Gimme a T, gimme an E, gimme an X…Texas Forever!
Friday Night Lights is a football drama that ran for 5 seasons from 2006 to 2011. It revolved around the Panthers, a high school football team from the fictional rural Texas town of Dillon and their new coach, Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler). Connie Britton reprised her role from the movie version as wife, Tami, and led a cast of mostly unknowns who became stars.
Although the series addressed issues such as family values, racism, and the haves vs. the have-nots in our society, it was really all about the boys—their games, their hopeful futures being recruited to play D1 college ball before getting drafted into the NFL, and the people who loved them; especially the cheerleaders, rally girls, and female townies. Mostly, the young women served as hangers-on, adoring fans, and arm candy for the players. And ofttimes not to their betterment.
With A Look
If it’s possible to be a slut-shamed with a look, then all eyes were on Tyra Collette (Adrianne Palicki) from the get-go.
It’s established she’s the girlfriend of bad boy Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch), but that doesn’t stop the “get me out of this two-bit town” non-cheerleader who Riggins’ older brother refers to as “Maxim Magazine,” from getting her flirt on. When the press descends upon Dillon, interviewing QB Jason Street (Scott Porter), she photobombs him giving the impression she’s his girl much to the dismay of his actual main squeeze—the darts-from-the-eyes shooting, Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly).
By Self-Doubt
Oh, there's no shaming like that which a young woman does to herself.
After Jason is permanently injured during a game and wheelchair-bound, Lyla confronts Riggins, whose resting state is drunk, for not visiting his best friend in the hospital and the two of them end up in a rather intense embrace/make-out session. Feeling wildly guilty, she approaches Tim at school the next day announcing: "What happened between us can never happen again...I hate myself for the other night...I just hope I don't go straight to hell." Hell? Really?
By The Town
Tyra's down on her luck, single mother, Angela (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson), gets a job at Lyla's dad's car dealership and Buddy Garrity (Brad Leland) pulls a #MeToo. Although it appeared that the relationship was consensual, was it really when you consider Angela was desperate to get and keep the office manager position?
After Buddy fires Angela, things blow up as the town gets out of the church. "You could have at least let me keep the job," she sobs as she cracks him across the face, making it clear to Buddy's wife what had been going on behind her back.
By Mom
Coach's daughter Julie (Aimee Teegarden) starts dating QB Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) and as the relationship intensifies the young couple contemplates getting intimate. When Julie's mom, Tami, catches Matt buying condoms at the drugstore she confronts her daughter. "Don't you smirk at me...I am very upset... you are not allowed to have sex...you're 15 years old...you can be hurt and you can be degraded...and you can become hard...and cynical. You can wait."
She and Matt don't get busy, but when Tami tells Eric about the condom purchasing, he shames her for bad mothering.
By Police
Tyra fights off an attempted sexual assault, and the rapist ends up in the river no longer breathing. When police find the body they decide Tyra is a person of interest, and two detectives discuss her thusly:
Detective 1: "Open container violation, shoplifting...truancy, indecent exposure, public drunkenness. We have found ourselves a real upstanding citizen."
Detective 2: "Got a real rep in the sex department too. Got a sister who's a stripper."
This is overheard by the state trooper dad of Landry (Jesse Plemons), who wants his son to no longer hang out with Tyra.
By Dad
Tami’s wild thing of a sister Julie shows up and brings Julie a (very) little something from her travels.
Tami: "You best take that off before your father gets home."
Julie: "But it was a present mom."
Shelley: "You look incredible, honey."
Eric: "Why are you dressed like that?" (referring to her scarf tied into a skimpy top)
Shelley: "This is what everybody in Brazil’s wearing."
Julie: "Yeah, it’s what everybody in Brazil’s wearing."
Eric: "We’re not in Brazil."
Shelley suggests Julie write a thank-you note to her grandma for her inheriting her large breasts. Seeing Eric is upset, Tami tells Julie to "Go change."
By An Ex-Boyfriend
Riggins has a brief affair with his older, single-mother next-door neighbor, Jackie (Brooke Langton) but she breaks things off because dating a high schooler is just too regressive. He comes home one day and finds her with his older brother Billy (Derek Phillips): "You two have your fun," he shouts as he packs his bag and moves out. Given his sibling is a bit of a loser, it's only a matter of time before Billy loses his job and stops paying the mortgage. Jackie breaks up with him too.
Riggins runs into her and rubs Jackie's hard times in by telling her: "If you want to finish that Riggins trifecta, I think my dad lives in Corpus still."
By Racists
When Smash (Gaius Charles) begins seeing a white girl named Noelle (Jana Kramer) and neither wants to hide their love, they face prejudice from friends, family, and Dillon denizens. They're both strong enough to stand up to it, but when boys begin harassing Smash's sister Noannie (Nieko Mann), he can't take it and threatens violence.
At the movies, a white player from another team justifies bothering Noannie by telling Smash: "You got one of ours, so we get one of yours." When she picks up the phone, callers tell her they've heard she "puts out for white boys," which was untrue.
By The Entire Student Body
Tyra (the slut-shaming gift that keeps on giving) is desperate to go to college. Her grades will not get her there so she needs some extracurriculars. She runs for Student Body President, rather late in the game, so she goes all aggressive with the campaigning, wallpapering the halls of Dillon High with her "Vote for Tyra" posters.
Boyfriend Landry tries to shield her, to no avail, from the way other students mock her newfound serious interest in leadership, by defiling her posters with "For a good time call..." graffiti.
By Your Own Squad
After Jason's accident, Lyla and Riggins start sleeping together. As there is no such thing as a secret in a small town, the gossip travels fast and everyone takes sides against the new campus couple, except Tim Riggins is labeled "a bad friend," while Lyla has "slut" scrawled across her locker.
The title of the episode is "It's Different for Girls," and indeed it is. Lyla is not even protected by the cheerleaders she captains. When not whispering about her on the game bus and posting about her on the internet, they make passive/aggressive--and sometimes just plain aggressive--comments while forming the pyramid and unceremoniously dropping her on her butt.