I’ve been watching Julie Taylor flounder in the final season of Friday Night Light in the wake of the fall-out from her affair with a married teaching assistant.
Julie was humiliated after her lover’s wife slapped her in the face in front of a bunch of her peers and screamed, “Julie Taylor is a slut!” Since then, Julie hasn’t been able to motivate herself to set foot back on campus.
As her parents, Eric and Tami Taylor have been trying to persuade her to return to school, Julie is simply following in the footsteps of other TV teens who’ve encountered trouble when it comes to college.
When Julie told her folks that there was no way she could go back, Rory Gilmore from the Gilmore Girls kept coming to mind. After Rory was told that she had no future as a journalist by a newspaper magnate, she and her boyfriend stole someone else’s boat to take it on a joy ride and got arrested. Rory, ashamed that her boyfriend’s father told her she didn’t have what it took to be a successful reporter, she dropped out of Yale, against her mother Lorelai’s wishes. After skipping a semester of school, Rory finally got her act together, kicked academic butt and eventually landed a job as a political reporter.
Then other college-aged characters came to mind. Like Claire Fisher from Six Feet Under. Clever and creative, Claire was excited about her future once she found an arts college that suited her off-beat sensibilities. She excelled at photography and created unique art that received professional accolades. However she dropped out of the school that had initially appealed to her, causing her mother to cut off her access to her college money and prompting Claire to take on a dissatisfying temp job.
Over on Army Wives, smart, talented hockey player Emmalin Holden, the daughter of a general, was acting strangely at home whenever anyone asked her how her first semester of college was going. Finally she confessed that not only did she hate school, but she was overwhelmed and wanted to drop out. Plus she was no longer on the collegiate hockey team because she was on academic probation.
On Parenthood, the troubles are already starting for eldest Braverman grandchild, Amber Holt as she reached the end of her senior year of high school. Another creative type, Amber didn’t get into college and completely flipped out over that fact, got into drugs, drinking and a serious car accident with one of her drinking buddies. Her future is still a giant question mark.
Some ten years ago, the solid and poignant drama Once and Again highlighted the exploits of another budding teen musician — like Amber from Parenthood – Eli Sammler, who, despite working hard to overcome his learning disability, didn’t get into college and spent the year after he graduated from high school flailing around, picking up odd jobs and getting busted for having pot in his car.
Have TV teens always had such difficulties when they go to college?
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on Jun 04, 2011 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
I’ve always thought the Taylor’s were raising a brat. The raised a homewrecking harlot. Can’t stand even seeing this character on tv.
Julie’s arc is pretty much the worst thing about this final season.
You said it brudda.
It’s pretty clear that they don’t know how to write Julie when she’s not in a relationship with Matt. She was one of the worst things about season 2, and her fling with that guy in season 4 was completely forgettable. It’s like they are on a mission to make her seem mature by pairing her with older guys all the time.