Set in Odessa, Texas, Friday Night Lights chronicles the 1988 season of Permian High School's legendary Panther football team with players, coaches, mothers, fathers, boosters, fans and families struggling with ongoing personal conflicts while the team fights for a state championship. In depicting the daily grind of coach Gary Gaines' winning team and the potential destinies of its individual players, the story paints a vivid portrait of Odessa (and places like it all across America) where, once a week during the fall, the town and its dreams come alive beneath the dazzling and disorienting Friday night lights ... when the Panthers take to the field. Friday Night Lights illuminates the hopes and dreams of Odessa's townsfolk, who ardently fill Ratliff Stadium's 20,000 seats every Friday night. For the young men of the team, every moment, every play is a chance to transcend their small town and the fleeting fulfillment of a gridiron stardom whose pinnacle may be reached by the time they turn 18.