Unlike 'Happy Days' or 'Fame' or 'Welcome Back, Kotter,' kids today do not remain in high school for life on television any more. No, today, the actors and their characters are chewed up and spit out in real time, just like life. That means we have to accept that 'Friday Night Lights'' Landry is leaving the show, and with that, Jesse Plemons is off the NBC show. Well, not totally. He'll be out of East Dillon High School, but still living in Dillon, Texas.

Executive producer Jason Katims says that Jesse will be on 'Friday Night Lights' for the fifth and final season, but not a regular. It'll be part-time, which isn't the worst situation. However, with his status as recurring and Taylor Kitsch as Tim definitely gone -- along with Zach Gilford as Matt and Scott Porter as Jason and Gaius Charles as Smash before them -- they're definitely breaking up that old Panther team from the first couple of seasons.

Sigh ... is it too soon to hope for a Dillion Panther Championship team reunion in the next decade?

(S04E13) One of the stranger things about 'Friday Night Lights' airing on DirecTV -- before this same season airs on NBC starting April 30th -- is the fact that this was the season finale and it was all set around Thanksgiving. We may be contemplating Valentine's Day on other shows and in our own lives, but in Dillon, Texas, it's a Thanksgiving turkey feast, time to hang Christmas decorations outside the house, and -- oh, yes -- the big local high school football game. The Clash of the Cats - Lions versus Panthers. More about the game, the guests, and the tough decisions to be made after the jump.

(S04E12) Facing the Lions, Coach Taylor said the word of the week was focus. He was wrong. The word of the week was choice. Everybody seemed to be facing impossible choices.

Bigger than right or wrong, yes or no, play or don't play. In this penultimate episode of 'Friday Night Lights,' the problems were everywhere, but solutions -- unfortunately -- were hard to come by. More on the big game, toothpicks, apologies and Habitat for Humanities after the jump.

(S04E09) This is a really interesting time in television because there are not one or two or three excellent dramatic TV shows, there are a dozen I could name off the top of my head. Somewhat overlooked -- thanks to NBC -- is Friday Night Lights.

Amid Lost, 24, House, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Dexter, Big Love, Damages, Sons of Anarchy, NCIS and others, the drama which some incorrectly think is just about Texas football, doesn't get its just desserts.

This was a typical episode of Friday Night Lights, layered with character development and conflicts, emotions out of whack, and problems that seem to crop up out of nowhere. It's a lot like life. For more on the show and what Tami and Eric were talking about in bed, follow me after the jump.

(S04E08) Dreams. Tami and Eric have big dreams for Julie as she prepares to go to college. Tim Riggins has been dreaming of what he would do some day with 25 acres of Texas real estate. Luke's worried that his dream of getting a scholarship out of of Dillon is slipping away. And Buddy, well, he just wants to have football pride for the Lions like he did for his dream team, the Panthers. More on all that and more Friday Night Lights after the jump.

(S04E04) Life is what happens while you're busy making plans. Matt hasn't exactly been the architect of his future, but the Dillon former quarterback has been plugging along. This week found Saracen in the cross hairs emotionally. The Taylors, meanwhile, continue to struggle through the professional turmoil, and the younger set in Dillon has definite issues -- some good, some not-so-good.

Then there's Buddy Garrity. If he's not a Panther anymore, and he denounced his identity with the West Dillon team last week, what is he? As he told Eric, the beauty of boosterism is that it comes from the heart. Where's Buddy's heart now? More on that and the rest, after the jump.

(S04E03) There's so much that's right about Friday Night Lights this new season that it probably sounds like I'm overdoing it with the positive notices. However, the way they've shaken up Eric and Tami's life together in Dillon has been terrific.

The gerrymandering for the town, sending Eric to coach a poor school with a tattered football squad is inspired storytelling. And Tami's not in a better place back at West Dillon because she sent Luke Cafferty to East Dillon, the school he was supposed to be attending. The Boosters are not happy with Tami. Eric's not sleeping. What's going to happen now?

(S04E02) In case you think the Coach Eric Taylor has all the answers, this episode shows that's not always the way it is. In last week's show, the East Dillon Lions were so awful, Coach couldn't take it. He threw in the towel, which is a boxing term, but by forfeiting the game at half-time, that's what he did in football terms.

Things were hardly better for Tami at Dillon, although by comparison, her school looks like paradise. Eric's on the other side of paradise. More about that and the rest of the players, on field and off, after the jump.