom have all shown up on Parenthood.</p>
<p>Parenthood has a very different feel. It does, however, have excellent mother-daughter fights (and reconciliations) in the tradition of FNL. Somehow Jason Katims seems uniquely plugged in to how mothers and daughters can push each other’s insecurity buttons and make each other absolutely irrational without either being wrong, really.</p>
<p>Odessa/Dillon: Give FNL a break! It was always on the edge of cancellation, and they produced a beautiful-looking show with a huge cast on a relatively small budget. Of course they were going to take poetic license to cut down the size of Odessa to fit the narrative needs of the show. And of course they were going to take poetic license to pull a second high school out of their butts to help with the cast transition. And, yeah, there was only ever one Mexican kid in the high school there. Because how many Mexican kids can there be in Texas?</p>
<p>My daughter said it was like Brigadoon – a mystical place inhabited entirely by supermodels, except for Buddy Garrity.</p>
<p>I noticed two Hispanic surnames when they were passing out tickets!</p>
<p>LOVE Parenthood, but, yeah, it would be best to watch from the beginning, which would be totally fun.</p>
<p>Am I the only one who wished we didn’t know if they had won states? I could imagine the same outcome for all of the characters either way without the “storybook” ending. And that life goes on whether the game - and it still is really just a game no matter how important it is to the townspeople - is won or lost.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, FNL has been the only show in the last few years I’ve seen every episode of - but I think that the glimpse into their lives 8 months later would have been more powerful and real if we didn’t know that everything had turned out just right at the game.</p>
<p>My daughter said this was a difficult weekend for her, with the ending of the Harry Potter series on Thursday night, followed by the last show of FNL just one day later.</p>
<p>Yes, watch Parenthood! My husband and I love that series. You really need to watch it from the beginning, though, so you can understand all of the family relationships. It is different from FNL in some ways, but in the end, it’s all about family.</p>
<p>gus, I would have been happy enough not to know, but Americans love a happy ending so I was glad to learn they won. :)</p>
<p>Sports, I just saw HP yesterday and thought the same thing.</p>
<p>I read today a movie is in the works!!! It’s not over :)</p>
<p>Regarding the movie:
[Peter</a> Berg Still Working On That Friday Night Lights Movie – Vulture](<a href=“Peter Berg Still Working On That Friday Night Lights Movie”>Peter Berg Still Working On That Friday Night Lights Movie)
I agree the ending was perfect and it could be dangerous to mess with the whole thing.</p>
<p>I wonder if such a film could even get financing, given the show’s low ratings. Would it make a profit even if every fan bought a ticket? I guess the Sex and the City movies made a bundle, but they appeal to a very different demographic.</p>