History YMMV / FridayNightLights

** The Season 4 finale. Eric Taylor gets fired from the Dillon Panthers thanks to [[{{Jerkass}} Joe McCoy]], then has to build a new team from a reopened high school - the East Dillon Lions - from the ground up and can only get a win against the worst team around. What’s worse is the Panthers turn into [[{{Jerkass}} total jerks]] under McCoy and his pet Coach Aikman and they antagonize the Lions. With all the crap Taylor and the Lions had to deal with, it was satisfying to see the Lions beat the Panthers and deny them the playoffs. The [[StunnedSilence look]] on McCoy’s [[JawDrop face]] is only icing on the cake.

** The Season 4 finale. Eric Taylor gets fired from the Dillon Panthers thanks to [[{{Jerkass}} Joe McCoy]], then has to build a new team from a reopened high school - the East Dillon Lions - from the ground up and can only get a win against the worst team around. What’s worse is the Panthers turn into [[Jerkass total jerks]] under McCoy and his pet Coach Aikman and they antagonize the Lions. With all the crap Taylor and the Lions had to deal with, it was satisfying to see the Lions beat the Panthers and deny them the playoffs. The [[StunnedSilence look]] on McCoy’s [[JawDrop face]] is only icing on the cake.

* FanPreferredCutContent: Hastings was supposed to have a storyline about being gay and coming to terms with it, but then the writers chickened out, leaving the fans mystified at why they bothered to introduce a new character in the final season who then did nothing but take up space that could have been used for the people we actually cared about.

** Landry's season 2 story where he inadvertantly kills Tyra's would-be rapist created a gag among the fans that he was a serial killer and whenever a character inexplicably disappeared, he'd done them in. Then came Creator/JessePlemons' role as Todd Alquist on ''Series/BreakingBad'', who is an unfeeling sociopath and kills multiple people without remorse.

** Landry's season 2 story where he inadvertantly kills Tyra's would-be rapist created a gag among the fans that he was a serial killer and whenever a character inexplicably disappeared, he'd done them in. Then came Creator/JessePlemmons' role as Todd Alquist on ''Series/BreakingBad'', who is an unfeeling sociopath and kills multiple people without remorse.

** [[spoiler: Screw college, with those kind of skills the NFL should have been trying to recruit that kid.]]
** [[spoiler: To be fair, he injured himself in Season 4, missed games, and wasn't really playing up to his usual standards when he was in after his injury. Colleges can be hesitant about going after a player when that happens]].

** Landry's season 2 story created a gag among the fans that he was a serial killer and whenever a character inexplicably disappeared, he'd done them in. Then came Jesse Plemmons' [[TheSociopath role]] on ''Series/BreakingBad''.
*** Followed by his role on season 2 of Fargo, in which one wonders if he'll have a TV role where he doesn't kill someone.

* JerkassWoobie: Yeah J.D. is a real prick in season four, but it's obvious that his dad's parenting and role in meddling with the Panthers program really messed him up.
* MemeticMutation: Clear eyes. Full Hearts. CAN'T LOSE.

** Carlotta, who has no personality beyond {{Spicy Latina}} and apparently only exists because Matt couldn't just be single after breaking up with Julie. This is topped off by her being hastily written out of the show for reasons she refused to explain beyond "My family needs me."
* SophomoreSlump: The Tyra/Landry murder plot, Julie becomes a brat, Matt boinks his grandma's caregiver, etc. This has led to some CanonDisContinuity in the third season, as the show itself seems to be ignoring a lot of these things ever happening. Seriously, two of the main characters murdered someone and confessed to it, but after season two it's never mentioned again.
** Probably the most obvious case of CanonDisContinuity is Smash. During Season 2, he's looking to get into college, finally succeeding at the end of the season. In Season 3 Smash's plot revolves around... getting into college.
** It even got a TakeThat from ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'' more than a decade later: "Sometimes life is like Season 2 of ''Friday Night Lights'', you’ve just got to push through and hope there’s something better ahead."

* TearJerker: ''The Son'', aka 'Why didn't Zach Gilford get an Emmy nomination after this?'.
** In "Jumping the Gun" when Coach Taylor calls Riggins honorable. The look on Tim's face...
** "Leave No One Behind":
--> '''Matt:''' You left me for a better job! Julie left me for a better guy, Carlota left me for Guatemala, my dad left me for a damn war! Everybody leaves me! What's wrong with me?"
* TrappedByMountainLions: The second season put Landry and Tyra into their own, completely isolated plotline for the first ten episodes that is studiously ignored by the writers at all other times, ''even while the plot was ongoing''.
* UncertainAudience: The head of NBC's marketing department's reaction to the pilot was that while it was great, he wasn't sure how to sell the show.

* AwardSnub: ''Finally'' averted with long-overdue Emmy nominations in 2010 for Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler.
** Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for Zach Gilford, whose performance in the fan-favorite episode "The Son" (where Matt has to deal with his father's death) was sadly overlooked. On the bright side, the episode itself was nominated for its writing.
** Averted again in 2011 (the show's final season), where Connie Britton was nominated again, the show finally received a nomination for "Outstanding Drama Series", and [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Kyle Chandler actually *WON* the Emmy for Lead Actor in a Drama!]] We can be quite thankful that ''Series/BreakingBad'' didn't have a season that year. Jason Katims also won an Emmy for writing the Series Finale.

* TheWoobie: Jason Street (kinda, see WheelchairWoobie) and, to a lesser extent, J.D. [=McCoy=] in Season 3.
** IronWoobie: Matt Saracen.
** JerkassWoobie: Tim can be a real asshole, but his life sucks a lot.
** WheelchairWoobie: Subverted to hell and back by Jason Street. He doesn't want your sympathy, doesn't want your pity, [[DontYouDarePityMe doesn't want to be your mascot]], but grows to fully embrace his situation and makes the best of it.

** In ''Series/{{Bloodline}}'', Kyle Chandler hates a guy named Eric.

* IdiotPlot: Tami being fired over a complete misunderstanding in Season 4. Yeah, it's entirely possible that knowing the real story wouldn't make a difference to such militant pro-lifers, but as far as we can tell she never even tries to correct the impression that she personally took Becky to an abortion clinic against her will.
* JerkAssWoobie: Yeah J.D. is a real prick in season four, but it's obvious that his dad's parenting and role in meddling with the Panthers program really messed him up.

* {{Tearjerker}}: ''The Son'', aka 'Why didn't Zach Gilford get an Emmy nomination after this?'.

* DorkAge: The second season put Landry and Tyra into their own, completely isolated plotline for the first ten episodes that is studiously ignored by the writers at all other times, ''even while the plot was ongoing''.

* TheScrappy: Epyck for many, for being a very stock "troubled teenage ethnic girl" character and taking up a lot of screentime in the final season only for her story to end abruptly. Julie also qualifies for many with her bratty behavior and dud romance plots in Seasons 2 and 5.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Hastings was supposed to have a storyline about being gay and coming to terms with it, but then the writers chickened out, leaving the fans mystified at why they bothered to introduce a new character in the final season who then did nothing but take up space that could have been used for the people we actually cared about.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The Dillon Panthers' fight song sounds a lot like Notre Dame's fight song.

** At least he gave Vince someone else the ball to besides his running back.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The Dillon Panthers' fight song sounds a lot like Notre Dame's fight song

* InformedWrongness: Smash is painted as being in the wrong when he doesn't initially take a stand regarding Mac's racist comments in "Blinders". However, he brings up some good points. First, he points out that the black players say some things about the white players that could be considered just as racist without any controversy. Next, he points out that him being expected to be offended by the comments is racist in itself.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Smash's speech about he doesn't have to take offense to somewhat racist comment Mac says and how the implication that he should be is racist in and of itself. Not to mention how the black players say things that are just as racist about the white players, and get away with it all the time.

** Averted again in 2011 (the show's final season), where Connie Britton was nominated again, the show finally received a nomination for "Outstanding Drama Series", and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Kyle Chandler actually *WON* the Emmy for Lead Actor in a Drama!]] We can be quite thankful that ''Series/BreakingBad'' didn't have a season that year. Jason Katims also won an Emmy for writing the Series Finale.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: Uses a lot of the truly epic and beautiful Explosions in the Sky songs that were present in the movie, as well as its own score by W. G. Snuffy Walden.

* It even got a TakeThat from ''WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman'' more than a decade later: "Sometimes life is like Season 2 of ''Friday Night Lights'', you’ve just got to push through and hope there’s something better ahead."

* It even got a TakeThat from ‘’WesternAnimation/BojackHorseman’’ more than a decade later: “Sometimes life is like Season 2 of ‘’Friday Night Lights’’, you’ve just got to push through and hope there’s something better ahead.”

* HilariousInHindsight: Landry's season 2 story created a gag among the fans that he was a serial killer and whenever a character inexplicably disappeared, he'd done them in. Then came Jesse Plemmons' [[TheSociopath role]] on ''Series/BreakingBad''.