Coach Taylor is disappointed too. (NBC photo)

One of the big things on my summer to-do list was to catch up on “Friday Night Lights,” which I had inexplicably never seen until recently. (I say inexplicably because I discovered it’s flat-out the best series on network TV; how the Emmys and viewers continue to ignore it is beyond me.) Well, on Wednesday I finally finished the Season 3 DVDs, getting me current. The season finale ends on such an interesting, new-twisty note that I was all pumped up for the new season to arrive in the winter.

Well, I’m gonna have to wait. And wait. And wait. It’s been announced that NBC won’t air the new season of “FNL” until next summer. That’s just crushing. That’s more than a whole football season away. DirecTV will still air the new season in October, but we cable-dependent folks are out of luck until June or so.

I’m so, so bummed.

But in the meantime, that means that anyone who hasn’t watched it has plenty of time to catch up. I can’t recommend it enough. Though ostensibly about high school football in a Texas town, it’s so much more than that. It’s an amazingly rich, intelligent, almost voyeuristic look into the lives of some of the best-developed characters on TV and their frighteningly lifelike relationships. Get your hands on the first three seasons and watch ’em. Then tune in next summer, so maybe the following season will have a quicker turnaround time.