MovieChat Forums > Friday Night Lights (2006) Discussion > The age inconsistencies

The age inconsistencies

posted 10 years ago by Karasuu
16 replies | jump to latest

So season 1, everyone is a senior except for Smash (junior) and Matt, Landry, Julie (sophmomores)

Then in season 2 Jason is the only who graduated. Now Tyra, Lyla and Tim are juniors along with Julie,etc..
Ok I guess I can figure this one out:
Lyla is the right age. I guess they never exactly mentioned her being a senior (even though it seemed like Jason and Lyla have been dating forever)
Tyra is also the right age, or maybe started school late
Tim definitely got left back.

Ok that's all figured out......OH WAIT

Season 4 Julie and Landry are still in highschool????????????????????????

So that means in season 1 they were freshmen (even though Julie's parents clearly mentioned she was a sophomore). Landry was driving around when he was 14/15??? yeah ok!

(or maybe landry was left back in his junior year, due to the whole murder thing)

I love this show, but DAMN so many inconsistencies!!!

[–] faulknerster 10 years ago

Yes, that is one of the show's biggest faults. It's a lot easier to swallow if you just accept that the reset button was pushed after season two or just pretend like season two doesn't exist or takes place in an alternate universe like I do. If you take season two as part of the canon then so much of the series is off.

[–] hindsboro1 10 years ago

As far as I am aware they never state Landry or Julie's age or what class they are in. There is a episode in season 2 where julie gets to practice driving and I think that would imply her birthday is early in the year (she get her license during football season.) So she probably is a freshman during the first season.

Landry on the other hand is driving in the first episode so that would imply he at least 16 first season. In the last season he is in the same grade as Julie meaning he was a freshman in season 1. So unless he was held back once fresh-senior year that would be a inconsistent.

Jason is a senior and lyla and smash are juniors.

Matt, tyra and tim (I think landry is too but they needed him for the last season so they changed the story line a bit) are sophmores.

I agree there are inconsistancies, but you kind of have to overlook them. I think with any high school based tv shows, they struggle to find a way to make the actors relevant to the story after 4 seasons (typically they graduate and leave.) Not overly stating the classes of some of the cast was a way to be able to keep some a little bit longer without a lot of explaining to the audience.

[–] nffreak 10 years ago

There's an episode in season 4 when Julie says to matt "we've been together for 4 years" and she's supposed to be 17 at the time. That bugged the hell out of me.

[–] faulknerster 10 years ago

They did a pretty good job post the first half of season one never mentioning anyone's age or class (except for Smash in season two), but that moment from Julie stood out as an err moment. I wonder if it was improvised. But as I said before if you look at season three as a re-do of the malfunctioned, non starter second season the series flows a lot better.

[–] PWitter79 10 years ago

I don't know I distinctly remember them saying Julie was a freshman in season 1, Matt was a sophomore, and street a senior.

But you would think that because Jason and Tim were best friends, and Jason and Lyla were together for such a long time that they were all the same age.

You would also think that because Matt and Landry were best friends forever that Landry would be the same age as Matt, and he was driving in Season 1.

But it was obvious why they kept them for as along as they did. Riggins being the fan favorite and all, you understood that. then going into season 4 they probably figured well we could squeeze an extra year out of Landry just to bridge the gap between the new teams.

But they could have dumped both Lyla and Tyra when they wrote off Smash and Jason and i would have been fine with that, especially Lyla

[–] ClattyBella 10 years ago

Julie was 15 during season 1, in the episode were Tami see's Matt buying condoms and freaks out she says to Julie something like "you're 15 and too young to have sex" but then I am also sure that at some point in that season we see her in a class with Tim who was for sure not 15 so....

[–] MAK_CDN 8 years ago

It isn't surprising to see Tim in a class with people younger than him. He was never portrayed as being too scholastically motivated.

[–] forksforrests 8 years ago

Season 1, Episode 8. Tami talks to Eric about a girl she saw in the counselor's office who is a sophomore and she says "our daughter is a sophomore!". The show expicitly states Julie is NOT a freshman in season 1. It's no wonder the writers were able to pull this move with this show, when half the audience seems convinced that Julie was somehow meant to be a freshman as confirmed by season 1....

A rose is just a rose.

[–] BrionyT 9 years ago

Especially because they were broken up for a year or so and he was dating the home nurse

[–] jeff_mcjefferson 10 years ago

They did mention Julie was 15 in Season 1 and 16 in Season 2.

Get on the scale! Get off the scale.

[–] cmsacco-1 9 years ago

It seems to me that Julie and Matt were the only ones they actually got right all along. I think it is fairly well implied in Season 1 that Julie is a freshman. And I believe it is outright stated that Matt is a sophomore.

But they got everyone else wrong! It was purposely implied in Season 1 that Tyra, Lyla, and Riggans were seniors, and that Landry was the same age as Matt. As it turns out, Riggans (and Tyra and Lyla) was supposed to be a SOPHOMORE in Season 1?! Come on!

[–] guanzilla 8 years ago

Yeah, if you watch it over again (as I'm doing now), you'd think the core cast (Street, Riggs, Lyla, Tyra) were Seniors, and you could picture Smash as a junior only due to the fact of how they don't mention recruiting until season 2, which someone like Smash, would easily be on the radar of every college in Texas, if not the nation.

[–] forksforrests 8 years ago

As far as I am aware they never state Landry or Julie's age or what class they are in

Untrue. Tami clearly states in season 1 that her daughter is a sophomore. They also reference this when she's planning on having sex. And it's just common sense that Landry would be Matt's age/in his grade.

A rose is just a rose.

[–] NuckyThompson 9 years ago

It was right around the time that writer strike took place.

[–] forksforrests 8 years ago

I had such a hard time enjoying season 3 because of these age issues. Like at the start of the show, we KNOW Lyla, Tyra, Tim, and Jason are in the same year. Even if it's not explicitly state, it's something that's beyond obvious because they're talking about Lyla and Jason's future after graduation, and we know Tim and Jason are bffs who would obviously be in the same grade. Tyra too would be in the same grade as them, and not in the cohort younger. It makes no sense. Did they expect us to believe that Lyla and Jason got engaged when Lyla was in grade 10?????? What the f-ck? Or that all these kids were having sex at that age yet when Julie first tried to, the show made a Big Deal out of it? Not to mention the idea of these adults like Tim's neighbor or Patrick Adam's character having sex with these sophomores!

Julie being a freshman was just a complete plothole because it's explicitly mentioned that she's a sophomore. I don't know why they decided Landry should be her age either. That was ridiculous. Landry would be in Matt's year, if anything. How else would they become so close? They went to school together.

The only thing that made sense is Tim being held back a couple years but it's not like the show ever mentioned it. Not to mention, he was one of the few who got a full ride to college, so if his marks were that bad (which they were...as referenced on the show), why did he get the easy way out? Luke ended up having to enlist and I doubt his grades sucked.
A rose is just a rose.

[–] ChicagoStyleSports 8 years ago

"Having to enlist"? He didn't have to, and he showed interest in staying on the farm and not playing football. The phrasing of "having to enlist" is just confusing to me.

It is going to get wet in here tonight. Lace your boots up, kiddies.