Ted Lasso has lots to say about mental health, if the discourse calms down enough for us to hear it
"The Signal" may not resolve all the season's issues, but it commits to its central character study
TV Reviews Ted Lasso
It feels necessary to begin this review with a disclaimer that I have absolutely no desire to be part of the ongoing Ted Lasso discourse whipping its way across the internet like a wildfire (if you’ve missed it, spare yourself). Initially, I worried that my headline calling last week’s episode “worrisome” would inspire aggressive defensiveness from the show’s fans who would read concern as condemnation. However, while there was a bit of that, by the time the weekend was over the bigger problem was people who actually were condemning the show based on less than half of the entire season. It’s as if we have collectively forgotten how to watch television, and while Kathryn VanArendonk is not wrong that the show’s use of serialization is partly to blame, I would argue we are now past the point where we’re having a rational conversation about this show. And all I can do personally is say that I have no desire to categorize “The Signal” or any episode of the show as either a symbol of greatness or a harbinger of collapse, and I can only hope those reading this will resist the temptation to do the same.
One kernel from the ongoing discourse, though, has been related to the absence of stories focused on AFC Richmond’s on-field performance, and “The Signal” is definitely a return to the pitch. With Roy Kent on the coaching staff, Richmond is on a winning streak heading into an FA Cup quarter-final, but the team still has some issues to iron out. Colin’s struggling with his self-worth, but he gets a mantra from Dr. Fieldstone, and some advice on his form from Roy, and feels confident about how to move forward. And while Roy’s refusal to coach Jamie nearly blows up into a fist fight, they resolve things by coming to an agreement that there are actually times when being a prick work in the team’s favor, and Jamie manages to channel it into a crucial goal that puts them ahead of the heavily favored Tottenham Hotspur at the half.
It’s the most football the show has dealt with so far this season, where the writers have largely had the team’s games play out off-screen in favor of exploring the dynamic happening behind-the-scenes. As always, Ted Lasso resists becoming a show about the ins-and-outs of football, such that people will continue to recommend it to friends with the promise that no knowledge of the sport is necessary. However, the show is very good at giving you enough information that even if you didn’t know the FA Cup existed (I had to Google it), and have no idea how the tournament is structured (Googling it barely helped), we know that the idea of a Championship League team knocking out a Premier League team is a significant accomplishment, and that the team’s celebration after Nate’s bold offensive strategy pays off is plenty justified.
But one of the things that made Ted Lasso stand out in its first season was how the show controlled our relationship to its world. When it wants to pull us into football, it will pull us into football, much in the way that Friday Night Lights—which is now on Netflix, for anyone who hasn’t seen it—did for the other football. But Ted Lasso is also inherently invested in the idea that its narrative transcends the game itself, and that the story will shift away from the pitch whenever it needs to. When Richmond is scoring the game-winning goal, we’re not with the players, or even with the crowd in the stands. We’re in the locker room as Rebecca searches for Ted, who she saw leave his coaching position in a state that the world reads as sudden onset diarrhea, but that she and she alone recognizes as the onset of a panic attack. As she searches in vain, the excitement on the pitch echoes, and by the time she realizes that he has seemingly disappeared the team’s celebration disrupts her moment of realization, pulling us back into the world of underdog sports triumphs but under very different circumstances.
So far, none of the central storylines in Ted Lasso’s second season have been “surprising” (unless we count the fact that Sam’s protest carried zero consequences, but I can’t harp on that forever). Jamie came back! Roy’s a coach now! These are story developments that were both fairly easy to anticipate and also clearly choreographed by the show itself. That doesn’t make them bad stories, to be clear, because the fact that these developments took place is only the start of those stories. Jamie’s return to the team was about his dynamic with his teammates and—in this case—former teammates, and how Ted and the coaching staff would handle that. Similarly, Roy’s return was a very logical story for him, but it creates new dynamics between the coaches, and inspires Nate’s “Wonder Kid” moment here that will continue to be unpacked in the weeks that follow. The fact you could predict those developments doesn’t take away their value to the show and its storytelling, even if they haven’t necessarily manifested as the kind of major conflicts that Ted was wrestling with in the fish-out-of-water first season.
Similarly, it was no secret that Ted was on a collision course with Dr. Fieldstone’s couch, even if we didn’t know exactly when he was going to end up there. His initial discomfort with her arrival and subsequent stubbornness about insisting his methods remained the solution to the team’s problems was always barely hiding the truth about his own mental health, although it was often easy to forget that we have insight into this that few others have. The veneer of optimism that defines Ted Lasso to the world is an incredibly effective smokescreen, and while Higgins is quick to intervene with Coach Beard’s latest reunion with Jane, no one other than Rebecca seems to even be concerned about Ted’s emotional well-being.
It sort of makes everyone else seem like they’re being bad friends, but that’s just because we were in that hotel room during the finalization of his divorce. The truth is that he lives his life expressly to keep the people around him from understanding the depths of his pain, and the one time he slipped was the only reason that Rebecca knew he wasn’t shuffling to the bathroom with a bout of food poisoning. And so even if it would be a surprise to others, it was hardly a shock to us that Dr. Fieldstone found Ted in rough shape on her couch when she went to grab something from her office after the win.
But what I appreciate about Ted’s particular struggle is that I really don’t know how their conversation, and indeed Ted’s future, is going to play out. This season has been exploring the limits of Ted’s philosophy, which works as a way to get people to be the best version of themselves but proved ineffective at actually winning football matches, and took Jamie Tartt from a superstar to “average.” To his credit, Ted hasn’t resisted changing things up when necessary, but every time Ted has to acknowledge that maybe his “belief” isn’t enough, it’s a trigger to the fact that his marriage failed in exactly the same circumstances. Ted was told that his marriage wasn’t working, and he just believed he had to try harder, not realizing that his eternal optimism wasn’t going to be enough. And now he’s harboring guilt over the fact he’s not doing enough for his son, whose forgotten lunch is beyond his reach across the Atlantic, and suddenly he’s standing on the sidelines on the verge of a panic attack. And the truth is there’s no easy solution to that, because Ted’s discussion with Dr. Fieldstone will have to chart a new path forward, and it’s clear that he really doesn’t know how to redefine himself and his life philosophy without losing the core of his identity.
If the first season was about the ticking time bomb of the revelation that Rebecca was sabotaging Ted from the beginning, this season has been building to this moment, and it’s better for the fact that “The Signal” doesn’t introduce a particular trauma to get Ted to the point where he realizes he needs help. The phone call he gets from his son’s school is entirely mundane, and there was no actual crisis: his ex-wife was driving up with his lunch as the call was arriving. But it was enough to bring Ted’s guilt to the surface, and during the game it breaks through his defenses simply—it would seem—due to the energy of the moment. Whatever sense memory brought Jamie’s father to Ted also brought his son’s excitement about Jamie, and once his son entered into his mind he was already gone. And because everyone in his life has been tricked into believing that he’s peachy keen, none of them think something is seriously wrong when he leaves, or when he isn’t there to celebrate the team’s win. It’s the perfect way to transition into this next stage of Ted’s journey, because it was never that Ted was going to be triggered by another significant trauma. It was always going to be the pressure to keep up the facade of his persona reaching a breaking point. It’s a great way to build on what we learned last season, and I’m excited to see what comes next as—presumably—everyone around him realizes that there’s something more happening here.
The rest of the episode reinforces that the people around Ted have their own issues when it comes to their philosophy on helping those around them. When Higgins is the only one to suggest to Coach Beard that reuniting with Jane might not be healthy (even before he saw the hat she picked out for him), he’s confused, but everyone’s advice is the same: you never intervene. Everyone has a horror story about a time they got involved in someone else’s life and it went wrong, whether it’s Ted’s ill-advised best man speech or Rebecca becoming estranged from her mother during uni for failing to realize her parents’ separation wasn’t going to stick. But after Higgins confronts Coach Beard in a way that seems to deepen their relationship and help the latter gain some perspective, Rebecca wonders if maybe she got it wrong. But when she’s too late to avoid her mother returning to her father following yet another separation, she resigns herself to a meaningless night of sex with Hot Luca, unaware that her unknown paramour—who we learn here is Sam—is ready to take things to the next level.
“The Signal” has lots of great moments sprinkled throughout, but the central juxtaposition between a thrilling victory for AFC Richmond and an A.T.L. (“All time low, not Atlanta”) for Ted elevates the proceedings, and pushes the show into another gear at the halfway point in the season. And the most effective part of the episode is that although I have some lingering concerns stemming from the choices in last week’s episode, I don’t really know where things go from here: the team might be on an upward swing, but the show is descending into deeper emotional territory, and unpacking it has the potential to elevate the storytelling further. And sure, it could also mess everything up, but that’s how television works, and we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Stray observations
- I am…unsure about Sam being revealed as Rebecca’s bantr paramour, but I’ll wait to see how the show wants to address that moving forward. I will say that I had never even considered it might be Ted (despite the clues that I found on rewatching and editing these reviews), and so I can at the very least say that I certainly prefer this to that alternative. But I’m curious how everyone is feeling, and I’ll have a take once the show gives me more context.
- As I noted last week, I’m not really “Team Nate” on this one, and so I’m curious how the show handles his jealousy about the “Roy Kent Effect” given he now has his own moment of viral fame. Surely this will only worsen the behavior that’s made him a somewhat toxic presence, right?
- Apologies for the nitpick, but would Ted still be using his American number such that his kid’s school would accidentally call him? Ted would surely be using a UK SIM card at this point, right?
- One of my favorite things in rewatching the first season was often how the show paid off small recurring bits, so I was delighted when we met Liam with the annoying laugh and got the real version of it after hearing Higgins’ impression of it earlier in the season. Makes me wonder whether the actor had to match what Jeremy Swift went with in his performance.
- “The stupid barking means it’s over, right?”—Roy’s disdain for the Diamond Dogs is important to his character, although I’m curious how his own arc continues to evolve now that he’s settling into the coaching job.
- I love the show’s staging of scenes on the practice field with Rebecca yelling out the window, and am glad to see it return here with her mother. Not my favorite Rebecca storyline, necessarily, but I appreciated its connection to the overall themes.
- “Ballroom Blitz” joins the rapidly growing list of “Songs I Presume Are Very Expensive And That Most Shows Wouldn’t Bother Licensing For An Opening Scene Where You Could Use Any Song.”
- “I will channel my rage and enthusiasm into ways to help my community”—sure, it was weird they were at the pub watching Bake-Off in the middle of the afternoon, but still a fun episode for the barflies.
- “You’re a great man—does Jane make you greater?”—Higgins really didn’t hold back here, and I’m going to have this stuck in my brain for a long time, I think.
- “I don’t really know how to talk to you”—I appreciate any time a show acknowledges that two of its series regulars don’t really interact and realizes that it’s because it just wouldn’t make sense for them to do so, so nice little moment for Jamie and Coach Beard here.
137 Comments
So firstly, this whole shebang going on about this show, what I’d like to point out while understanding the irony of me doing so under a review / recap, is ABOUT A GODDAMN FICTIONAL TV SHOW… is absolutely flooringly hilarious to me. Go complain on Yelp or something, seriously people! So thank you for writing in a still critical but at least constructively-so tone. This is entertainment and I’m sure the writers rooms have slight advantages in scripting, AGAIN – FICTIONAL TV SHOWS FOR ENTERTAINMENT. When Attenborough starts saying “Hey guys actually the world IS flat”, let’s get loud then, hey?Second, I might be showing my age but as someone who’s lived and worked in many different places all over the world and most of the time have had to stay in touch with people in different countries at the same time, I would absolutely keep let’s say my old US number while I’m working overseas. Roaming charges are a bitch and honestly, this actually feels like a slightly softly played product placement for iPhones dual e-sim function tbh. But here’s to guessing! Gonna keep character judgements for later, time to go smash some bacon butties!
Okay, so as always I’m literally the only person alive who wishes they had taken 20 seconds to explain the logistics of Ted’s situation, but now that you made me realize it would’ve been Apple product placement for the Dual E-Sim function, I’m going to admit that it’s better left unexplained. Thank you for that.
When I travel outside the US, I simply notify my carrier and add an international plan while i’m traveling. I don’t recall the specific costs, but I would imagine Ted has the means to go that route. Especially of he is concerned about losing touch with his son.
I mean, he’s predominantly using Facetime to talk to his son, which would be based on his Apple ID. (I really am not that concerned about this, but I did think about that before picking the nit.)
Already tackled, but as someone who moved to the US in 2020, the discovery of eSIM was great. Immediately what my mind went to, given the random calls I still get to my original number that I can’t act on…. but I did miss the connection from his guilt in that call, to the Jamie/Jamie’s dad relationship to the panic attack. So, all in all, I think you caught the most important part of the episode.
You can get a Google number (for free) and just have it ported to your phone; I still have a US Number and I’ve not lived there for 6 years. Very handy since I do a lot of work there and want to ‘look official’ . . . and also people like my mum aren’t good with technology, or phones, and just being able to call a US number makes things much easier.
There will never be a worse product placement than the one episode I watched of the Hawaii 5-0 reboot where one character suggests to another that he “just Bing it” to lookup information online. A phrase never before or since uttered in the history of man.
I think the Days of Our Lives product placement of a decade ago takes the cake.
Parking the bus isn’t a bold offensive strategy; if anything, it’s the opposite of that: everyone behind the ball and hope to hit the opposition on the break (which is what happened in the show). Spurs (Tottenham Hotspur) as the superior team had to go for all-out for the win. In so doing they made themselves vulnerable to the counterattack when one of their offensive moves foundered on the Richmond defence.
Christ, even in fiction Spurs can’t stop being Spursy.
Parking the bus and playing for penalties was not a good strategy at that point. It was simply too early, and a good club (and Spurs were talked up as a top-top club) should have been able to pick it apart over the next 45 minutes or so. I just don’t find it realistic that they’d have gotten themselves into a panic such that they gave up an easy counter, and certainly not toward the end of regulation.
I think there were quiet a few people predicting it would be Sam and Rebecca and even rooting for them. Personally, it was at the back of my mind but I simply don’t know how to feel about it. I love them both but being roughly Sam’s age I simply can’t imagine having a partner that much older than me. Adding to that the power dynamics going on here, idk, I’m sure the show finds a surprising way to deal with it (I’m also wondering whether the bantr app does not let you set age minimum and maximum?).I wasn’t aware of any oNLinE dIsCoURse about Ted Lasso and have no desire learning more. I can only speak for myself and I have been enjoying this second season so, so much so far. Lastly- “You are an ugly, ugly boy with bad hair. Say it.”
Stay off Twitter. The anti Ted trolls are out en force. Someone attacked me for liking it last night and I pulled a Ted and told them I was sorry they were so unhappy and hoped they felt better. Instead of my usual Roy Kent retort which would have been Fuck Off you Twat.
There are two coaches inside of you…
The sudden hostility toward this show is very off putting, and excuse me for being conspiratorial, feels coordinated. Why anyone would feel so threatened by something so innocuous is beyond me but there are a lot of losers on the internet. The kind of people who hate this show are the type of people who fancy themselves alpha males but they spend all day playing video games and ranting on reddit and can’t get laid. Some people didn’t like Schitt’s Creek, but I think it’s inherent queerness protected it from this kind of hostility. That and the fact that the episodes were shorter.
What I’ve read of the Discourse is kind of the opposite: people mildly saying “I’m not sure I like this as much as the first season”, and getting deluged with ad hominem rants about how they must be pseudo-alpha males who can’t get laid (or, most famously, about how they must despise women and only dislike season 2 because they hate the idea of cunnilingus).
As a person who doesn’t own Apple products because I dont like how closed their ecosystem is, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it is partly anti-Apple sentiment. I only have Apple TV from having a ps5 and adore Ted Lasso. I won’t resubscribe after my free trial because I have enough streaming services, but I’ll watch any future seasons after they drop when I visit my sister/nephew.
There were a number of critics who never liked Ted Lasso, so they get to have their very vocal “toldja so” moment. Then you have other people who resent being told to feel happy or good, which is understandable (as it’s the online equivalent of the person who comes up to you and tells you to smile) but blame the show for this, even though nobody at the show has tried to guilt or shame any viewers into liking it in the name of goodness or hope. Then there are the shitposters and the people who need to drum up conflict because it makes them feel important or gives them revenue for their Patreon or Substack or what have you. I think it helped Schitt’s Creek that the show was not that known until its last few seasons. The show being Canadian also helped, as it meant less of the natural backlash of a show like Ted Lasso that is routinely drubbed as being American propaganda or teaching viewers that American white men are the ideal. Then you have Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy, who are well-respected by generations of audiences but have never been overexposed to where people get sick of them. The timing of the last season was also fortunate – the episodes aired during the bitter Democratic primary, tension with Iran, the first months of the pandemic. People realized they had bigger problems than tweeting for the 39484th time that people made them try to watch the show but they didn’t like it. The show also ended a few months before the protests, which spared everyone widely-shared Medium pieces with titles like There Is No SCTV In BLM: White Roses, White Privilege.
You are correct. Ted Lasso is more pretentious than Schitt’s Creek, which more fully embraced its goofiness. I don’t think Schitt’s Creek was trying to comment on wealth or fame as much as it was using the lack of it as tools for character growth. It was silly and sentimental, but it didn’t try to be deep. Ted Lasso thinks it has something to say about masculinity or the zeitgeist or something. I don’t dislike Ted Lasso, and in fact I think it is pretty good, and I confess to be taken aback by the hostility toward it. I mean, sure, the Apple Product placement is a bit much, but it’s otherwise a harmless fantasy.
Personally, it was at the back of my mind but I simply don’t know how to feel about it. I love them both but being roughly Sam’s age I simply can’t imagine having a partner that much older than me. Intentially or not this potential romance has echoes of former Birmingham City managing director Karren Brady’s relationship with footballer Paul Peschisolido, so not totally beyond the realms of possibility for this show.
Frankly, I thought it was going to be Nate, who is indeed becoming increasingly worrisome.
I kinda suspected it would be Sam, after they tossed a few breadcrumbs in the first season, like when Rebecca thought Sam was about to ask her out, and then their friendly relationship from there on in the few times they shared the screen together.
Good episode. One quibble would be that there has been very little indication in the previous episodes of Ted’s family in the US so they’ve not really built up to this breakdown. Having his kids back in the US would surely be causing a lot of anguish.
There have been subtle hints that there’s something more going on with Ted’s dad and how he died. But mostly I’ve been fascinated by the way the show has deftly sort of exposed the fragility of Ted’s positivity and the ways that it is a shield to deflect a certain kind of probing into his actual mental state. The introduction of Dr. Fieldstone has been masterful, both because she cannot be charmed by Ted and because the frenetic way in which he approaches her helps to reveal how desperately he doesn’t want someone to see beyond his veneer. I’m sure we’ll get into some family stuff in the next episode or two, but overall I think letting the veneer speak for itself has been setup enough. We know there’s *something* of note back there, and we know how it manifests right now for current Ted. For me that’s good enough.
The introduction of Dr. Fieldstone has been masterful, both because she cannot be charmed by Ted She has been written (and played, by Sarah Niles) brilliantly. She won’t fall for his charm but she DOES like him – and also knows he can use her help. Lovely that her favorite book is The Prince of Tides, because Susan Lowenstein is a good character and one I think a therapist would admire. (To be clear – I, and Sharon, are talking about book Lowenstein. Not about Barbra Streisand, because that was not a good movie.
I thought the same thing. It certainly could be stressful, but there hasn’t been much indication of it. I think the Christmas episode was the only one his ex-wife has been in. That was apparently filmed after the season was set so it’s not like this has been integral to the plotting. The reviewer said the season has been building to this. If that was the goal, then I think they did a bad job.
Ted would surely be using a UK SIM card at this point, right?
YMMV. I moved about 5 years ago (admittedly, I’m still on the same continent) and I still have my old number. It’s less of a hassle then updating all of my contacts with my new umber (it’s also easier to detect scam calls because they all spoof my old regional area codes).
Yeah, it was relatively easy to set my American iPhone up to work in Europe/the UK when I studied abroad there in 2012 so almost a decade later I’d expect it’s even easier for Ted (and Beard) to keep their numbers/phones.
I have US banks/credit cards that insist on 2FA but don’t accept foreign numbers. Dual SIM is almost essential for Americans abroad.
Lasso prob keeps his old phone number and uses a VoIP number or dual sim for the UK which is what most people do who work overseas
Ted Lasso fans make the Rick and Morty fandom seem emotionally balanced.
I don’t agree with you, but this seems like a good place to wonder how “fanatic” ever got to be taken as a positive descriptor.
Not to be rude (even though almost everything on the internet does sound rude when not positive), but it’s technically Tottenham Hotspur (or the Spurs)Part of me really hopes for a bottle episode next week with just Ted and Sharon. I know it won’t happen, but the idea of getting a real time sense of what Ted’s going through would strengthen their relationship with each other, and with our relationship with the cast.Part of me also wonders if there isn’t some past trauma with a previous coach for Ted. Maybe a high school coach who belittled him, and took the “winning at all costs” method, so Ted said when he would start coaching, he would focus more on the players. Just spitballing here.Nate’s gonna get cocky, and it’s gonna bite him in the ass at some point. Hopefully he ends up on Sharon’s couch by the end of the season as well.Also, I am curious what the barflies did for Mae, considering they seemingly have free drinks, and are almost always in the pub. They seem too off putting to be in a Norm-type situation.Finally, THANK GOD it’s not Ted and Rebecca. That could have been disastrous.
100% its going to be a bottle episode (or at least 100% that’s what I hope it is). Especially after this one which had all sorts of great character interactions and moments for virtually every character except Ted (and Keeley, but she’s not the title character). I feel like the whole season has been building to this.
and Keeley, but she’s not the title character I imagine there’s some fan fiction that presupposes – what if she WAS?
All Keeley-related fanfiction involves her in relationships with Rebecca. Look, I don’t write the rules.
Lads… it’s Tottenham
Everyone talking about food poisoning during a spurs game made me think of the infamous lasagne incident
Can we at least appreciate that even their fictional performance managed to be the textbook definition of “Spursy”?
Cone on, a rogue pigeon didn’t invade the pitch like a guided missile and smash Kane’s ACL to bits. Could have been Spursier.
it’s technically Tottenham Hotspur (or the Spurs)Tottenham Hotspur, or Spurs (no “the”).
I’ve been reading the backlash to Ted Lasso online, and I’ve come to the conclusion that people are starting to forget what the name of this show means. A lot of people seem to be caught up in the fate of Richmond, or of Nate, Beard, or even Rebecca, as if those situations are the crux of the narrative.They’re not, as much as I love them (and I do love them). This is Ted’s story. Ted’s story is the A story – everything else is B- and C-plot.Yes, the fortunes of Richmond after ditching Dubai Air would be fun to flesh out. But it’s not a central conflict. Nor is the fact that Jamie Tartt is no longer an all-day every-day prick – except in how it changes Ted’s story, because Ted’s panic attack is caused in no small part by the fact that he realizes (whether correctly or not) that his efforts to be supportive of Jamie and make him a better person have actively prejudiced Jamie’s professional prospects.The irony is that people are freaking out online that Ted Lasso isn’t dark enough, or that it doesn’t have enough edge to be really funny or ambitious. To paraphrase Roy Kent, fuuuuuuuuuuuuck that. The throughline that Ted Lasso’s sunny optimism is paper-thin, that it’s a weak cover for some serious emotional issues, and – crucially – that his attempts to brighten everyone else’s world are simply leading them to paper over their own issues… all of this is extremely rich conceptually and takes a depth of thinking and feeling to appreciate the nuance.“Everything is going to be okay” is not a helpful phrase for people suffering from depression, anxiety, and other emotional afflictions. It’s because that phrase isn’t true – the real truism is that when everything isn’t okay, you still have the tools and capability to deal with it. The Internet may think that’s just a cute semantic difference, but the two concepts could not be more diverse. I love Ted Lasso for exploring this, and I get it – even if the killjoys don’t.
Wierdly, despite it being a multi-multi billion pound industry that takes up an inordinate amount of time in people’s heads and a day a week for millions up and down the UK, there is very little football fiction on TV.Apart from Footballers Wives in the early 2000s, I can’t think of a single show that dramatised football like Ted Lasso does.I guess that means people drawn to the show because it’s ostensibly about football are pissed off with how little actual football is portrayed.
Surely this will only worsen the behavior that’s made him a somewhat toxic presence, right?I would like to think this is an extension of the growth Nate is undergoing (from timid attendant, to mean rookie coach) and continuing to come into his own. Roy’s support and respect could go a long way to helping Nate realize what he brings to the table and fitting in better with the coaches, considering he’s been a coach for a very short time. would Ted still be using his American number such that his kid’s school would accidentally call him?Given that he is freshly divorced and still trying to maintain a family relationship with his son, I would suspect he kept the US number so his son can call him anytime. Having a work and personal cell phone is pretty common (if he even bothered with a second phone) and I suspect Ted would keep his number to avoid any further disruption of his family dynamic..
Not only was there more football, but the on-field play looked reasonably good and was well staged. I audibly reacted to some of the footwork.The white fedora and scarf- Pretty amazing look for Rebecca.Roy immediately catching on to Jaimie trying to agree with everything he says. “You’re an ugly boy with bad hair. Say it.” I’m liking Higgins alot this year. Might be my favorite character after Roy.
Good shout on Higgins. He’s basically been this season’s Nate in terms of character growth and coming into his own. And with the on-field play, it really helps that they found actors with actual backgrounds playing the sport. It just adds to the authenticity. Except for Roy. Last week when Roy started running to get to the stadium, all I could think was, “My god is that an awkward looking run for a guy who was supposedly an all-world talent.” But it’s alright. Because he’s Roy fucking Kent.
I can only imagine the ever so soft and loving giggles that Brett is having when people criticise his footwork after doing 30 takes to get a 2.5 second clip right while smashing hotdogs in the craft tent and telling people to suck it 😀
I mean, one of the running (lol) storylines of the second half of season one was how Roy’s legs don’t work anymore, and he ended the season on a pretty severe injury. So it worked for me.
I love how it came full circle for Roy. Limping off the pitch last season to the He’s Here He’s There chant, now limping back onto the pitch to the same sound.
I just heard a real-life player’s* sprinting style be described as “how you cross the road when a car stops to let you across” so Kent’s awkward gait checks out.*It was Celtic’s Tom Rogic
Last week when Roy started running to get to the stadium, all I could
think was, “My god is that an awkward looking run for a guy who was
supposedly an all-world talent.”
Age and fitness questions aside, when’s the last time you tried running in leather-soled shoes? Let’s just say there’s a reason they use rubber for trainers.
Personally I chalked that up to the spoofing on romcoms and the obligatory and generally awkward “running to catch love at the airport gate”.
all I could think was, “My god is that an awkward looking run”Me too, but remember, his knee is completely fucked, AND he’s old and is not used to running badly – when suddenly he has to run (on pavement) it hurts and he’s probably also bewildered. (And pissed off: He’s Roy fucking Kent.)
Two of the quibbles in the article are easily solved with money. Ted is a coach for a professional sports team. Even if it’s no longer top-tier this season, it’s certainly small beans for them to add an international plan to their head coach’s phone (particularly since they seem to have no issues adding a 3rd and even 4th coach).Second, it’s Apple. They can absolutely afford to license Ballroom Blitz for an episode, or, for that matter, buy the entire catalog to which the song belongs. Certainly if Stargirl can afford Peter Gabriel’s Big Time (which I definitely assumed was a cover until learning otherwise), Apple can afford whatever music they please.
My music complaints are never quibbles, it’s just consistently brain-breaking. I was thinking the other day watching For All Mankind what Mad Men would have sounded like with that show’s music budget.
As for the other thing, yes, money solves all problems, but that’s just so wasteful!
Fair enough. I remember watching the pilot of The Americans and it had amazing music, including The Chain and In The Air Tonight, but subsequent episodes…not so much.
Basically, most basic cable shows are forced to prioritize their music budget across the season, picking one or two key moments they can shell out and having to compromise on everything else. Apple is a land of zero compromise.
Also, just to clarify, if you’re referring to the opening music, it isn’t Ballroom Blitz. It’s Arctic Monkey’s Dancing Shoes. Not saying that negates the discussion re: budget, but the factual error was bugging me. Carry on.
Not to mention “Tusk”, during the crucial chase scene. But, yeah, they had to pick their moments, and did it damn well. Just to bookend it, “With or Without You” in the finale was brilliant.
Counterpoint: “The Chain” doesn’t actually show up until episode 7… of season 3!I’m not a pop music person, so a lot of this is lost on me – I usually don’t know which songs are famous and a big deal and surprising, and which are a local cover band playing a song nobody ever heard of anyway (and it doesn’t much matter to me). But The Americans was pretty notable, I thought, for the effectiveness of its needle-drops, including surprisingly many songs I’d heard of. The best may be the “Tainted Love” murder scene, but also the Yaz song with Kimmy, “Under Pressure”, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, “Games Without Frontiers”, “Brothers in Arms”, “With or Without You”, and so on.
[although my favourites are just the score itself, and the wonderfully luscious orchestration of Tchaikovsky’s “None but the lonely heart”…]
By The Chain, I obviously meant Tusk, as Ranger6 gently pointed out, lol.But yes, there’s a lot to love about The Americans, and the music is a big part of it. It was just a little jarring when I finally got around to binging it, the pilot had several major period hits (5 in all, according to Tunefind), and episode 2 had zero.
Oh, I don’t know – they definitely pulled out a few more Fleetwood Mac and Peter Gabriel epics* over the years.*Except that one song Peter Gabriel wrote for the show and it was awful.
Games Without Frontiers was the best possible use of that song. The lyrics, obviously, but the mood was spot-on.
Apple also has a major music streaming service which I have to think is used as leverage in some way when they’re licensing for their shows.
When I moved to India for a 6-month assignment, 10 years ago, I went through the trouble of setting up a VoIP app on my phone so I could use an Indian SIM card but still get calls on my own number. Because I’m cheap, and I enjoy pointless technical challenges like that.When my wife moved to Japan for a 1-year assignment five years ago, she just had two phones, one local and one U.S. Because she’s not, and she doesn’t.I think tons of people do some version of what my wife did. Especially if you’re still on a family plan back in the U.S., which Ted could very likely still be with his wife.
I mean Mad Men had the Beatles a couple of times, the Stones etc. The music was pretty great.
not to hijack, but since we’re talking about the show’s music, this is the 2nd episode in the series where the music/scene pairing is absolutely 100% bang-on perfection:
this ep at the end (RY X – “Only), and of course Michael Kiwanuka’s “Piano Joint (This Kind Of Love)“ during Rebecca’s walk downstairs to apologize to Ted in S01E09.
[chef’s kiss]
wow I haven’t watched this show, but I have to say: it sounds absolutely hilarious
comedies aren’t for laughing at anymore. they’re for agreeing with what the characters say and do
I think that’s more true for sitcoms with a central protagonist than sitcoms like this with a large cast.
It is.
It is.
Nate’s spitting to activate ‘Confident Nate’ is surely building up to a moment where he spits directly in someone’s face (I’m thinking it’ll be Roy. But there’s a slim chance it’ll be Rebecca), and then ‘Confident Nate’ will be destroyed utterly.
Think might have mentioned in the previous weeks episode but I like the spitting to become confident thing. It’s “wrong” enough to remind us that this isn’t quite Nate becoming a better version of himself, it reminds us that his confidence is rooted in anger rather than being pro himself. It undercuts a lot of the “fuck yeah” associated with seeing an often downtrodden character rise up.
Was also a nice juxtaposition to Rebecca’s “make yourself big” which was about making yourself rise to how you see others rather than showing disgust/anger at others and pushing yourself forward due to that.
I notice the edgelords over at New Gawker had a go. Whatever.
Man, just checked them out and I thought the G/O site design was bad…
Jesus. My eyes.
HOLY SHIT that site design. It looks like it’s about to offer me rapidshare links to a weird porn game.Also, Jesus Christ, their piece on Ted Lasso is literally crying that other outlets rate it positively. What the fuck is this website.
The combination of people feeling validated by hot takes, people resenting the show because of the idea that it’s “good for you,” or people resenting criticism of the show (or the tone of the criticism) means so much about discussion of this show is very personal, very ugly, and increasingly delusional – either the show is perfect, or the show is terrible and was terrible all along. The amount of hyperbole for an Apple TV show is insane and is another example of how unpleasant and destructive talk about a show (or a movie, or a book, or anything, really) becomes when all perspective is lost. Even the viral tweets about the show from that Daily Show guy, which I thought were mostly fair and didn’t warrant the bizarre reaction they got from some people, claimed that no show has had such a dropoff in quality from the first to second season. Unless this is the first show they’ve ever watched go from a first to second season, that view just bewilders me.
I really wish this show had gained popularity in a slow burn kind of way, like Succession, instead of being propped up as the defining show of the pandemic era. It’s a great show! It’s maybe—maybe; we’re still in the middle of the damn season—a little less great in its second season, but plenty of sitcoms that aren’t part of The Discourse have sophomore slumps and…it’s not a big deal.
Are you ready for the HOTTEST HOT TAKE OF ALL HOT TAKES?? Because I’m about to BREAK THE INTERNET and get ALL THE CLOUT!!!!It’s a really good show with a VERY talented cast that leans a little too heavily on the “goodness me, an American guy doesn’t understand soccer” and that nobody will remember in three years.And that’s how you become an influencer. Thank you for attending my TED talk.
You brought up some good points so this just became a Ted listen!
Can’t believe I burned my “lads, it’s Tottenham” comment already last week so I’ll settle for:Lol, Spurs. I laughed out loud so many times this episode so that ending hit me in the gut. The show has options for Ted’s core character I hadn’t really thought about before. Not expecting a permanent change to him, but they could and that’s fun.What’s fascinating me now is just how much the team have improved this season by managing for all accounts what’s a seriously good cup run by a Championship team. Supposing that’s the FA Cup it’d been a while since that had happened.In the shows reality, of course.For a sports show, that’s quite smart writing to build a dramatic arc from even whilst the team is bang average in the league (and yet the storyline could still end up with them going to the playoffs just because of how the Championship works). It’s good pacing that I’m never sure is really appreciated in the States. A lot of the British specificity is missing from the discourse.
this joke would be better if it was Arsenal. But Spurs have their own LOL issues atm too.
Some good stuff in this ep, especially bringing it back to Ted’s anxiety and Rebecca being the only one to recognise. But I have to admit, I’m finding it a bit schtick-y; scenes like the barflies watching Bake Off and singing a football chant about it, or Rebecca and Rebecca’s Mum shouting to the football field are veering dangerously close to fan service. Hopefully the introduction of the anxiety plot and Nate potentially being a villain adds a bit of conflict to the series, because things are looking a bit too jovial now. Christ, even Roy and Jamie patched things up.
That shouting down to the field introduced the concept of the Secret Sandwich Switcheroo, which was definitely worth it.
Anyone else think that the Sam/Rebecca romance angle is how they’ll work the sponsorship crisis back into the plot? Everyone thinks everything is fine. But Sam and Rebecca connect in some way and the message of Sam’s protest gets clouded when people say Rebecca only stood by him because he’s her new boyfriend? That’s my guess anyway. I really dig the two of them and I’m excited to see how the dynamic plays out and I am so excited to see Ted and the Doc finally talk!
Funny, just reading “Sam/Rebecca romance” my head immediately goes to a 30 year old show, doing a poor imitation of its own early years.
Thankfully that Sam/Rebecca romance didn’t last much beyond its first season. I had blocked out the stupid pregnancy thing they tried to do later on.
Twitter discourse is always exhausting and rarely necessary, even when I agree with it. I did not agree with it this time which made it doubly exhausting. This was the show firing on all cylinders. It is so far my favorite episode of the season, and I am excited to peel back the layers on Ted further.
There are dual SIM/eSIM iPhones. I presume Ted has one of these.
I have no desire to categorize “The Signal” or any episode of the show as either a symbol of greatness or a harbinger of collapseThank you for this. Too often the internet feels a need to categorize something (or someone) as either the greatest or worst thing ever with no room for middle ground. Life does not work that way, but I think people feel like they only get heard if they have strong, loud opinions.
Myles, I think you meant “telegraphed”, not “choreographed”, right?But good review, points well made.
I thought this episode was great, especially the game scenes. I’ve been around soccer enough to have seen players like Jamie do just what he did: taunt himself into being fouled, getting a free kick. From that far? that effortlessly? Nah, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility.And Roy’s take on coaching Jamie was great, and I loved the way Jamie didn’t quite understand the entire situation (as he often doesn’t). But he came through. And Nathan putting a bunch of defenders in was brilliant too. It’s a nice last-ditch thing, like sending your keeper out into the field to be essentially an added player (but it leaves your goal totally open, so maybe don’t do it that often…)
I loved that Roy called out Ted for messing Jamie up. “You f*cked him up and turned him average!” And then “Nah… the little prick’s gonna make it.”The show is aware that sports are more complicated than the “Jamie should pass more” that we got in season 1. To win at this level, you need your superstars to do superstar things, and for Jamie, that’s knowing when to take over.
Re: “Ballroom Blitz” — I noticed this too with another Apple title: For All Mankind. That show is chock full of uber-famous bops. I wonder if Apple has some sort of iTunes-era rights deathgrip that keeps them affordable.
That, or they’re freakin Apple so money is no object.
FAM definitely uses music in a very specific way our brain recognizes (to establish time period) and which we’re used to seeing compromised due to music licensing budget limitations.From what I understand, Apple’s relationship with the music industry doesn’t mean it gets better deals, but it does mean they have an incentive to use music as a talking point, and thus they invest in it to a level that would have fundamentally changed how a show like Mad Men used music compared to their “We’ll shell out for one or two important songs per season and cheap out on the rest” strategy.
I’m glad Mad Men apparently didn’t have the budget to license a lot of pop songs. I think period pieces can rely too much on pop music, and it can be lazy. I think they poured that money into sets and costuming, and was much better for it. Still the best looking show set in the 1960s, by far.
Mad men still had mad cash to drop. They just used it a touch judiciously. They knew when to break out the Beatles, for goodness sake.
That is super interesting. It never occured to me that this could be a “long tail” kinda thing. But yeah, if I owned a ginormous music catalogue, I could see how my tv arm could help funnel money into it.
Definitely the latter IMO – they have an endless pile of cash and can just get about whatever song they want for their flagship series.
This shit honestly ruins my mental health. When I see this false positivity shit like ted lasso in world that is dying and burning it feels like Im in the flanders dystopia. I know this show is supposed to be about joy but it honestly makes me feel like we are all condemned and that life doesnt matter. It depressed me and just makes me think we are all going to experience climate change misery faster than we thought on a psychic level. this show and its praise just makes me so deeply sad I think art is dead.
I enjoy the show, a lot of my friends enjoy the show (to varying degrees), and I follow a lot of writers/critics who talk about the show online.. The point is, I’ve seen a lot of discussion about the show on my Twitter timeline, and as far as I can tell, the “discourse is”: some people have said that they like the show but it’s not the greatest show ever written, and then some other fans of the show got really upset and went overboard defending something that was not really being attacked. People love the show and it’s going to win lots of awards. No reason to accuse people who like but don’t love it of having weird motives (I saw one fan accuse people who don’t like Season 2 as much as Season 1 of hating shows that depict men who satisfy women’s sexual needs, which…what?). Anyway, my point is, it basically boils down to people liking something to varying degrees and just sharing their opinions about that online, which welcome to what talking about media has been like since ever.
For the exact nothing that it’s worth, and acknowledging that it was an at-best vaguely educated shot in the dark, I called it being Sam.
Kudos. There were a few comments that were throwing this out there, and—knowing that it was coming—it was interesting to see how people were picking up on potential signals.
…she contents resigns herself with to a meaningless night of sex with Hot Luca…Fixed.
I would be fine to have a night of meaningless sex with Hot Luca (who also makes tea! and is cheerful and friendly to Rebecca’s guests!) anytime.
“Meaningless sex” is so overused (and frankly judgmental), though. Why does it have to be considered meaningless, just because it’s (probably) not leading to a capital-R relationship? I personally find a great deal of meaning in satisfying sex with hot humans whom I wouldn’t necessarily want to settle down with.
I agree. I don’t think one night stands (or fuck buddies) have to be considered meaningless! As long as you treat someone with respect and decency, it can just be a really nice time that is satisfying to all involved. Not everything has to be Capital L Love.
The ATL reminded me of Dr. Nick Murdock from Scrubs, (played excellently by Sean Hayes for merely that one episode,) from the first season, if anyone remembers. He was, like Ted, endlessly optimistic and nice ad nauseum, and then at the end of the episode he crashed, hard, when the insufficiency of his optimism became apparent. It was inevitable if the show didn’t wanna go full fluffy clouds and no consequences.
The show is also reaching a point, where I don’t see what’s Ted function is anymore. The doctor’s got the emotional well being covered, Roy and Nate have got the coaching covered, so what will Ted bring to the table in the future?Anyway, strongest episode so far, I felt. Also the funniest.
Remember it? I wrote about it!
https://www.avclub.com/scrubs-my-super-ego-my-fifteen-minutes-1798170640(Although honestly, I had forgotten about the specifics of this episode, but it’s a good comparison. Be prepared for another Scrubs comparison in my review of the next episode).
The point about Ted having no purpose in the show is a good one. Roy is the one having the most effect as a coach. Then Nate? He’s shitty with players, but I guess they’re saying he’s somewhat of a wonderkid. What has Ted done for them lately? He’s sort of bonded the team by being UberAffable, but that job is done.
Eh, I have to stick up for Ted here. Yes, Roy, Beard and Nate (I will never stop laughing about “wonderkid”) have taken the heavy lifting of the coaching. In fact, Beard was doing practically all the coaching last year since he was the only one who knew about soccer. But this team wouldn’t work if it were still at odds with each other, and that’s where Ted’s influence is felt. He successfully integrated Jamie back into the team, he saw the potential in Nate, and he got Roy back under the guise of asking him to help out Isaac. He’s doing the big picture stuff. He may be shit at making up plays and knowing when an athlete needs to draw a penalty but that’s what the rest of his staff is for. Roy knows what it’s like to be on the field, Beard knows the tactical stuff and Nate knows the history of the team.
Agreed completely. (I should really read all the comments before I post ideas that others already discussed…) Ted is finding that his optimism is insufficient and occasionally counterproductive, and Roy just undercut his entire coaching philosophy re: Jamie – what’s his role, then?In the show universe, I assume that Ted will learn from everyone – take lessons and personality aspects from each of the supporting characters and find his center, while maintaining that baseline optimism as something other than a protective mechanism.
I agree with you, and last year we saw Ted bring more to the pitch than just optimism. He brought good strategies and understood player management…and he hasn’t been bringing that this year. At times people struggle because they focus too much on what they think they are best at rather than doing the things they need to do. As such, Ted has become secondary to his team’s success where the past season he was the leader of the team. We see it as how he ran practice, and handled player substitutions and called plays in season 1. Something which we haven’t seen so far…and I think that this is very much intentional. In my opinion this is exactly what Dr. Shannon will bring back to Ted. Make him realize that he has more to bring than optimism, and focusing on this aspect of his personality and skillset is what brought his marriage to an end, and what could lead to his relationship with coaching to an end as well. Until Ted realizes that he brings more to the table than relentless optimism…he’s going to be hurting his team more than he’s helping them. Which isn’t to say that he needs to change, he just needs balance. Jamie needed to find balance and bring out his “inner p***k” Ted needs to do the same, and bring out the Ted who is out there deep down in his core…and that’s a coach…rather than a cheerleader.
> I don’t see what’s Ted function is anymore.I think that’s exactly the point. If Ted disappeared from the face of the earth right now, the coaching team he set in motion, the positive vibes he elicited from ownership, and the psychologist he never got in the way of, all of them would now do as good a job- if not better, as we learn both from Roy Kent and from Nate stepping up- in the absence of Ted.Ted effectively has no role on the team, no real role in his wife’s life (now his ex-wife), a rapidly dwindlng role in his son’s life, and as we’re seeing, he has only shallow relationships with those around him. He has no role anywhere. He’s made himself superfluous and given our great affection for him creates a massive conflict and this makes for the possibility of some brilliant storytelling in the forthcoming episodes.
There’s something almost beautifully tragic about the idea that Ted has been *so* successful at creating a healthy and strong environment that it no longer needs him to actively maintain it and left him with nothing further to contribute.
Without getting into The Discourse: I’ve had some significant concerns about how this season was shaping up. But this episode, I think, was the first one to meet the standard of quality set by season one.
In particular, I think this was maybe the first good showcase for Rebecca all season. I get that she’s probably a tricky character to write now, since her big arc was concluded last season. But her misadventures with online dating have felt so tangential to me up until this point. The most impactful moment of that storyline didn’t even have anything to do with her; it was Roy’s monologue about not settling for “fine.” But this plotline felt both thematically resonant and satisfying, and it’s about time Hannah Waddingham got some real meat again.
I do still feel something of a character imbalance. Despite the show’s title, Ted has felt less centered in the goings-on of the season. I think this is because they structured this story around this moment here, where Ted has his breakdown and finally goes to Dr. Sharon’s office. But for my taste, they waited a bit too long to get here. As a result, Ted has felt like he’s in a holding pattern, and Roy has weirdly become this season’s protagonist so far. I suspect that will shift once the show finally plays its cards vis a vis Ted, but it’s been weird to watch Roy Kent undergo the most impactful personal changes and development in a show that isn’t titled Roy Kent.
Final note: reeeeeeal worried about where they’re headed with Nate. My partner was worried his big defensive play would backfire, making him even more resentful because he’d look like a schmuck. Given how they left him, getting high on his own good press, I suspect succeeding was even worse for him.
I concur on Rebecca – this wasn’t a deeply substantial episode, but at least her Mommy Issues offered a meaningful thematic counterpoint, and had her more involved in other stories.As for character imbalance, I would argue this is not entirely uncommon for sitcoms like this to decenter their main character (who is the “hook” of the show) and focus the emotional growth elsewhere, but the nature of the first season as his fish-out-of-water story and the fact he’s the show’s title does give the sense this is a shift. But I think in many ways it’s part of the point: Ted’s lack of character development is, arguably, the clearest sign of his character’s pain, and so his reluctance to be the “protagonist” is tied to his trauma.
I hear you on that. I think it’s just a matter of taste for me. My favorite eponymous sitcom, BoJack Horseman, is more the style I like: even when individual episodes spotlighted another character, BoJack was still the undeniable center of that universe. Whatever Todd or Diane or Princess Carolyn was going through that episode, it almost always tied in somehow to whatever journey BoJack was on that season. I never felt like they were leaving him on the runway to wait his turn, the way I feel they’ve been doing with Ted this year.
AGAIN NOT GETTING INTO THE DISCOURSE, but a sitcom I did often find guilty of the things levied against Ted Lasso was The Good Place. But I’ll say this to its credit: it rarely ever lingered too long on a thing (and the one time it did, I think it kind of broke the show). They charged straight ahead. If the audience expected that they would do something in episode nine, they did it in episode three. And I guess I wish Ted Lasso had done that with Dr. Sharon. We all knew he was going to end up on that couch. I personally would’ve found it more interesting if he’d gotten there sooner, and we’d spent the extra time instead exploring the ramifications of that choice.
But! All a matter of taste! To bring it back away from “I wish this show was something else” territory: I respect and understand what they’re doing, and wish they were going about it differently.
(by the way, you’ve been doing great on these reviews. thank you for your hard work)
I never felt like they were leaving him on the runway to wait his turn, the way I feel they’ve been doing with Ted this year.I think it makes sense when we remember who is running this show. Scrubs’/Bill Lawrence’s influence is all over this show, including how just like in Scrubs, we dive frequently into problems other main characters are dealing with, without any connection back to JD at any point. They never hesitated to spend an episode here and there with JD largely on the periphery as we focused in on Turk or Elliot or Dr. Cox and some personal relationship or mental health drama they were having outside of their relationship with him.It’s just how he does it.
I think Nate is going to get an offer to head coach another team by the end of this season and he’ll end up taking it. Now that Roy is connecting with the players, Nate’s role isn’t as necessary (even though he’s more of a strategic coach) and he’ll end up somewhere else.
While that would be interesting, I wonder if it strays too close to what they did with Jamie in season one.
Agreed across the board. While I’ve enjoyed the episodes up to this point, this week was the first one that felt like the show was really locked in.I’m sure that has to do with 1) getting the team back on the pitch, 2) doing something with Jamie & advancing the storyline of how the team is performing beyond “neutral”, and 3) finally getting to the collision between Ted and Dr. Sharon. It’s going to be a three-season trilogy, and I expect that S2 is going to be the “dark” season, even though the team seems to be headed for promotion and a very deep FA Cup run – Ted hitting bottom as he recognizes that his subordinates do all of the individual parts of his job better than he does, and that his coping mechanisms are causing as much harm as they help. The scene where Roy called out Ted for “f*cking up Jamie” is a great callback to Beard calling out Ted last year before the last game. I love that the show is willing to admit that an athlete’s psyche is more complicated than “Jamie passing = good”. Roy is right. They need Jamie to score more goals and draw more fouls.
Ted hitting bottom as he recognizes that his subordinates do all of the individual parts of his job better than he doesI don’t know where they are going with this, but I love it because it is so real that the person who does the thing that enables the greatness rarely gets the credit. I hope that Ted doesn’t get upset about this. Someone drawn to coaching with his desire to support greatness, I would assume understands this and is fine with it. I have a career in politics where, if I do my job well, it just looks like certain elected officials suddenly because brilliant and courageous. You shouldn’t get into this side of things if you want credit. If I sought credit, I would actually be less effective at my job. Perhaps the same is true of coaches, and maybe that contributes to them getting mad and being jerks to the players they are supposed to be supporting. So I’d be surprised if Ted is bothered by it. It looks like that drama is shaping up between Nate and Roy. And Ted might be the good role model on how to handle the issue. But I just love that a TV storyline is making this typically invisible thing very visible and maybe is going to show the healthy way to handle it, rather than just using it to create conflict.
I think that you’ve hit the nail on the head with a lot of the concerns people have with the season so far when you’ve talked about Rebecca’s arch. All of the main characters completed their arch in season 1, and season 2 spent the majority of the time so far setting up a whole other one. Usually (especially for sitcoms) this is all done off-camera and the season starts with the expected arch for each character outlined in the first episode or two. We are conditioned to expect an episode like “The Signal” to be in episode 2 or 3…but instead it’s Episode 6. I think it’s a fairly bold choice as there are many time we see a character change when a show returns and we wonder why only to find out over the course of the season. This flips the script a bit, and we get to see the set up before the characters start their arch. I find it interesting that this mirrors Ted’s Rom Communism speech about the dark forest. It seems that Nate, Ted, Beard, and the team are all going into their own respective dark forest at different times and for different reasons. As Ted said, it will all work out in the end…but probably not like we all expect. I think we all expected a version of Ted’s master-plan post-relegation (get promoted back to the premier league, and then win the whole ****ing thing) may not happen. But something else will…and if the show keeps its identity throughout…I certainly expect to be there for it.
Currently struggling with my own mental health issues, and I feel very seen by Ted Lasso. That panic attack reminded me of my own.
OFF TOPIC I saw the new Netflix documentary, Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed. It’ll make you cry and piss you off. What they did to Bob Ross was not right. The doc centers around Bob’s son Steve and this awful married couple, The Kowalski’s (Bob Ross Inc.) who have stolen Bob Ross’s name and make millions off it.https://www.netflix.com/title/81155081
The first 5 eps feeling more inconsequential wouldn’t have felt as detrimental to the show if I was binge-watching the entire season. But watching one episode a week gave me that “when are they going to get to the fireworks factory” feeling. This was the first episode of the season in a little while that made me feel I was in good hands. I guess I just gotta BELIEVE.
When I first went into therapy years ago, one of the things that almost every person I knew said was, “Really? But you’re always so happy?”That’s why I love how they are addressing this particular kind of mental health, because there are a lot of us who mask our depression/anxiety with being the bright shining light in the room. I love how this season is unfolding.
Rebecca and Sam just make no sense. Ted and Rebecca makes better sense on a common life stage level, but I’m not rooting for that, either. We need more Ron Swanson-Leslie Knope dynamics in TV. Platonic cross-gender love is so under-explored!There is simply no way Ted will end up as coach, ultimately. Roy is just such a natural and, seeing all the men standing on that line, one wonders what role he really fills anymore. I hope the show will “go there” and allow Ted to find a place where his attitude and skillset can both make an impact.I love Nice Jamie but hope he doesn’t become dull.
“You’re a great man—does Jane make you greater?” may be the greatest relationship intervention ever. Clearly coming from a place of love and respect, without actually attacking Jane in the parts we hear.
This may why the Higgins seem so damned happy together.
I have not really had any concerns about this season so far – watching Ted Lasso is always going to be a joy, which is all I want. But/plus/also, it seemed quite evident that the show was telling us to have a little faith, both subtly and also right out loud with that “dark forest” monologue. I loved this ep, but if anything, I’ll love it more if it gets the internet to shut the hell up.Once again this show nails anxiety attacks. They almost always “happen” because of something stupid and of course are always being built beneath the surface for hours/days/weeks/months due to being burdened and overloaded by problems you can’t work yourself out of.We’re an Arsenal household, so let me tell you – having Richmond beat the Spurs and having a cameo by Ian Wright nearly had my husband apoplectic with joy.I’m glad that Nate got credit for his game-winning coaching but this is going to make him even worse than he has been this season. I’m very much looking forward to him getting his ass straightened out because we know he can be kind and helpful. He’s just . . . not being so.I didn’t call the bantr match being Sam, I have to say. (I sort of thought it would be Nate?) But it does make sense! He is routinely the most gentlemanly person on the show! But I cannot see him and Rebecca dating. She’s his boss! And he’s too nice for her – as much as Rebecca wants (and deserves!) a good relationship with a nice person, I think she would still want someone with a little edge. Sam is a very buff circle.I wonder if they’ll skip forward a week in time to the FA semis? Who will they play? Will they end up playing Man City in the finals? Because that is what we call poetic justice.
Am I the only one thinking Roy will take a head coach job from another team? Or that Sam’s fate may be correlated to the change? Part of me feels Rebecca will be forced to deal with the fallout after learning of Sam’s feelings.
I am definitely overthinking this, but I don’t think its true that Ted hides from his friends that he is in pain. … no one other than Rebecca seems to even be concerned about Ted’s emotional well-being.It sort of makes everyone else seem like they’re being bad friends, but that’s just because we were in that hotel room during the finalization of his divorce. The truth is that he lives his life expressly to keep the people around him from understanding the depths of his pain, and the one time he slipped was the only reason that Rebecca knew he wasn’t shuffling to the bathroom with a bout of food poisoning.When he is talking to the Diamond Dogs after they get back from the away game, Ted says to them, something like, “I am struggling to deal with the fact that I went from having a mental breakdown to sleeping with Rebecca’s friend, and in the meantime, also got divorced.” And the Diamond Dogs, are like, “yep, makes sense.” So he told them enough that he can describe it as a mental breakdown and they don’t skip a beat. That suggests Ted shares his pain with his friends. Though, I agree that Ted doesn’t invite others to help him at the relevant moments. It is so hard watching him devote himself to help others and then be in pain and not reach out to others for help. Its only because Rebecca chased him down at the karaoke club and checked on him on Christmas that anyone ends up being there for him.
In regard to the cell phone nitpick, I know a lot of people who have set up internet phone numbers here in the US that ring through to their phones while they’re overseas via the internet instead of actual cell service. For people who travel overseas a bunch, it’s not that uncommon.
Re Ted getting a US call from his phone – I live in Ireland but have a US phone number I maintain for the odd stateside contact. Since the characters on the show all use Apple products, he may be using a feature that allows you to be reached on your mobile from any number associated with your Apple account. He might have two phones – one with the US number and one with a UK number – or he might have the dual-sim iPhone which would allow him to carry a US and UK number