Just because Ted Lasso is a positive show doesn’t mean its characters can’t be dicks
A heel turn headlines an episode about failing to recognize the right moment to intervene
TV Reviews Ted Lasso
Writing about a show week-to-week, it’s sometimes hard to distinguish between a critique that a show anticipates and one that it doesn’t.
For instance, I feel confident now that Ted Lasso’s writers didn’t think Sam’s protest was as consequential as I did. At the time, I wrote a review that treated the loss of Dubai Air’s sponsorship like a seismic shift in the world of Ted Lasso, but two episodes later the team had jerseys with “bantr” on them instead, and the show has never circled back to Sam’s activism and the public’s reaction to it. As I’ve said previously, I consider that a missed opportunity, and an example of the show introducing something complicated and choosing to largely “resolve” it instead of embedding it into the show’s world. But as far as I knew, the show was simply biding its time to bring it up, and I suppose technically speaking it’s possible that there will be repercussions before the season is done (even if that seems unlikely at this stage). All I can do is capture my impression at this particular moment, aware that the show could make me look silly in multiple ways by the time the season ends. That’s the nature of writing in this format.
However, “Headspace” provides some assurance that the show intended me to have a problem with one of the show’s characters. From the beginning of the season, Nate’s behavior has felt off, and despite the fact that Ted and Coach Beard seemed to notice it too, no one was saying anything about it. The show just kept going on as though the way he was treating his replacement Will was acceptable, and that his demeaning comments about the players—his reaction to Dani’s yips stood out to me—weren’t a point of concern. In fact, the last few episodes have still ostensibly treated Nate’s journey as an aspirational one, with Rebecca and Keely teaching him to “make himself big” to get a table at a restaurant, which he used in order to take control of the FA Cup quarter-final in Ted’s absence and assert his skill as a coach. And while I didn’t make it the focus of either review, I found the show’s willingness to frame Nate’s actions as heroic disconcerting, and worried—in part because of the recent issue with Sam’s protest—that the show was sweeping the consequences of his behavior under the rug.
There’s a reason I framed this as worrisome instead of damning, though, as “Headspace” strongly suggests that Ted Lasso was aware I might be feeling this way. Nate, believing his own press in the wake of his “Wonder Kid” triumph, crosses a line in his conversation with Colin, and Coach Beard calls him out for it. Although Beard has witnessed Nate’s mean streak on numerous occasions, it has never been so targeted, and so personal, and even if we acknowledge that Colin was among those who bullied Nate back when he was the equipment manager, he didn’t deserve to be singled out when other players were also ribbing Nate a bit. Nate also doesn’t actually make that distinction himself in his comments, choosing entirely to belittle Colin’s talent compared to Dani and Jamie, who was actually the one who incited most of that bullying. And so Beard is right to step in, and Nate quickly expresses regret, and—in the spirit of the show’s positivity—takes a moment during practice to apologize to Colin. With the apology accepted, the team joins in a giant group hug, and then they all present him with his very own “Wonder Kid” jersey. It’s a tidy narrative arc that acknowledges Nate’s behavior, creates a conflict that forces action, and then presents a proto-typical Ted Lasso resolution now that Nate has learned his lesson.
Except that it never feels like it’s going to stick. Throughout the episode, there is too much tension in Nate’s desire to bask in the afterglow of his moment. He revels in the headlines about his triumph, but his father barely even notices them, and preaches humility instead. The players all seem to respect him, but they tease him in a way they would never tease Roy, and you can sense that Nate no longer sees being “one of the guys” as enough of a victory. He won’t stop reading the positive social media posts about his coaching, but when he finds a single “mean tweet” buried within them, he can only focus on how the team’s “Wonder Kid” jokes humiliate him. And so he unloads on poor Will, who organized the jersey in an effort to do something nice for Nate much as Nate once tried so hard to do nice things for the team. That final moment shatters the notion that the show is unaware of Nate’s toxicity, but the entire episode highlights the tension in Nate’s grasp on his position, making it clear that everything they’ve seeded thus far this season has had him on a knife’s edge of threatening to make Will’s life a “fucking misery” simply for a kind gesture.
It’s hard to say exactly how Ted Lasso intends to address the fallout of Nate’s actions, but based on what we see here Ted himself will hold himself responsible for not stepping in sooner. When Nate makes his big apology, Ted asks Beard if he missed something, and the reality is that he did: he and Beard have shared looks on numerous occasions at things Nate has said and done, but neither of them stepped in. For all of the talk about belief and positivity, Ted didn’t want to make the necessary interventions, and failed to realize how the cumulative impact of Nate’s experience could spiral. And given that Nate’s escalation comes at the same time Ted is distracted with his own mental health struggles—which manifest here as a series of visits to Dr. Fieldstone where his desire for help, disdain for therapy, and refusal to quit converge—I can imagine that if/when Ted finds out about it he will think that he should have done more.
But will he realize this confirms that despite everyone acknowledging the broad good that Ted has done for AFC Richmond, the Ted Lasso philosophy is highly fallible? “Headspace” firmly positions Nate as Exhibit A for how the show’s feel-good attitude wasn’t just hiding Ted’s depression: it also allowed Nate’s inferiority complex to fester and turn into something far more toxic, and that should force everyone involved to reassess their choices. We know there’s a self-serving purpose behind Ted’s suggestion to Keeley that it might be good to “bottle things up,” even if everyone else doesn’t, but how much has his desire to avoid more emotionally complicated conflicts—whether in his marriage or among his coaching staff—created undesirable outcomes? As Ted combines “fight and flight” to avoid the answer to that question, and continues the lie about what happened at the game when asked by Trent Crimm (The Independent) directly, the show gets to dig deeper into the costs of hiding their issues behind the veneer of positivity that Ted’s philosophy has provided all of AFC Richmond.
While Nate’s story goes to a dark place, and Ted’s one-on-ones with Dr. Fieldstone carry a lot of raw emotion, the rest of the episode is fairly light—maybe a bit too light—by comparison. I was literally just thinking about how the show wasn’t injecting much conflict into Roy and Keeley’s relationship, so her starting to feel smothered was well-timed, and provides a lower stakes investigation of what happens when you struggle to communicate and hide your true feelings. Returning to a comparison I made earlier, it reminded me a fair bit of Dr. Cox stories on Scrubs in its resolution, with Roy’s workplace conversation about on-field strategy waking him up to his mistake, and inspiring his romantic gesture of giving Keeley space to herself. If it’s not clear, I consider this a solid source of inspiration for the show, even if I sort of agree with Keeley that I found Roy’s storyline stronger when he wasn’t part of the show’s workplace dynamic, and was never entirely sure I understood why Roy was so unaware that his constant Dan Brown reading sessions and clinginess might be a problem.
But then again, he completely misread how to handle the situation when they first started connecting last season, so I suppose it’s just a reminder that more than being a show about inherently “good” characters, Ted Lasso works because it’s about inherently human characters, and the deeper we get into the second season the more the show is exploring the nuance of that quality. This might mean that a character like Nate starts to fall in our estimation, but that’s a natural extension of what we knew about the character thus far, and despite my initial reservations has evolved into a rich vein of storytelling for the back half of the season.
Stray observations
- I liked seeing the entire team wrapped up in Sam’s bantr drama, but I have to admit that after sitting on it I don’t like the idea of Sam and Rebecca together at all, and maybe that means I hate love but this wouldn’t be the first time that’s been proven true by my reaction to a relationship story. We’ve still got at least a week to go before we learn what the show intends for this, but my position for the time being is that no amount of charming run-ins are going to convince me otherwise.
- “So stop your dithering and go fuck your cartoon rat”—this, however, was the closest I came to getting onboard with this story.
- Quite an appearance by the drinking bird, although I think it’s safe to say The Simpsons will remain the featured credit on its IMDB page.
- The show doesn’t always draw parallels between on-field activity and other storylines, but in addition to Roy’s epiphany we also have Ted expressing how his number one rule is that you never show the other team you’re tired, much as he doesn’t show the people around him when he’s hurting.
- In terms of corporate synergy this week, we have Roy using Siri to start Keeley’s playlist, and then the Warner Bros.-owned Sex and the City as Keeley’s TV choice with the carefully chosen scene of Aidan and Carrie’s move-in fight.
- “Why are you jazz scatting?”—Roy being unfazed by everyone gossiping about him was fun, and paid off when he got angry when he realized it wasn’t idle gossip but rather an actual situation he had to deal with.
- Jan’s inability to be anything other than blunt remains a very productive character trait, as we see when his refusal to let Nate continue his “I said Wunderkind” lie becomes part of his anger bubbling over shortly after.
- I really loved how right before Nate’s apology, they worked in a little moment of Will juggling water bottles to remind us of his innocence. We also got a glimpse of Nate’s past innocence in the same job with the “Box with a Face” he moves from his chair at his parents’ place. Nice way to seed the aggression of the final moments, which also notably takes place off-camera as though it was an act of violence.
- Speaking of things we were protected from, I admittedly am kind of curious just how much of Roy’s hair came out of the drains. Is that weird? I think it’s weird.
- “I told you: my lips are sensitive to impure metals, and whistles give me mouth hives”—Roy yelling “whistle” instead of using a whistle is a chef’s kiss of a choice.
- I have to say that while I understand Ted is very angry about his divorce and in part blames couples counseling for “failing” him, the fact he remains convinced that Sharon doesn’t actually care about him after presumably many months of her being part of the team and helping the players and coming to all the games does strike me as particularly offensive, and almost too mean? Like, I get that he’s in a bad place, but it was a bit shocking to me that he didn’t even offer a caveat that he wasn’t necessarily painting her with the same brush. But, in the spirit of Nate’s story, I have to trust that the show is being purposeful, and that this just speaks to how bleak Ted’s worldview is right now.
179 Comments
Jeez, that newspaper scene with Nate’s dad hit me hard. I know his approval seeking behavior can’t be excused in its entirety, but the show certainly succeeds in making you feel sympathetic for the dude.
Yeah. The way the dad shuts him down even as Nate attempts to introduce it with a bit of a self-deprecating joke is pretty heartbreaking. No amount of humility is good enough, it seems. I also caught that Nate is mostly rereading the same 2-day-old tweets again and again through the episode, which felt like a realistic touch.
“No amount of humility is good enough, it seems.”
Wait, so false modesty is an amount of humility? Do you know that the amount is zero?
I understand the “Humility is better than arrogance” mentality, and I’m not trying to excuse Nate’s behaviour, but Nate’s dad really is a giant dick in the two episodes we’ve seen him in. He was cold & standoffish in the restaurant episode, and he really acted like he couldn’t care less about Nate’s accomplishments with the team. It’s almost as if he just barely tolerates Nate. And Nate’s mother seems like the stereotypical apologetic (dare I say abused?) wife, “He didn’t really mean that…” type of thing. It seemed that way to me in the restaurant and again in this episode.
I was scared by Nate in this episodes and worry about the show’s ability to represent meanness and insecurity through visual means. The darkness at display in Nate’s behaviour felt like it was not only signalled through acting and script, but through the visual devices of the show. This sort of clashes with the relative lightheartedness of other scenes. The visual cues here felt like something violently dark was happening with Nate and Will. Felt like assault was happening and it feels like it’s something, visually, that the show struggles with.
I’d say that it’s a bit similar to an early Scrub scene (season 2 I think), where Elliot was having problems with Kelso which her colleagues weren’t really noticing.
Granted it kind of got solved by Dr Cox punching Bob on the nose, but it did showcase a contrast between JD’s whimsy and the bullying Elliot felt. Albeit in only one episode.
I think it was supposed to feel like an assault. Like it was supposed to be disturbing and upsetting and it… definitely was.
I think liked all of this week’s various plots, though I’m a bit sad about how Nate is seemingly turning into a grade A prick.
Ted’s opposition to therapy being a result of his failed couples counseling made him seem more a real person to me. I love the positivity message that Ted generally displays, but it’s nice to know he’s not perfect.Keeley and Roy’s relationship niggles were good, as sometimes they are a bit too perfect. Which feels a little grating sometimes. I’m not saying I want a rehash of what we saw via Carrie and Aiden in that on the nose clip of SITC, but it would more interesting if the resolution hadn’t been so neat and tidy.I did laugh at Roy getting deep into The Da Vinci Code, nearly twenty years after it was a worldwide phenomenon.
Apparently that playlist Roy created is real, those of us with Apple Music just need to ask Siri for it.
I have Apple HomePods sitting on top of the front speakers on my A/V system. When Roy started the playlist, the HomePods actually started playing it. I didn’t realize it until I paused the show to read the tweets on Nate’s phone and the music kept playing.
That’s awesome and kind of creepy.
For the soccer fans out there, am I the only one getting a Mourinho riff with the Nate arrogance storyline? He wins the game by telling the team to ‘park the bus’ and Wonder Kid seems similar to Mourinho calling himself ‘the Special One.’ Also, IIRC Mourinho started out as Bobby Robson’s translator at Barcelona before his meteoric rise, shades of Nate starting as the Kit Man.
Yes yes. I like these parallels. That means we might get Nate running down the sidelines after a goal next season or so. Or Nate getting a job somewhere down the English pyramid.
I hadn’t spotted that, but now you bring it up it does seem to fit.
As an Arsenal fan, I totally see that connection.
But that’s the whole point though. To show what happens when the bullied are given power. It’s not fun, but it’s realistic to see how he uses it, especially when Beard takes away his ability to belittle players, not he has to target the only person lower than him, Will. This story obviously ends with him going to far and I assume the therapist having him confront his issues with is Father.
SATC… Sex AND the City
Good spot, typo on my part.
While I never actively disliked Nate as a character, I guess this is the moment where I come out as someone who never really…cared for him that much. His mean streak was kinda there in the first season as well, culminating in his pep talk to the team which was framed as triumphant but, to be fair, was also pretty goddamn mean only that he was “punching up” so to speak. So, ironically, I’m much more interested in Nate now because of his tension with his dad and within himself. Being a jerk is apperantly a great way of getting me invested, probably cause it promises character growth. But god, the way Nick Mohammed delivered Nate’s threat to Will was CRUEL.
It would have been rough anyway, but (and I think the review mentioned this) the way it happened offscreen like an act of violence moved it into “genuinely upsetting” territory. I’m not sure how I feel about this storyline with him. It’s definitely easy to believe that he would have an inferiority complex since he doesn’t have the pedigree of any of the other coaches and a handful of players were picking on him and getting away with it very recently, but the meanness seems a little over the top. Like, obviously he never would have said what he said to Will (or Colin for that matter) if he knew anyone else was listening, but it’s a little hard to believe any character that considers himself a good person could say that to someone and not immediately realize they’re a villain.
Lots of nice people have a mean streak and a bad temper, though, and their blind spot to it can be enormous if they fundamentally consider themselves to be nice and decent. Not only do I know a lot of people like that in my own life, but – full disclosure – I personally suffer from that character defect as well. In the moment, when that vitriol is released, all you can think of is that it’s righteous anger, and the closest you come to any epiphany is, “Well, I’ve been holding this in so long and being decent to people without them knowing how hurt or angry I am, so it was bound to happen.” In those instances, it takes someone else whacking you over the head with the Reality Stick to realize that you were the one being the asshole. And that realization stings every time.
Yeah well there’s no excuse at all for that kind of workplace behavior and if anyone came on me like that, they had better be prepared for me to sock them in the fucking face, because I will not allow myself to be disrespected that way by anyone, least of all my boss. Also, no one should stand for that kind of behavior in their presence without intervening.
Yeah well there’s no excuse at all for that kind of workplace behavior
and if anyone came on me like that, they had better be prepared for me
to sock them in the fucking face, because I will not allow myself to be
disrespected that way by anyone, least of all my boss.
And you’d lose, in the long run. Should co-workers or those above you be treating you like that? Of course not. But you punched a co-worker. There’s no coming back from that one. Now you’re just fucked, and talking to the cops, most likely.
I honestly don’t care. There are some things more important than a job. I’ve swallowed A LOT over the years(The AV Club) for jobs. We’re in a room by ourselves? I don’t give a shit, it’s your word against mine. I will not be disrespected in that way, and the person doing the disrespecting should know immediately that that shit does not fly for anyone.
Is punching someone really the only way to tell them not to disrespect you? Is this a guy thing?
(I feel pretty confident that they’d *know* that’s what they’re doing, and their reaction to being hit in someone like Nate’s case would be ‘I’m now afraid to talk to you directly, but I’m gonna either fuck things up for you in secret or report that you hit me. With this visible mark I have from a punch in the face.’)
People who act in that way should think twice about speaking to anyone that way. Clearly they have never experienced immediate consequences for their shit behavior.
Dude, you’re not getting it. Obviously they should think twice. That goes without saying. But someone like Nate hasn’t walked around all his life with “I’m the alpha, others are weak” as the mentality. He’s had other people physically bully him for years with no consequences. In his mind he’s the victim and he’s demanding respect from others. Meeting that kind of shit with physical violence reinforces their insecure world view, so now they’ve learned nothing *and* they have the ammo of you throwing the first actual punch.
We’re in a room by ourselves? I don’t give a shit, it’s your word
against mine. I will not be disrespected in that way, and the person
doing the disrespecting should know immediately that that shit does not
fly for anyone.
Ooh, big man here, willing to punch a co-worker when nobody else is around.
Not sure why this response is so hostile- nobody here is saying his behavior is ok. Also the second you physically assault your boss, even if he was verbally abusing you seconds before, you’re the one in the wrong. That’s how literally everyone will see it, and it’s not just a “your word against mine” situation if one party has a black eye. Congrats- now you’re fired/in jail and you ruined your own life and everyone feels sorry for your abusive boss.
It was horrifying for all the reasons both you and the review said but the Colin thing actually hit harder to me. I feel like Beard didn’t go far enough in confronting Nate. It wasn’t just ‘personal and weird’, it felt cruel and even sadistic in a very precise, calculated way, whereas…he’s kind of been making Will’s life hell already, tbh. (My personal S2 hangup is I’m still confused why no one said a word to Nate about his bullying of Will all season. Sure, Ted’s not willing to have emotionally complex conversations. But he can politely tell someone to not be an asshole. He’s done it dozens of times. Beard doesn’t have Ted’s hangups, Leslie *feels ill* when he feels complicit in bad behavior. No one thought Nate bullying the water boy when he used to *be* the water boy needed a pretty textbook intervention?)
They did throw out the possibility that the scolding by Beard was imaginary (and thus Nate’s own guilt), what with Beard vanishing into thin air and all. Beard’s later nod to Ted’s “did I miss something?” argues against that, but not all that much — real Beard is the one most aware of the problem regardless.
I figured that was a joke about how Beard is sort of a human cryptid, but it’s possible. I don’t know why that’s who Nate would imagine, though, he didn’t know Beard could hear that conversation, and he doesn’t have a unique relationship with him that would lead to Beard serving as his imaginary conscience.
I thought the Beard that called out Nate was supposed to be a hallucination.
I honestly thought he said “put you out of your fucking misery” at first, which, Jesus. Also Will’s reaction of just surprise and lowering the blinds…sort of makes it feel like being cursed out by Nate wasn’t a new thing.
I’m pretty positive Ted’s aversion to therapy has less to do with marriage counseling and more to do with the lack of counseling he received after whatever happened to his dad. All signs point to not an accident or body illness.
It can be two (or three or four or seven or ten) things, but yeah, Ted’s habit of trying to brute force his way into happiness and mental health through sheer force of will seems to be a way of coping with a much earlier trauma.
I was thinking something along those lines as well. Obviously, it’s the cliche that therapy will always circle back to your parents, but Ted tossing out the line about how she’ll end up blaming it on his folks felt deliberate, like there’s something hiding down that path he doesn’t want to address.
His fight-and-flight peaked at the “blame my folks” thing when it was a wholly imagined conversation on his part. That’s definitely the bit he’s avoiding, and the ‘real’ reason he’s afraid of therapy though I’m sure his marriage didn’t help.
This is entirely a guess on my part, but I think Ted’s parents were divorced when he was young, and he lived with his father until his father died when Ted was a teenager, which crushed Ted. At that point, Ted just started to will himself to be happy.Or, maybe, his dad was a deadbeat, and those Sundays in the bar was the only time Ted spent with him. He treasured the time spent with this dad, but hated his father for not being there the rest of the time.I’m just spitballing here.
That would make sense thematically with what’s going on in the series, too. And why he got triggered by his son’s missing lunch, and thinking about Jamie and his father. Ted loves his son, but he’s not there for him. And put that alongside what Ted saw of how Jamie’s father treats him… I don’t know that I believe Ted’s dad was like that, but there’s something weird there, and they made the very clear choice to connect the two. Add in what’s going on with Nate and his dad, and it sure seems like a father/son trend is forming in the show.
My guess is that his father committed suicide. He made that comment to Jamie about how his father was harder on himself than on Ted and Ted overcompensates for his possible depression by being so sunny.
I can’t really say Ted’s standoffishness with Sharon is that surprising. We have seen her in the background the entire season, but lurking is a pretty good descriptor for it (the visual gag/metaphor with her getting closer every time Ted looks back being a prime example.) And despite a few glimmers of her interior life, she has by and large remained an aloof, closed book. I don’t know enough about therapists and their ideas about boundaries, etc. to know how much is intrinsic to being a good one, and how much is Sharon, but the lines of “hey you can talk to me any time” coming from Sharon throughout the season have never felt like something I’d feel in the moment was super-genuine (Sarah Niles does a remarkable job giving these cool smiles that feed into that uncertainty), let alone someone like Ted who was predisposed to think badly about therapy after previous experience.As mentioned earlier in metacommentaries about the season, even while I called Nate going bad since the beginning of the season (as mentioned below while his roast of the team was hilarious, it should have been an absolute indicator the guy had some issues that might manifest down the line), it has made him a generally unpleasant individual, and in a show like Ted Lasso that sticks out a lot more. I’m hopeful that we hammer him some more so that the last couple of episodes he’s more enjoyable again. (I also hope since he’s the first living dad we’ve seen on this show besides Jamie’s, we actually get some sort of effort put into changing their strained relationships.)
It’s definitely part of being a therapist. I’ve got two family members in the field and studied a lot of social work myself, you set very clear boundaries where you are not your clients’ friend because it’ll impact the work you do and cause emotional transference. The whole point of a therapist is being an objective party who knows evidence-based ways to deal with your stuff.(I’m not sure if it’s a sports therapy thing or a TV shortcut thing, but you’d also typically not have friends/coworkers purposely seeing the same therapist with everyone knowing who’s had a session recently. Even Leslie setting up outside with his little desk breaks confidentiality for anyone she talks to in English. I get why it’d make sense for a team to all have the same person, but I’m wondering how that gets factored in.)
I’m an LCSW, and though I’m no longer a clinician for individuals, I’d say Sharon acts pretty typical for how a workplace wellness professional might if they were very strict about boundaries. I used to work inpatient at a hospital, so I was responsible for not only my patients’ health, but occasionally also offered acute therapeutic support for my coworkers (dealing with things like burnout and secondary trauma). That meant, even when I got along with them, I still tried to maintain a certain distance since I might know really intimate details about their mental health they wouldn’t want anyone else to know. I didn’t want to run the risk of them feeling like they couldn’t trust me with their confidence.The “hey you can talk to me any time” that she’s saying is true because of that distance. It means that because of her professional training and boundaries, she can make the space-both literally in her schedule, but also emotionally and mentally- to hear her coworkers talk about really difficult and traumatic things that they wouldn’t tell their friends (and that their friends may be ill equipped to help them with). But the ability to do that has to occupy the parts of her relationship that might’ve been ‘becoming buddies with Ted and laughing at his jokes instead of recognizing them as deflections or distractions.’ That can make her seem cold in the universe where everyone else is all “Ted’s great! We love Ted!” but it also means she’s able to observe and see him in a way no one else has.I think it’ll be interesting to see how much of Sharon’s personality and methods we’ve seen are coming off the way they are because they’re viewed through Ted’s eyes. Everyone else who’s talked to her has had a positive experience, and even the “is she getting closer?” gag was brushed off by Beard and Nate as if they didn’t notice it. It makes me wonder if we’ll get more insight into who she is as a person as Ted comes to see her as one and not just a foil.
Yeah, I have been assuming that Sharon’s appearing intimidating, cold and standoffish was more of us seeing her through Ted’s eyes than through anyone else’s. The rest of the crew seems to like her a lot and be very comfortable with her.
I’m an LCSW, and though I’m no longer a clinician for individuals, I’d say Sharon acts pretty typical for how a workplace wellness professional might if they were very strict about boundaries. I used to work inpatient at a hospital, so I was responsible for not only my patients’ health, but occasionally also offered acute therapeutic support for my coworkers (dealing with things like burnout and secondary trauma). That meant, even when I got along with them, I still tried to maintain a certain distance since I might know really intimate details about their mental health they wouldn’t want anyone else to know. I didn’t want to run the risk of them feeling like they couldn’t trust me with their confidence.The “hey you can talk to me any time” that she’s saying is true because of that distance. It means that because of her professional training and boundaries, she can make the space-both literally in her schedule, but also emotionally and mentally- to hear her coworkers talk about really difficult and traumatic things. But the ability to do that has to occupy the parts of her relationship that might’ve been ‘becoming buddies with Ted and laughing at his jokes instead of recognizing them as deflections or distractions.’ That can make her seem cold in the universe where everyone else is all “Ted’s great! We love Ted!” but it also means she’s able to observe and see him in a way no one else has.I think it’ll be interesting to see how much of Sharon’s personality and methods we’ve seen are coming off the way they are because they’re viewed through Ted’s eyes. Everyone else who’s talked to her has had a positive experience, and even the “is she getting closer?” gag was brushed off by Beard and Nate as if they didn’t notice it. It makes me wonder if we’ll get more insight into who she is as a person as Ted comes to see her as one and not just a foil.
“Wunderkind” is literally German for “wonder kid”! (Well, more like “wonder child,” but the meaning’s practically the same.) I don’t know why Nate saying one instead of the other is any deal at all, or why the reporter even bothered to correct him.
It seemed a very random “well actually” moment, made even more weird by it coming from a mix zone reporter.
Would any reporter really correct what someone has said, unless it involved swearing?
It had me wondering if there was some sort of cultural divide, because I’m almost certain I’ve heard “wunderkind” and “wonder kid” used interchangeably in the U.S.
No, they’re used interchangeably here too, although I think reporters et al prefer “wunderkind” as sounding better than “wonder kid”. Otherwise though they mean the same thing.
This only speaks to my ignorance, but I’d never heard “wunderkind” during any televised UK sporting events.
It would have felt very odd here BBC, Sky or BT Sport trying to correct a player or coaching staff saying that.Though it’s entirely possible I’ve just missed both uses of the term.
Would any reporter really correct what someone has said, unless it involved swearing?
Probably not, unless it fundamentally changed the meaning of what was being said. And even then, probably not. Now the reporter gets to make a big deal about the misstatement.
Someone: “It’s a coming-of-age novel about…”That reporter: “Don’t you mean bildungsroman?”
“They fought hand-to-hand.”“Uh, I think you meant to say ‘mano a mano’?”
It is a small bit. They are saying that the smallest bit will set Nate off. Nate needs therapy.
Nate needs therapy and his dad needs to sit in on multiple occasions.
It’s actually pretty simple – “wunderkind” is the correct phrase in context, and even though the translation is literally “wonder kid,” the implication that Nate didn’t know the correct label, or that he flubbed saying it on camera, just festers in Nate’s mind as another in a long line of humiliations he believes that he has brought upon himself in his life. His success on the pitch was, to him, a sign that he had possibly moved beyond such things – yet the constant rehashing and ribbing, culminating with the well-meaning jersey gift from Will, was like a message to him saying, “You’ll never be good enough, and your father is right to downplay your success.”Whether a real sideline reporter would correct Nate like that or not is something I don’t know for sure – I don’t watch enough Premier League or Championship League matches to know the tenor of their reportage.
this is probably one of the best comments re: Nate’s behavior; while his experiences don’t excuse how he treats people, it’s not hard to see how someone could reach that point (especially considering the brutal bullying he endured last season, somewhat parallel to how he’s treating Will now).
It’s not something that generally occurs, but I can’t say that with 100% certainty.
Yeah, I get the emotional stakes behind it, and why a minor flub would cause Nate to spiral; I just feel that they could have found a more obvious faux pas.
I don’t think people make the child connection right away with ‘kund.’ But they certainly do with ‘kid.’ People think of a wonderkund as a maestro, a fully formed genius, and think is a wonder kid as a child prodigy, kind of a novelty.
It’s “wunderkind,” not “wonderkund.”
I think there’s two reasons this story tracks for me:1) It’s not that everyone is ACTUALLY obsessed with the “Wonder Kid” thing, we’re just seeing it from Nate’s perspective where it seems like EVERYONE is talking about it even when no one is actually being as pedantic as someone like Jan is.2) I do think that the British press MIGHT latch onto something like this for the headlines, and amplifying that with meme culture does create a higher possibility it would echo more in Nate’s world than otherwise.
It’s been a week since I saw that scene, but as I understood it, after Nate says “wonder kid”, the reporter knows it’s a better quote as “wunderkind”, so he asks Nate “did you mean…” as a chance to get Nate to say that, so that he can “correctly” quote it in its better version. Granted, the fact that it’s on live TV makes that less convincing, but that’s how I took it.
I could see that, like the reporter thinks it makes for a better soundbite
I think a key element in the Nate stuff is that bit in the restaurant table saga where his psych-himself-up power move was spitting in the mirror. He doesn’t like himself very much, I don’t think. I think that’s probably part of why he’s projecting so much hositility on the new boot boy, who is in essence the “replacement him”. And, people with low self-esteem/lots of anxiety over their own self worth *do* get really obsessed with stupid mistakes that don’t matter much to other people. It really works that it’s such a stupid, meaningless gaffe, but that he feels so embarrassed by it that he’s lashing out over it and trying to retcon what he said to erase the mistake. It works better *because* it’s hardly even a mistake at all.
Wunderkind is an actual phrase used outside of German language. Wonder kid isn’t, it’s like if schadenfreude had a literal translation in English.
Sure it is, as I and other folks in this thread have pointed out. A quick googling will unearth multiple dictionary entries, usually as “wonderkid.” It helps that, unlike “schadenfreude,” “wunderkind” has obvious English cognates, though technically “kind” (German for child) and “kid” (English slang for child) are unrelated etymologically.
Eh, the original word is “wunderkind,” and then it got garbled by English speakers so now that a lot of people consider “wonder kid” to be a proper English term, when it never actually surfaced until “wunderkind” became a popular German word in English writing.What’s funny is how happenstance it is that the two actually mean the exact same thing, just in this specific case. It’s almost diamterically-ironic to the word “irregardless,” which was utter gibberish, two English words being accidentally contracted by an English-speaking person who was, by all literal defintions, both ill-regarded and acted without regard.
Or Fahrvergnugen
It is a bit weird now that you mention it, but I think it works ok enough as a way to show how deep Nate’s insecurities are. Wonder Kid is a reasonably cool sounding nickname that stuck because of the reporter’s pedantry, but Nate can’t help but think that he, and by extension everyone else, is making fun of him and his supposed mistake.
The power of being pedantic.
It was a meaningless flub, but I think that’s the point. Everyone but Nate sees “Wonder Kid” as endearing, while Nate, because of his insecurities, thinks the phrase is mocking him. He’s too thin-skinned to laugh off even the most innocuous joke at his expense.
Does anyone have the list of books Beard is reading (or is it on iBooks)?I don’t care to see Nate and his dads issues being resolved (honestly-do we ever resolve these?). Nate’s dad is who he is and Nate has to grow up and realize his dad will not give him what he needs-only what he can and knows (like the teacher saying I can’t teach what you what-only what I know). Nate has to find his inner happiness and validation rather than external sources. And his dads advice isn’t bad-just poorly timed and delivered.
As for Ted, his dad is definitely the root of all this. I’m sure it impacted how he viewed being married and trying to make up for how his dad was (not dating he was jerk dad-maybe just absent to his mom).
Not that I don’t love Sam and Rebecca, but these two show no chemistry when interacting and the age gap is large-I doubt romance is the end-probably more like close confidants that help each other find the right person as they understand each other so well.I’m not getting why Beard is not doing more for Ted-they are supposed to be best friends. maybe a plot point later about Ted and Beard’s past that makes Beard keep his distance?
I like that potential direction for the Sam and Rebecca story :)On your last point about Beard, it’s sad but I think even as best friends we might see that Ted usually does well enough at burying his emotions that even Beard can’t tell what’s going on with him sometimes. Also from what we’ve seen, Ted’s only had two panic attacks, and Rebecca was the only one to recognize what was happening, so even if Beard being Ted’s best friend can intuit that he’s more down about his marriage for instance than he lets on, he hasn’t seen the extent of what Ted’s going through.One thing I’ve kind of noticed is he does maybe seem a little more annoyed with Ted at times than he did before, like with the Led Tasso scene. I really liked that he confronted Nate in this episode and it’s almost like he was paying it forward after Higgins talked to him about his relationship, but I think he’s not as insightful or well-spoken as Higgins so it took Nate “getting personal and weird” before he finally said something, and I think he might be having thoughts that Ted’s kind of lost his touch as coach, but won’t bring it up.Vague, slightly spoilery comment from an interview the actor did (that I’m recalling secondhand, I think after someone mentioned it here) – I believe he said Beard will have missed something really important going on with Ted, which I’ve thought might be about Ted being an alcoholic, but it might also not be as cut-and-dry and could mainly be referring to Ted’s anxiety/depression.
Hannah Waddingham and Toheeb Jimoh are likely something like 15 years apart. Sadly, this is fewer years apart than many, many couples on the screen where the man is older. So, although I agree that they don’t have a ton of chemistry together, I think the show is going to go there. Remember when Keeley, Roy and Rebecca went on the double-date with that milktoast boring guy and Keeley said, “Well, he’s age-appropriate”?
Don’t you mean milquetoast? (Sorry, sorry, it was right there.)I think the bigger thing is that in-universe a lot of reporters are stuck on Rebecca’s age (and Rupert cheating with/dating much younger girls) in a sexist way. Add that to Sam being a player on a team she owns, and someone looking for clickbait could certainly *make* it a big deal.
Not that I don’t love Sam and Rebecca, but these two show no chemistry
when interacting and the age gap is large-I doubt romance is the
end-probably more like close confidants that help each other find the
right person as they understand each other so well.
I just rewatched the first season, and two scenes jumped out at me:1) During the curse episode, Sam invites Rebecca down to the locker room for the item sacrifice & burning, but she immediately thinks he’s asking her out, so the possibility does exist in her mind.2) At the karaoke bar, when Rebecca comes inside to sing her song, she takes off her jacket, turns to hand it to someone, and she’s surprised to see Sam ready to take it.Now I know these are small. These aren’t exactly foreshadowing romance. But for some reason, I really do think Rebecca & Sam will find out that they’re texting each other and at least go on a date.
The big problem with season 2 is that this “therapy is evil” plotline would be sad and pathetic in a 1990s sitcom and Ted Lasso takes place in fucking 2021.
I am still getting my head around the pre-occupation with Nate . I never found him “toxic” in the first or this season. I found him to be a product of someone trying very hard to get the approval of his father as well as make a place for himself in a sport he clearly loves hobbled by those issuesHis upbringing ill-prepared him for assimilation and socialization, and we see that he lashes out and understand why. It’s a nice third tier storyline.But I enjoyed Ted’s story in this episode. Others here found his apprehension and dismissal of therapy unconvincing but that was made clear with his insults, lack of understanding of the process and yes, afraid of what he may learn about himself.We now see his aww-shucks corn-pone humor can also be a defense shield, what with his attempts at humor sitting down with Fieldstone. And I think many of us here thought that several times over last season. He’ has a box inside him tightly tied with string.Roy & Keeley yes, tons of charm.
It’s funny, I thought Roy’s Scrubs-like lesson on the field leading to a breakthrough in his relationship could be a bit on the nose, a little too tidy, as it was happening. But forcing Roy to take an extra ten or fifteen seconds to process it even after the players break it down for him worked well to turn it into a joke. Almost a bit of self-parody on Bill Lawrence’s part, if that was the intention.
What I loved about it was the call-back to the Wrinkle in Time plot from the first season. Ted gives Roy the book, and then later, after Trent Crimm explains the basic story, we see Roy’s real-time realization of how it’s applicable to the current situation while reading to his niece in bed. It was hysterical then and it’s hysterical here.
I’ll admit, I was a bit disappointed because I was hoping for more of a Ted and Doc-centric episode. After the events of the last episode, I was really looking forward to seeing a more in-depth conversation.That being said, I can understand Ted’s anger when he blows up at Dr. Fieldstone (though I have never been in his exact shoes, and I don’t condone it). As a Midwestern, we are definitely taught more to bottle up our emotions. That, combined with the fact that Ted’s previous attempts at therapy ended up in his previous life in shambles, can make someone feel pretty angry and frustrated with the whole concept. Again, I don’t condone how he acted though.Holy shit, the heel turn by Nate. I remember hearing Nick Mohammed mention the series would take Nate to some dark places, but I wasn’t expecting it to go so dark so fast. There’s definitely some underlying issues there that Nate needs to get figured out, otherwise he could become irredeemable.Finally, how is it that Roy is finally getting to reading Da Vinci Code just now? It’s almost a 20-year old book, with five books total in the series, and there’s been two ok movies and a really shit one about the character made since then. That just seemed really odd (although I suppose, considering the success of Da Vinci Code, it does allow the show to not date itself too much, but then it’s doing exactly that with Apple technology, gah).
When I say y’all talking about the possibility of a “bottle episode” in the comments last week I was like “Oh, that would have been nice,” but with only 12 episodes there’s other ground to cover in the ensemble.
The more I’ve had time to think about it, the more I have developed a theory around why Nate is so hostile to Will. Before I proceed, I want to note that this is my interpretation, and it is not accepting of Nate’s action, but rather the idea of putting myself in Nate’s shoes.Early in the first season, we saw Nate being, for all intents and purposes, harassed by Jamie, Issac and Colin. I have to imagine that while those three may have been the main instigators, that he was likely not getting any respect from the rest of the team, or the old coaching staff. He very well may have loved his job as a kit man because it made him feel some exclusivity, but the harassment from players did make his life a living hell. Even though Ted (via Roy) helped put a stop to that, Nate clearly had some resentment for his treatment, which we saw in the Everton speech (even though he targeted players that didn’t harass him as well, I imagine it was a “I’m getting every shot I can” situation). As someone who was bullied in high school in a small town, I can say I still hold a bit of resentment towards those who bullied me (it’s a scar that never goes away).Flash forward to the end of Season 1, where Nate gets promoted, finding it out from his replacement. Certainly a bit nerve-wracking to learn that way, but I imagine Nate is still fine with being a coach at a major football club (even if they dropped to the Championship).However, one thing we have not seen happen to Will-Disrespect from the players. It seems that Will is treated as one of the guys (likely due to the Lasso Effect in the locker room). That claws away at Nate. Here’s someone in his position, being treated better than he was in the same role. Combine that with the fact that he holds power, and Nate feels that Will shouldn’t be treated as an equal, because he wasn’t in that situation either (at least until Ted showed up).Nate’s not necessarily angry just at Will. He’s angry that he was treated so poorly for so long and some new kid just comes off the block and gets instant acceptance, whereas he had to work for it. It’s a jealousy thing that Nate expresses as anger or rude comments towards Will.This is just a working theory to be honest.
I think you’ve basically got it. Nate at 60 will be voting against workplace harassment laws because “back in my day, I got punched nine times a week and never felt the need to go crying to HR.” He got a little taste of power and used it to perpetuate the cycle.
I think he also has a fair dose of self-loathing, given that his power move to psych himself up at the restaurant was spitting in his own face (which seemed pretty disturbing to me). Will is basically the replacement Nate, and it makes sense that Nate would project his dislike of himself on the guy. But also, what you’re saying about people who are bullied learning the wrong lessons and passing that mistreatment along instead of breaking the chain definitely applies.
This is a great insight and I think you’re dead-on. Another element — and this is dicey — is how the show dances around issues of race and ethnicity. The episode where Nate wanted to take his parents to dinner — and wanted to give them the front window seat — hinted that the reticence of the restaurant to initially grant that request was race-based, without actually coming out to say it. Similarly, the fact that Will is white and not getting hazed by the players in the manner that Nate previously was is just hanging there. While not justifying Nate’s own bullying, it does make his bitterness slightly more understandable.
I read it the same way. Nate is mad that he struggled up the ladder and that Will is not having to do the same. The whole point, of course, is that the team learned from Nate and Ted that the kit man is an important job, often has insights that others can’t share, and that the person in the job should be respected.So because they finally learned that with Nate, they automatically give it to Will. And what Nate isn’t seeing is that this is partly because of him. He’s just seeing the jealousy.It’s a very childish response. I remember being in an organization in high school that was BIG on seniority – the incoming freshmen and sophomores had to schlep all the equipment, clean up after practices, etc. Seniors were exempt. And of course, by the time I was a senior, we had done away with that because it’s not fair and it doesn’t engender good will and teamwork. But a part of me was like “oh great, after all these years I don’t even get to reap the benefits of being a senior.”Basically there are two types of people – the ones who try to pull everyone up behind them and lighten the load, and the “back in my day, we had to walk uphill both ways barefoot and so should you” people. Nate’s being the latter.
On Roy and The Da Vinci Code, my guess is that Roy just wasn’t much of a book reader until Ted got him to read A Wrinkle In Time last season. Now Roy is hooked and is reading a bunch of stuff, with Da Vinci Code definitely something he missed.
I know multiple people pointed this out but I’m gonna do one reply. While it does make sense that maybe Roy want a reader, the idea he didn’t have time seems odd, considering most (if not all) teams in the Premier League travel to league games by bus (presumably, based on the fact Richmond had a team bus for the road game at Everton, already decked out in Richmond colors, so it wasn’t likely something Rebecca would have spent money on in her “Rachel Phelps” phase)
I thought maybe Roy just got into reading again after Ted gave him A Wrinkle in Time? Not that he didn’t read before, but I bet he didn’t even have time to read all that much as a player.
Oh I think with The DaVinci Code, the writers knew they wanted him to be reading and then decided it needed to be a really funny choice to make it a running gag. Reading The DaVinci Code 20 year later and being totally oblivious to everything about it is about as funny as if they had him watching The Sixth Sense and being bowled over by the revelation that the kid sees dead people. It dates Roy as having lived under the rock of football for 20 years.
If I’m going to put a tinfoil hat on for a second, I don’t
think Ted’s antipathy towards therapy started with his ultimately
unsuccessful couple’s counseling. We know his dad’s dead and he told
Jamie that he was “a lot harder on himself than he ever was on me.” So
maybe his dad killed himself, and before that had tried to avail himself
of some therapy to deal with his suicidal ideation, and the therapist
wasn’t actually invested in helping him or was unable to see the red
flags in his patient. Or alternatively, Ted’s dad killed himself and Ted
at 16 went to therapy, which was unproductive because of a non-invested
or ineffectual therapist, leading Ted to have to cope in his own way by
becoming cartoonishly optimistic and burying all the bad stuff. This
could also then lead to Ted having unconsciously or unintentionally
undermined couple’s counseling because he had such an ingrained disdain
for the entire concept of therapy.
Or, I’m totally off the mark.
*That* scene of It’s A Wonderful Life, “I said I’d never quit anything,” specifically dealing with everything through cheerfulness and nattering and not sitting with his feelings. His dad definitely killed himself.
I think Ted’s vitriol towards Sharon and the psychiatric profession is eminently believable. He repeats himself that “he doesn’t quit,” which is more than just a personal philosophy – it’s what he tells himself about his marriage. I think a key to his emotional issues is that he will not let go of the idea that he wasn’t the one who quit on his marriage. That’s a pretty rich vein to mine in a lot of different ways, but I think one of the side effects of that conviction is that he probably feels that both his ex and the couples therapist they saw did give up far too quickly on the relationship. Ted obviously cared about saving the marriage with every fiber of his being, but when it became clear that his wife didn’t, he projected that callousness (or at least lack of investment) onto the person they had trusted to help them find a solution other than divorce.Beyond that, I think it’s amazing that Ted Lasso landed this episode right in the middle of the backlash about Season 2, because it just flooded the place with tension, character conflict, and a downer ending that just twisted my insides up. It’s amazing because they shot this months ago and the timing of when it aired and the way it directly addressed all of the criticisms about the show getting too cloying and nice was just *chef’s kiss*.Two things I loved about this episode:* Brett Goldstein’s facial expressions as Roy realized that Jamie Tartt was giving him a life lesson. Take that, Hannah Waddingham’s Emmy-deserving mug! A thousand bonus points to his anguished “FUUUUUUUUUCK!” as he stalks off the pitch.* Juno Temple’s line reading of, “Are you leaving?” I can’t even use the onions excuse. I just started crying because of all the anguish and fear in her voice.I LOVE THIS FUCKING SHOW.
It was so revealing he keeps calling her “my wife” even though they signed divorce papers months ago and live in two different countries.
We’ll note that both Keeley and Roy call the other “the cat’s pyjamas”, in separate conversations, which is cute.
* Brett Goldstein’s facial expressions as Roy realized that Jamie Tartt was giving him a life lesson. Take that, Hannah Waddingham’s Emmy-deserving mug! A thousand bonus points to his anguished “FUUUUUUUUUCK!” as he stalks off the pitch.You can see his eyes practically bulging out when he reached his realization in that scene. Insanely subtle acting right there.* Juno Temple’s line reading of, “Are you leaving?” I can’t even use the onions excuse. I just started crying because of all the anguish and fear in her voice.And her, too. Juno Temple knows how to teeter that line between frustration, fear, and insecurity so well.
Brett Goldstein’s facial expressions as Roy realized that Jamie Tartt was giving him a life lesson. Oh, that was great, but Jamie’s expression as he was trying to explain what Roy should have coached him to do? that was amazing. He was simultaneously like a little kid going against a father figure and not sure if he’ll be slammed down, and a hotshot player trying (and mostly succeeding) to use logic instead of swagger to illustrate the play.
For me the best parts of these episodes are the Roy/Jamie interactions. Last week it was Jamie’s visible deflation when Roy told him he could only be a prick sometimes.This week it was that perfect 5 seconds of silence as Roy realizes that he needs to give Keeley space and that this relationship advice came courtesy of Jamie and at the same time Jamie was also right about the football strategy. The “F***” that Roy screams before he stomps away was perfectly delivered.
Jaimie being right about two things at once must have driven Roy nuts 🙂
this show really is just barney the dinosaur with swears. incredible. the apple corporation has achieved full infantilism
Also, a nice little subtle bit of scene blocking: Nate’s the only person whose office chair faces away from the door of his office. He has to decide whether to turn around and acknowledge you. Keeley, Ted, Rebecca and Sharon all face the door.
He has to decide whether to turn around and acknowledge you.Exactly! And they play up the two ways that power dynamic works, both when not turning to Will and then the slow turn for Colin. He’s loving the power (and I love that he loves it) and I wonder if he’s behaving the way his dad might behave. I think the Nate subplot has been great, btw. (I’d be fine if he stayed like this for a while, lol)
Characterizing The Da Vinci Code as compelling because the chapters are so short is the perfect summary of that book.
The ‘wunderkind’ thing is perfect because it’s so petty. No one but Nate actually cares, it’s the world’s gentlest ribbing that’s already been reclaimed by both the team and complete strangers as an affectionate inside joke. He’s said far meaner to everyone in the room as a pre-game roast. But you can give Nate all the props in the world and it won’t turn into genuine long-lasting confidence, that’s something bigger. So the littlest dig, the fact that he made an extremely basic mistake, brings out the cracks in the foundation. I knew this was going to pay off and I feel sure that DubaiAir is going to pay off too.But uh, Ted doesn’t owe a reporter an explanation that he had a panic attack. Ted deserves privacy in his mental and physical health the same as everyone else. It’s nobody’s business why Ted had an emergency and left the field when there are three other coaches there, and I hope Trent doesn’t pull something weird, because up to now I like him.
Reporters are nosey bastards. But hey, a guy’s gotta try!
I’ve liked Trent too, but a bit of a heel turn could be an interesting direction and would be a pay off the scene in the premiere of the other reporters teasing him by joining in saying “The Independent,” showing everyone might have been a little too comfortable to trust him, or just that he’ll betray that camaraderie he’s reluctantly found with the team.Though I don’t see an outcome where he comes out looking good if the story he’s breaking is “Coach Lasso Had a Panic Attack.” I guess on the one hand, people can be cruel and there would probably be some jokes about it, at least online/from the public. But also maybe he’ll just call into question the authenticity of Ted’s story, with the angle that he mysteriously walked away from the team which is when the other coaches were able to do what they needed to win.
Our understanding of mental health has come a long way, but there’s still stigma, especially in work situations. Leaving because he had a panic attack would raise questions of his mental fitness, and whether he was having the attack *because of the game*, at least in some people like you said. It should get the same amount of empathy as being physically sick, but it won’t. Fans have already had to work to accept him.
I think the scene with Trent is more likely leading to a more full conversation between the two of them later in the season where Ted is more honest, and we get something akin to Trent’s profile of Ted last season. It doesn’t feel like this show is interested in making Trent the villainous journalist that he sometimes pretends to be.
I could see that too, that would be nice. It makes his exit less “ok, I don’t really believe you, but I’ll get to the bottom of this,” and more “that’s fine, you don’t have to tell me now if you don’t want.”
I would love that, and it does seem on brand for this show to bring up real-life issues with mental health stigma but also to show a more responsible way of talking about it and/or making it public if the person chooses.
Trent’s expression looked drunk (or “pissed,” as the Brits would say) to me when he walked in. I don’t think he normally would have approached Ted in that situation and needled him about walking off the field if he hadn’t had a few pints under his belt. It’s still well within the range of something a reporter would do, but it’s not typical Trent.
Very possible but I’ve got to wonder where it’s going then. I don’t agree with the review that it shows Ted’s denial; he doesn’t owe Trent that info. So how else is that scene going to pay off?
Yeah, you clearly don’t understand the point of the Rebecca/Sam story… It’s got nothing to do with your “shipping” preferences.
I agree that’s not what the story is going to be about, but I’m curious where you think it’s going.
Jan’s inability to be anything other than blunt remains a very productive character trait
I disagree. People that explain jokes are assholes. IMO the character just isn’t working. Every single time he’s opened his mouth, I thought it just doesn’t work out the way the writers thought it would.
Nice way to seed the aggression of the final moments, which also notably
takes place off-camera as though it was an act of violence.
It was an act of violence. What else is a threat?I really don’t like what the writers have done with Nate’s character this season. There was nothing in season 1 that foreshadowed this mean streak & inferiority complex, except for his outburst at Rebecca when he thought he’d been sacked in the finale. (I also think that the way the promotion was revealed to him was stupid. You’re going to promote a guy, and the first he hears of it is meeting his replacement? Anybody would be pissed off.) In the first season, he was a shy guy who we saw come out of his shell. This season, Nate’s jealous & vindictive, for no real reason that we’ve seen, of was even hinted at. Now, it’s entirely possible that I missed something in the first season, but I don’t think so.
the fact he remains convinced that Sharon doesn’t actually care about
him after presumably many months of her being part of the team and
helping the players and coming to all the games does strike me as
particularly offensive, and almost too mean?
But there is some merit to what he’s saying. Doctors see many patients. Why should one think that they stand out more than any other patient? It’s actually a good thing if doctors don’t become too close with their patients, it keeps them objective. And no matter how much you love what you do, everything, at some point, just becomes a job. Everybody gets burnt out. Some are smart enough to move on to something new, but far too many are not.
“Is this hour over? How many more losers do I have to listen to whine before I get to go home?” I’m not saying every shrink has these thoughts, but of course some do, and probably not even all the time. Sometimes, it’s just one of those days. But to honestly believe that every doctor cares about every patient that walks through their doors? That’s just unrealistic.And I really liked Ted’s point that Sharon charges by the hour but the sessions are 50 minutes long. That’s a great catch.
Over on Reddit they’ve been pointing out other moments from Nate in season 1 that hint at underlying aggression. Here’s a few I can remember: – when we first meet him in episode 1, he’s screaming at Ted and Beard to get off the grass, and only becomes polite and subservient when he realizes that Ted is the new manager- his “inspirational” speech to the players ahead of the Everton game was funny, yes, but also really mean. Not to the level of Picasso/Holiday Inn, but still mean. We just all forget it because Roy Kent and his anger are amazing- his outburst to Rebecca, whom, as far as we know, had never even spoken to Nate before that momentThen there’s all the moments throughout this season when he’s been cruel to Will and dismissive of the players’ needs. His heel turn feels sudden because we (like Beard and Ted) had just been kinda raising our eyebrows at uncharacteristic behavior and have been taken aback by this rapid escalation. But I think, looking back, they’ve been building to it all along.
when we first meet him in episode 1, he’s screaming at Ted and Beard to
get off the grass, and only becomes polite and subservient when he
realizes that Ted is the new manager
Well, that is Nate’s job when we first meet him, and the pitch being sacred to teams really is true. The show shoots in a real soccer stadium, but they’re not actually allowed onto the pitch itself.The coach of the team is the coach of the team, and the kit man doesn’t get to tell him what to do.
his “inspirational” speech to the players ahead of the Everton game was
funny, yes, but also really mean. Not to the level of Picasso/Holiday
Inn, but still mean.
Would you be saying that if it had come from Beard or Ted, though? Nate’s speech was pretty much “Why aren’t you playing to your strengths?” with some examples thrown in. Maybe I didn’t find that speech mean or offensive because I’ve been on the receiving end of speeches like that and I’ve given speeches like that.
his outburst to Rebecca, whom, as far as we know, had never even spoken to Nate before that moment
And as I said, the way his promotion was handled was kind of dickish. Nate walked in & met his replacement. That’s the first thing that happened that day. Of course he’d think something was wrong. And of course he’d accuse the team owner, who had a reputation for being a cold bitch.I really think the writers have done the character a disservice this season.
Of course Nate’s never been like this before, he was the victim. He’s been the ‘weak ‘person you mess with. And now he’s got some clout and is learning to be assertive, but no idea what real self-esteem feels like, so what are his models for strength? His dad’s digging at him, and his experiences with bullying. The roast itself isn’t our clue, it’s that Nate secretly had *those* words in him in *that* order, and that’s how he delivered that information even in a private communication to Ted. He probably has years worth of secret comebacks stored up, and now he can deliver them with authority, which can quickly turn them into abuse.
Belated but I’m surprised Nate’s thing with the whistle hasn’t come up as a clue before now. He couldn’t figure out when it was the right time to use it, or even necessary at all. That’s just a good metaphor, right there.
Not to mention, his power move to get himself ready to be assertive at the restaurant is spitting in the mirror – not the sign of someone who’s well-adjusted.
lol, Nate the First of his Name, Father of Dragons… He will take what is his, with fire and blood… and the fan base will be divided!
By “act of violence” I mean something gruesome that needs to be kept off-screen: it’s obviously violent, but doing it off-screen heightens the feeling that it was a violation in a way that simply depicting the scene wouldn’t have.And I guess it would be different for me if Ted was dealing with just “any” therapist, but Sharon has been actively helping the team for months. Her patients are his players, not random people, and it seems particularly dismissive to suggest that she is uncaring in the way he does. I’m not saying he’s not right to be somewhat suspicious, or that he’s not lashing out based on deeper insecurities, but I feel like treating what is ostensibly a co-worker as a random therapist doesn’t strike me as remotely fair under the circumstances.
By “act of violence” I mean something gruesome that needs to be kept
off-screen: it’s obviously violent, but doing it off-screen heightens
the feeling that it was a violation in a way that simply depicting the
scene wouldn’t have.
Fair enough. That’s the brilliance of doing it off-screen: We don’t know exactly what happened. Did Nate throw the jersey in Will’s face, point a finger & say what he said? Or did he grab Will by the shirt collar & really get in his face? Neither are acceptable, but the latter is far more intimidating.
Her patients are his players, not random people, and it seems
particularly dismissive to suggest that she is uncaring in the way he
does.
But Sharon has also kept herself largely separate from the rest of the team, both players and management. Maybe that’s to preserve her professional objectivity, I don’t know, but she hasn’t become part of the team the way everyone else has. Sharon’s cold aloofness has bothered me all season.
Maybe that’s to preserve her professional objectivityI’m fairly certain that’s the reason why. A therapist isn’t supposed to be your friend.
To be fair to Sharon – because I agree she’s been aloof and it’s something I would probably struggle with if I was Ted – she’s in a pretty unique position in the club. Being the team therapist means she’s professionally and ethically obligated to keep secrets and maintain an unbiased, agenda-free role in everybody’s lives. I think she actually has an inherent warmth, but she carefully keeps herself at arm’s length and enforces strong boundaries because it’s necessary to do her job. She can’t get too close without entering into some pretty unbalanced power dynamics, which makes for an isolated experience in the workplace, and while we haven’t seen her openly struggle with that (and perhaps she doesn’t), I think she has legit reasons to be aloof.
I think this is actually an intentional choice — it’s showing Ted going through various stages of grief in dealing with going to therapy. That one is bargaining.
Nate’s development has actually been the most realistic and resonant for me. I know some friends with that exact same change back in junior high and high school, even as late as college. Their issues were bottled up when they felt powerless and overlooked, and when they found a place where they could open up and be more expressive with themselves, those issues manifest in toxic traits and mean streaks.In some cases, it seemed like they weren’t too familiar with how to socialize with their peers, saying out loud their inner thoughts that were vindictive from back when they felt ostracized and not recognizing boundaries in societal norms. In other cases, it felt more like them lashing out to people around them because of parental abuse(we were Chinese kids, and many of us hadn’t/still haven’t realized what constituted as abuse when parents are disciplining their kids) in their home. In some others, it just came across like gaining a bit of popularity simply got into their heads, and these were usually the most shallow kind. Some were just jerks, and they were originally ostracized because they were jerks.It could be hard to handle as a friend, because you’re trying not to make them feel like they too are attacked when they’ve finally found a safe place, but at the same time they were driving away their newly-made social circles.I think Nate’s case is probably an example of the worst kind of ways this could manifest, seeing as his issues have probably bottled up until he was nearly reaching middle age—I don’t know how old Nate’s supposed to be in the show, but Nick Mohammed’s 40.
There was some more foreshadowing of Nate in season 1, I think. In his very first scene, he screams at Ted to get off the grass, which in hindsight was basically him abusing the only shred of power he had at the time. The first play he suggests sidelines Jamie, and he hints in the scene that this wasn’t entirely impersonal. And his big coaching moment where he rallies the team before a match is essentially an insult comedy routine. It’s one that the players needed at that moment, but what seemed like tough love in season 1 now reads convincingly as Nate just being a vindictive jerk whenever he gets a little power.
There was nothing in season 1 that foreshadowed this mean streak & inferiority complex…Mean streak, maybe not much. Inferiority complex, however, was basically his entire character in season one, no? If someone feels like a doormat for that long, it’s not at all uncommon for some hostility to bottle up and fester over time.
If it helps, Jan’s character is Dutch, who are culturally renowned for their blunt, no-BS, to-the-point attitude. He may come across as a bit of a caricature, but my Dutch friends think he’s a pretty accurate one
I get all of that, but the intention of the writers for the character seems to be comic relief, and to me, at least, it just falls flat, every time.
I have always assumed the 10 leftover minutes are for my therapist to write down notes about how fucked up I am.
It’s at least partly for notes, for sure, at least in America – it’s a good reference but also you need to cover your ass for every patient, to say nothing about if you’re part of a bigger org.
> There was nothing in season 1 that foreshadowed this mean streak & inferiority complex.I disagree. Nate wasn’t simply shy in the first season. His deep feelings of inferiority, and his keen responsiveness to power hierarchy, are on display from his first scene. Nate does this dramatic 180 from yelling at Ted and Coach Beard for standing on the pitch to deferentially offering to go dig grass clippings out of the trash for Ted after he finds out Ted is the new manager.Nate also obviously has issues with anxiety, most notably on display in the Everton episode where he initially refuses to give Ted his thoughts about the team, and his response to “what’s the worst that could happen?” is a staggering chain of catastrophizing followed by running away. When he and Beard decide to give Ted the silent treatment over Ted’s refusal to bench Roy, Nate is so anxious about his defiant behavior towards his superior that he has nightmares.
And, later in the Everton episode when Nate does give the players his feedback, he’s initially very nervous. But once he gets rolling, he clearly relishes the opportunity to roast the players, at least until Roy puts an end to his little power trip. At that time, it’s pretty harmless, because Nate is speaking to people who are more powerful physically and hierarchically in the AFC Richmond organization, and it’s also in the context of giving valuable feedback.In Season 2, when Nate’s a coach, being harsh with the players carries a new weight, due to the change in the power dynamic. Unlike Roy (who does have a very blunt coaching style), Nate isn’t comfortable or secure in his newfound power and doesn’t know how to use harsh criticism as a productive coaching tool. What he does know is that it worked before (for the Everton game, when Ted was the one to identify the need for jarring words to push the players out of their defeatist funk), and it makes him feel temporarily more secure in his position.
I don’t think Ted’s exact words when lashing out weren’t necessarily meant to be rational thought, or what he truly thinks of Dr. Fieldstone. Just what can come out when your brain gets twisted by anxiety/depression/etc, and you have that kind of panicked response. Also I took Roy’s anger not as a result of “an actual situation he has to deal with”, but as a very specific frustration as a partner that arises when your partner communicates with other people that there’s a problem before they tell you about it. Obviously there are situations where that’s necessary and where the person telling others is fearing for safety, but when it’s something like “Hey I need some alone time” that’s harder to just intuit and fix without your partner letting you know. So now Roy is in a spot where Keeley’s inability to be open with him (despite the fact that he’s demonstrated a strong ability to listen and compromise and that he clearly values her needs) has made him look insecure/clingy thanks to Keeley telling all his friends/coworkers about it first.He overreacts, because Roy, and I enjoyed their reconciliation. But, yeah, clearly this is an episode explicitly about the importance of communication in all kinds of relationships, and it’s amazing how they got so many in: therapist/patient, coach/reporter, player/coach, parent/child, coworker/coworker, manager/subordinate, potential romantic partners on a dating app, romantic partners currently in a committed relationship, friend/friend, etc.
I’m all over this thread already, but did Keeley give Roy an apology in turn and I missed it? Because he absolutely deserved one, especially with how far he went with hers. He was right to be upset; he was the wrong *level* of upset, because he’s Roy, and took it the wrong way – but she’s been telling him since day one how it’s actually very sexy when he’s vulnerable and cares a lot, and now in his mind she was telling everyone he’s too clingy and needy. But she didn’t really explain very well, because she didn’t explain at all until the pot started boiling over.
I agree, Keeley’s remorse was a bit glossed over, but I think she knows she messed up and will communicate more directly in the future. The person who said this conflict was wrapped up a little too neatly nailed it, though.
I think you’re right about Ted’s reaction being not rational, or as Dr. Fieldstone put it, a combined fight AND flight reaction.I think her portrayal was quite good this episode. Her acknowledgement that she was unhappy with Ted’s claims about her the previous day was the kind of statement I think she should have been making all season.
I think her character has been underwritten earlier, unfortunately, to create a sense of conflict. I get how, as other people have pointed out, she should not have been a bubbly, joyous personality for the sake of professional distance. But I think the stark, blunt side was overdone — I think the staging of her and Ted’s arms length relationship was not well thought out, and there should have been an better establishing scene where she laid out her purpose with the team to Ted from the beginning.
But it’s sorting out well in this episode. I think it’s a smart decision to not have a sudden breakthrough — it’s been one of the strong points of Ted’s portrayal how much Sudeikis and the writers have played with his verbosity being both a window and a wall to his inner self. The tension and the artful way it’s so hard to know which way it’s going makes him such an interesting character.
Yeah, I think there have been key moments where they’ve shown her to be clearly less adversarial. But they’ve definitely kept her more as a mysterious, outside the ensemble figure so far. But I also think by the end of the season we’re going to get a lot more of her. And I also think the way her presence has been handled has been on purpose; everyone but Ted loves her and her impact, and as Ted has been our POV character for Dr. Fieldstone (we don’t really get POV scenes from players on the team, now that Roy is off the roster) it makes sense that she’d feel “other” given Ted’s clear issues with therapy.
Nothing about Higgins? I love him more and more. I live the jazz scatting, the proudness in his lifetime movie marriage, and pulling a pipe out in the boot room. And Jan follows Scrubs world building using tertiary characters. You give them 1 maybe, 2 very distinguishing character nuances, and that’s what they do.EX. Dr. Beardface, Snoop Dogg attending, Colonel Doctor, Dr. Squeaky voice, Leonard the hook handed security guard, Slagathor, and a ton more. It’s a great way to build worlds in sitcoms with multiple seasons.
I saw someone said that Higgins is the man everyone should strive to be, because he’s “goals” in a realistic way.
Agreed. Love during the rom com episode during the music montage, when he sees her in the tunnel in all blue:
I haven’t looked this up, but I saw someone mentioned that his wife is played by Jeremy Swift’s real life wife. That’s really cool.
I saw that as well, and just adds to it. They could have went a lot of way with Higgins in season 2. But he is the voice of reason, with a slight helping of sarcasm on the side. I’m glad he’s not the sad sack still.
Even when I’m not TALKING about Higgins, just presume that I’m in full support of Higgins.
Just write “Higgins” in the Stray Observations every week so he knows you’re thinking about him.
I would prefer one sentence. But I’d settle just for the name.
HOOCH CRAZY!
Hooch is crazy.
Ted throwing the box of tissues across the room in a knee-jerk panic cracked me up. Therapy can feel like that sometimes.
The thing that has been overlooked in Nate’s arc is that Keeley and Rebecca were advising Nate on how to become assertive. The involves striking the balance between aggression and passivity, which Nate is entrenched in. He lacks the confidence to do that outside of the moment he filled the vacuum in Ted’s absence in episode 6. Nate becoming assertive remains the ideal. Rebecca advised him that he was too aggressive when she and Keeley were coaching him. As for Ted and Beard, they were caught off guard by Nate’s aggression and took gentle approaches to nudge him back to his old self, in part because they don’t realize the extent of Nate’s confidence issues. They have not given him a free pass. I think they’d given him the slack to work on it on his own, but that is not going to last much longer.
Nate has been a bit of an ass to Will since the beginning though. He seems to be one of those dudes that you assume is nice because he allows himself to be a punching bag due to confidence issues but he actually isn’t. It’s pretty clear how self-centered he is from this season.
Saw an article in Vulture where Nick Mohammed was asked to underline that “you deserve whatever you want” line as being important. And good, because my reaction in the moment was definitely “uh, Becks, I know what you mean there but so many Karens and predators do *not.*”
I think Ted’s standoffishness and mistrust towards Sharon comes partially from jealousy. I think HE likes to be the one that fixes and helps people and he doesn’t need no fancy degree to do it, at least so he thinks.
As I noted when she first arrived, I think that defined a lot of their early relationship, but I guess this is one of the issues of the show’s chronology: many months have passed since she first arrived, and so it’s hard to get a real sense of how stuck he still is on that.Whereas the Nate stuff has been simmering in plain sight, Ted’s frustration is all bottled up, so it’s harder to get a clear grasp on whether this is something he’s been stewing on or if he’s just in “fight” mode so strongly he’s digging it up from his initial, now tempered reaction.
Having Nate go after Will off-screen was a good choice. We’ve seen other characters kind of ignore his behavior but hearing the way he talked to Will without seeing it puts the audience in the position of being like the someone listening to the neighbors fight and hearing it get worse and worse until you debate calling the police.
“I told you: my lips are sensitive to impure metals, and whistles give me mouth hives”—Roy yelling “whistle” instead of using a whistle is a chef’s kiss of a choice.calling it now: at some point we get Keeley proposing with a precious-metal whistle.
I’d like to see an exploration of Dr. Sharon Fieldstone being some sort of callback to Sleepless in Seattle’s Dr. Marsha Fieldstone, the radio psychologist who is indirectly responsible for Tom Hanks’ widower single dad getting together with Meg Ryan.I have this feeling that this means something. Then again, it might just be an homage. Or even an accident.
Good catch- I’m thinking it’s an homage at this point because I’ve seen a few You’ve Got Mail parallels pointed out with the Bantr storyline that people were guessing was foreshadowing Rebecca was chatting with Ted or maybe Rupert
There was at least one cut from Rebecca to Ted on their phones that was definitely meant to bait and switch us, a few episodes ago.
Yeah I didn’t notice that at first, and on the one hand think Ted hasn’t seemed like he’s at a point where he’s even interested in dating, but that is a fairly convincing bit of evidence
The Nate plotline is the only really concerning thing in this season for me. He’s become so unpleasant it hard to see a satisfying redemption for him.
Sam and Rebecca’s encounter was sweet, but i don’t think their romance will ever begin.Having Nate and Will’s confrontation happen off-screen was a great choice. it allows you to imagine your own horrific scenario.
How did Ted’s dad die? That’s a key question that may help to resolve Ted’s dilemma. Ted told Jamie his day was harder on himself than he ever was with Ted. Did that hint that his father committed suicide? During his panic attack he heard Jamie’s father’s voice and that of his own son. Jamie said his father was not there for him and now Ted is not there for his own son. Can’t wait to see what Dr. Sharon finds out.
Does Bantr not allow you to set an age restriction on who you want to meet? Because it seems odd to me that Rebecca would set her age limits to allow meeting somebody as young as Sam. I agree that their relationship feels very odd to me.I feel like this series may retroactively ruin Nate’s season one arc. He was such a lovable, kindly sidekick but watching him because a genuinely nasty bully has really left a bad taste in my mouth, and that character will be much less appealing on a rewatch
I figured it was an issue of the platform. Even age aside (15 years isn’t completely unthinkable if you’re both adults), the idea is to get rid of judgment in dating or something and that *sounds* like a great idea. But if it’s anonymous except for distance (and I assume gender preference) you could be talking to a family member, close friend, or, y’know, your boss if you don’t sort that stuff out early enough in the conversation.
It’s surely a bigger age gap than 15 years? Sam is a fairly young, inexperienced Premier League footballer, so he’s likely to be early 20s at most, while given Rebecca’s status and experience running the club, she’s likely to be no younger than mid 40s. I think their age gap is a minimum of 20 years, if not more.
I was going by another comment where IIRC they were saying that was the age gap of the actors, but on googling either they were wrong or I misremembered and I think the exact amount is something like 23. I think a large gap in grown people can be situational but this is definitely not the situation. Still thinking it’s a potential problem with Bantr itself and not a choice Rebecca made, though
I believe that Sam’s 20th birthday happened during the first season.
I look at Nate’s storyline as kind of the equivalent of the dangers of winning the lottery – everyone thinks you’re doing great and can’t possibly have problems, but you’ve gone from zero to 60 without any kind of understanding of the impact of where you’re ending up. From that perspective, things like the whole confidence coaching bit are kind of like getting a financial advisor – they know about money and can give you good advice, but ultimately, the winner is the one who decides how to spend the money and Nate’s spending his questionably at best. Basically, they’re all too caught up in the toxic positivity in their environment that they can’t see Nate for what he’s actually going through. They aren’t thinking about the mental consequences of being catapulted to this new position, which is worsened by their own distractions – Beard with dramatic Jane, and Ted with Roy and Dr. Sharon. Therapy-phobic Ted only just now has come around to the value of addressing your issues, so maybe there’s still hope.Also, this is a bit of a stretch, but I’m wondering if Sam and Rebecca do get together if this somehow comes back to reflect poorly on them in the whole Sam’s protest storyline – maybe the papers spin it as something like Rebecca protecting her “boytoy” due to their “affair”? We know it’s not true, but it might look bad to some.
Is it possible that Nate is the new Tart of the season? I trust that they won’t just ring that bell with another character, but it really feels like Nate is going to blow up, move on, fail due to his attitude/demeanor and come back in series 3 for redemption.I started re-watching the show from the beginning and it really has put a lot of clues and nuggets in there for the second pass viewing.
I know I’m late to the game, but a few points:This whole season is about Nate. It’s his arc that will define it. The first shot of the first episode of the season was an extreme closeup of Nate’s face, blurry and coming into focus as we pulled away to see him as a game coach.Teds extreme problems with counseling stem from the fact that, once the ‘pleasantries’ are exchanged and they sit down together, Ted realizes he has to talk to Sharon about things he’s worked hard to keep hidden. And he’s terrified.Sharon strikes me as a warm, quiet, centered presence, and a very competent therapist. But she doesn’t reveal much, she is there for the players to show her what they need to resolve. That’s her job.That’s all.
I’m wondering where they’re going with Nate. I’d kind of like it if he continues to get meaner, but also has some huge and highly visible successes on the field as a coach, and the other coaches confronting Nate, culminating in Nate leaving the team to go coach a competitor. And then Nate becomes the villain in the story (a truly arrogant prick), and his team become the main rival to Richmond, leading to a do or die match between them in one or two seasons. And ultimately Nate is humbled and outcoached by Richmond when it matters most.
How does this rough allegory for Scrubs fit?Ted = Eliot (overly positive and bubly, silly words and rhymes)Roy = Cox (stoic, rough personality, leader)Beard = Turk (weirdly good at everything, romantic tunnel vision)Nate = JD (looking for acceptance, jealousy/self-image issues)
I have known many a Ted in my life (cheerful, helpful, giving) who nonetheless hold a similar view of therapy. “I’m paying this person so they can’t possibly care about me; I’m just a number to them.” It’s all part of the denial. I was glad that Sharon called him out on that AND told him that it hurt her feelings. I think all season Ted has seen Sharon as someone who is a conglomeration of everything he doesn’t like/is scared of, rather than an actual person. Him being reminded that she, like him, is an actual person with actual feelings probably got him more into the therapy groove than anything.The jazz scatting as a gossip cover up and the fact that Keeley and Rebecca gamely went along with it makes me wonder how many times they do this with Higgins.Jamie’s integration into the team is a little too fast for me. I do love to see him as one of the guys, (Sam’s bantr chat most of all) but Sharon must be a freaking genius to have so quickly modified his personality so that he’s the one insisting that, no, his teammate does not need him to come over and help out, but to support from several yards away. Though maybe it’s the headband, controlling his mind. Roy’s gift to Keeley is THE most romantic gesture; please take note, people who have live-in partners.Nate is blowing up in a major way and I’m wondering whether they’re going to resolve it soon or make it a season-long storyline.
I’m really glad to see them developing Nate’s story in this direction. Or, rather, watching it makes me anxious, uncomfortable, and upset, but I think it’s significant and important that they’re exploring these issues. Season 1 Nate filled the common feel-good trope of the guy with low self-esteem coming out of his shell and finding his calling and people who believe in him. In reality, though, finding some success and friendship doesn’t erase the underlying psychological issues, so I’m glad to see the show playing that forward in a realistic way.