Ted Lasso recap: A sensitive, gratingly sweet episode
"La Locker Room Aux Folles" is timely but too perfectly manicured
TV Reviews Ted Lasso
When I first encountered Ted Lasso in 2020, show and character lent themselves to hyperbolic metaphors that stressed just how famished we all were (this was early COVID, remember?) for just some really wholesome content. Ted and the show that encased him could feel like a warm blanket, like a welcome hug. Here was a show that put (sometimes clueless, sometimes cloying) kindness at its core. As it inches toward its final few episodes, though, I’m starting to wonder whether, like a sweet if delectable dessert, Ted Lasso has outstayed its welcome, giving us all cavities in the process.
Because boy does “La Locker Room Aux Folles,” the show’s latest episode, feel like the show at its most gratingly sweet. Yes, Ted Lasso finally gives us the Very Special Episode (Colin Hughes) it’s been teasing all season and while it’s all quite lovely (the episode may well have been titled “Love, Colin” given its toothless Love, Simon-esque approach to the material: the footballer can exhale, now!), it is also, um, maybe too wholesome? As in, there’s so little drama, so few stakes (Colin actually all but admits it with his 99-percent speech!) that it means there’s little here to surprise viewers. Instead, the show gently lectures them.
This is but the ethos Ted Lasso has been built on. Sure, the fan that hurls the “F-word” (the other one) is meant to represent a homophobic world that exists on the outskirts of Richmond but he’s so squarely an outlier that it’s clear the show has cooked up (like, say, Schitt’s Creek before it) a fictional environment that’s mostly devoid of real-life violence and discrimination. And so, while Isaac loses his absolute shit on the field after hearing the slur hurled at the team (earning a red card in the process), the consequences of his outburst are basically a textbook example of “how to adequately respond to someone close to you coming out.” Sure, Ted fumbles it with a tone-deaf story about a Broncos fan (classic, Ted?) but even that felt like a pat acknowledgment of how to recover from such fumbles—remembering to course-correct and to focus back on how much you care about the person in front of you.
Listen, I don’t want to diminish what Ted Lasso accomplishes with this episode. At a time when professional athletes (and footballers, in particular) still struggle with living their lives out and proud, there’s a good argument to be made about needing stories like Colin out in the world. And yet, the didacticism of it all felt so, well, flat to me (like the locker room conversations about nudes from last week) that I couldn’t help but snicker when we learn suddenly Colin becomes an even better player, praised by team, press, and coaches alike.
It’s a shame because Isaac’s bottled anger—a mix of disappointment, shame, and frustration at both Colin and himself—is particularly ripe for exploration. And yet, even as Colin successfully comes out to his team (Dani’s response sums up how it goes: “You’re gay, big whoop!”) and has a nice heart to heart with Isaac later that night, it all ends with a mostly neutered back and forth between the two about, what else? Showering with naked guys and straight men’s inability to say “I love you” to a fellow gay player (because they don’t have to…?) Somehow, the show makes Colin’s revelation a nothing event and privileges instead his straight teammate’s inane questions—all while having, and here’s what made me unconscionable irate, “I am what I am” from La Cage Aux Folles playing in the background as the credits then rolled.
Okay, so when the overture for that musical first played over the opening montage of the team skillfully practicing, I grinned a bit. What a lovely juxtaposition, the campiness of that drag farce being here married with the masc (well, mostly) aesthetic of a soccer comedy. It seemed like a fun little wink, a table-setter of sorts for what proved to be a sensitive (if all too perfectly manicured) coming out episode.
But here’s the thing about “I am what I am.” Ever since La Cage Aux Folles first arrived on Broadway in 1983 (!), that song has served as an anthem for the most visible (and thus most targeted) of the queer population. It’s an affirmation song (“I am what I am, And what I am needs no excuses”) but one delivered by a fabulous drag queen whose pride in their identity and their artistry will not be eclipsed by any desire to conform. What is the song telling us as it scores a scene between a gay footballer who loves playing video games with his teammate and has, successfully, passed and avoided any scrutiny for years now? We all heard that moment when Colin says he’s not telling anyone else, right? That he’s perfectly content with just having told the team? What do he and La Cage’s Albin/Zaza have in common? Is this not a flattening of that “I am what I am” mantra, defanging it of any specificity to gender nonconformity (or, if we’re being kinder, of just outright queer visibility)?
Men like Colin, who like drinking with the guys and weaponize male-bonding to avoid being caught (remember him at Ola’s a few weeks back?), men who struggle to come to terms with their own sexuality and successfully compartmentalize their identities in order to thrive in otherwise aggressively heterosexist spaces, deserve to have their stories be told. But to wrap that story with a nod to one of the most fabulous queer celebrations of fabulousness, of camp, of drag (!) feels like a tone deaf understanding of the message Albin-as-Zaza delivers. And that’s being generous.
I mean, the song ends with the line “Life’s not worth a damn til you can shout out, ‘I am what I am.’” How is that an appropriate song for a story wherein our gay character all but admits he’s going to live comfortably in the glass closet Richmond affords him? Okay. Rant (and recap) over.
Stray observations
- Meanwhile in Coach Nate, the needless Ted Lasso spinoff that inexplicably plays nestled within the Apple TV+ comedy that first originated that character, we got to see Rupert become even more of a sneering villain than he was before. His tempting of Nate was never going to work (because Nate is good and wholesome! And Rupert is bad!) but good on him for trying and for revealing, in the process, just how black and white the show understands its characters. There’s so little room for nuance in the Lassoverse.
- “He seems very wealthy” may be the one line Jade has said that suggests there’s more to her than being a cardboard cutout of a “girl next door-as-plot device.” Time will tell, though.
- Jack ghosting Keeley and moving to Argentina for a few months had big “Poochie died on the way back to his home planet” energy. (If that Simpsons reference goes over your head, please Google “Poochie” and thank me later.)
- “Heartbent (Not Hearbroken)” would make for a great country song (even if my mind went more in the direction of thinking it’d make a great Kelly Clarkson song—but maybe that’s because I’m obsessed with her latest divorce anthems “Me”/”Mine”). As for Ted’s improvised country song? No.
- Did we think the Ted Lasso writers felt the need to offset Colin’s coming out episode by inserting arguably the most leaden discussion ever featured on the show—one all about lead guitarists that led to us encountering a Coach Beard who all but uncharacteristically lost his mind in front of the press? Seriously, can we have one episode where one of our characters isn’t needlessly twisted into a version of themselves that feels so inauthentic it could only have been arrived at by needing to land a specific joke?
- Why have we never gotten a Rebecca/Roy standoff before? I could watch that kind of interaction any day.
- Roy may be a walking caricature of himself at this point, give or take a solid master class in class when pushed to defend his players. (That press conference had the kind of welcome pathos the show can still intermittently excel at.) But I still chuckled at his nicknames for members of the press corps, including “Five O’Clock Shadow Head,” “New Trent,” and “Goblin King.”
176 Comments
This really isn’t the type of story that Ted Lasso is designed for. Better to not have started it, no matter how welling meaning. If going to do it, it is a shame that its missed a chance to demonstrate the ugly side of sports. There is a reason the few pros or want to be pros wait until after their career is essentially over before they come out. This is consistent across all major pro sports. While probable most of the team would accept, enough wouldn’t to create major problems for the team and the player. While many fans would accept, enough wouldn’t to create confrontations, protests and more which again would reverberate to the team and the player. This would also impact them financially. Any advertising deals they have would likely dry up and the team would likely find a reason to get rid of them simply because they would conclude the support is too costly and distruptive. And this is before the political machine gets hold of it to make hay and amplify those problems.Lasso avoids this obvious chain of events by having the character deciding the team knowing is enough. Smart move since final season but still a missed opportunity.
This isn’t that show, just like Scrubs was medical show that delved deeply into the in’s and outs of US health care system (as I saw it as a Brit).Sure there may be the odd episode that touches on a real world issue, but neither show can spend long on the subject in way that would genuinely satisfy the majority of viewers.
For the story they wanted to tell, Colin and Isaac’s plot worked.
edit: just re-reading my comment and sorry if it seems like I’m slating you. Poorly word opening sentence that should start with “Yeah I agree…”Also “just like Scrubs wasn’t a medical show…”
One day I’ll make a typo free post…….but none of you will ever see it!!! 😃
it’s nice that you think that. 🙂
At the end of the day, these are just rich people living their silly little rich people lives. Folksy charm can only mask that so much.
That’s some red-hot social commentary there, comrade.
I’d say it’s more Yellow Hot, Arlo
But if you make it a drama and have everyone hate each ofher, critics will eat it up and call it the best thing on TV.
And root for the deeply awful rich people.
Well, my knowledge of musical theater is not as thorough as yours, but my enjoyment of this episode was much more thorough.I’ve been watching season one again the last couple of days, because I wanted to remember why I first loved the show and what made it great then. And a lot of this really worked for me in the ways the first season did:The focus is almost entirely on the football club, which has always been the best means to show the team’s process of growth, change, and coming together.The main cast interacting with each other! Rebecca/Keeley and Ted, then Rebecca/Keeley and Roy. I missed those parts of the show, which we had less and less with especially Keeley being so isolated from the team.Rebecca actually doing some team owner shit, actually being the boss we want to see. (Admittedly, the particular details of the Roy conversation felt a little out of nowhere— not entirely, but a bigger leap from what we know to that than it should have been, I think— but even with that, it’s just nice to see Rebecca doing things like this again.)The issue the show wants to comment on is something that has both been threaded throughout the season and is now causing a problem with the team. That makes it feel more organic to the story.
Someone meets Rupert and immediately clocks him as an oily shithead. (Jade’s full line there is “He seems very wealthy and nice-like.” Pointedly, nice-like. Not nice. Like Ted did upon meeting Rupert in season 1’s “For the Children,” she knows who this guy is immediately.)It felt well-edited; nothing felt overlong or unnecessary (maybe one or two scenes could have been trimmed a bit here and there).I also enjoyed some of the things you didn’t, like Beard at the press conference, because he’s such an incredible fish out of water for that sort of thing. (Even if Beard’s opinion on guitarists is… well, certainly an opinion you can have.) Speaking of press conferences, I enjoyed Roy’s, too— both for the actual content and for showcasing Roy’s growth as a coach and person. (He thinks Ted’s rubbing off on him because of the dad jokes? How about the “leading into his real answer by telling a story from his past first”?)Colin’s decision did make sense to me, too. It is different when you’re a professional footballer. He’s out to his teammates and needed to be rather than carrying his secret alone, but he doesn’t want to be The Gay Footballer, with all the media attention and pressure that would bring, in whatever form it would come.And I don’t think Nate’s story was as simple as Nate Good, Rupert Bad, although it is simple: It’s Nate just really seeing what he wasn’t before (consciously or not) as to how selfish Rupert is and that he’s trying to push Nate to be more like him. To take what he wants and not give a damn about who he hurts in the process. And it’s really the first time we’ve seen him defy Rupert in any meaningful way, huh? Like Rebecca asked Roy, “What do you want?” And I think Nate is figuring out, at least, that he doesn’t want to be a guy like Rupert. (Maybe I’ve warmed up to him more after watching those season-1 episodes; there really isn’t much at all of a hint of the resentful guy he would become.)I really want to know which reporter was “Goblin King.”
Also, I always get a kick out of Chris Powell’s ridiculous lines.“Color red tops off at about 800 centigrade, Arlo. The way Richmond is playing, I’d say they’re more yellow-hot.”“Seagulls are wretched creatures. They’ll steal your car keys right off your beach towel.”
I like it when my soccer/football commentators have a good practical knowledge of electromagnetic radiation emissions at different temperatures.
I think “Goblin King” was the woman on the front row with the giant Bowie-in-Labyrinth-esque bouffant blonde hair.
My favorite throwaway line was probably Roy calling the Independent reporter “New Trent.”
Marcus! Have we even seen him since season 1?
“I like you better than Old Trent.”
I believe Goblin King was the woman with the short white-blonde mulletish haircut; Labyrinth reference.
The Rebecca/Roy thing wasn’t that out of the blue. She’s pissed about Keeley. Remember Amsterdam? “Somewhere that thinks they deserve her.”
I remember, but that was three weeks ago and one line. It feels like a lot of extrapolation to base it just on that, without, say, a little more of this applying to Roy beyond Rebecca’s perspective on his relationship with Keeley.
“Someone meets Rupert and immediately clocks him as an oily shithead. (Jade’s full line there is “He seems very wealthy and nice-like.” Pointedly, nice-like. Not nice. Like Ted did upon meeting Rupert in season 1’s “For the Children,” she knows who this guy is immediately.)”Did she clock him or is she actually supposed to know him? There was something a bit off about how he casually called her “Kate” instead of Jade.
I didn’t see any indicators they knew each other. I think that’s just Rupert being dismissive of her for being lower-class and thus “beneath” him and his coach.
I’ve come to realisation that “some” people get disappointed in shows/films not being what they expect them to be, based on how they’ve played things out in their head.Ted Lasso isn’t a show that’s going to do a deep soul searching plot about homophobia in sport, but it will try to put its own spin on things. Personally I felt the way this episode played out was textbook Ted Lasso Universe.
Anyhoo stuff I loved:Leslie’s poor room reading skillsChris and Arlo’s increasingly off tangent commentary.Mae’s shiv comment (and the whole pub agreeing with her).Beard’s best guitarist rant with the press room.Roy’s none of you f**king business press conferenceJade(d) total reading of Rupert, with her none expression. Also her “It was worthwhile to meet you” among others.Nate not falling into Rupert trap, assuming that’s what that was (alongside just being a scumbag).
Sam and Jamie’s bit of banter…..bantr. Nice middle finger Sam.
and obviously Colin and Isaac’s (re)bonding over a game of FIFA.
Yeah, damn, I forgot about “worthwhile.” It’s more obvious when Jade tells Nate that Rupert is “nice-like,” but boy, “worthwhile” is really loaded, huh? More like “It was worthwhile to find out what a piece of shit my boyfriend is working for.”Sam and Jamie’s banter over the captain’s armband was hilarious, too. I cracked up at Sam’s middle finger. The best episodes of this show have some really great character humor.
I’m not sure of the exact quote, but Jade’s “he seems very wealthy” cracked me up.
“He seems very wealthy. And nice-like.”
I loved when she said, “He seems like a very rich man” or something like that. She had him pegged immediately just like with Nate when she first met him.
Agree on all points – I enjoyed this episode immensely.
“I’ve come to realisation that “some” people get disappointed in
shows/films not being what they expect them to be, based on how they’ve
played things out in their head.”
I mean, yeah obviously. Sometimes a show surprises you with something you didn’t know you’d like and sometimes you find out that it’s going in a direction that you don’t like.
I think there’s a difference between “Here’s a thing I happened that I don’t like” and “I wrote an entirely different episode in my head and this show is bad because it’s not that.”
Very true. This has frequently been the case with criticism of the Star Wars prequels.Now these are films which have a lot ot criticise but one of the silliest takes that some people on here were putting forward in the past decade was that, in essence, they’d dreamed up their own prequels in their head as kids or come up with their own headcanon and were disappointed that the prequels were nothing like that.
Yeah that’s true, but it seems like more and more people shit on something because it doesn’t do exactly what they want it to do. The recent season of Mandalorian, for example, or Book of Boba Fett.
“The recent season of Mandalorian, for example, or Book of Boba Fett.”
I haven’t watched Mando 3 yet, but were peoples’ Boba Fett complaints regarding more than just the terrible writing and terrible acting?
Mandalorian S3 was not really what I was expecting, but I found it to be an enjoyable season of television.Book of Boba Fett was just garbage…except for the episodes that were season 2.5 of Mando
“Book of Boba Fett was just garbage…except for the episodes that were season 2.5 of Mando”
And the cool theme music.
Isn’t The Mandalorian’s problem arguably the opposite? It stuck to a status quo that had reached its natural conclusion at the end of season 2, presumably because it thought that was what the audience wanted. Only, as it turned out, the audience were broadly open to it expanding its horizons a little without necessarily having a specific new direction in mind.
“presumably because it thought that was what the audience wanted.”Personally, I’d presume that it went that way because that’s the story the writers wanted to tell. Introducing Bo Katan in season 2 made it pretty obvious that Din would be interacting with Mandalorians more in the third season, so season 3 broadly unfolded like I thought it would.I never anticipated just how much of a badass Axe Woves is, though.
As far as I could tell, the story it wanted to tell was Bo-Katan reuniting and restoring Mandalore, so I found it odd that it seemed so compromised by reducing her to a supporting character in that story.Based on how things have played out, I lean towards the idea that at some point the plan was for The Mandalorian to become an anthology with rotating leads (e.g. s1-2: Din Djarin and Grogu; s3: Boba Fett; s4: Bo-Katan; s5: ???), but the surprise success of Baby Yoda (in terms of the degree to which it became a thing in comparison to Porgs or Babu Frik) resulted in a resistance to letting Din and Grogu drop to supporting roles in “their” show. Which in turn led to the Boba Fett story being rebranded as a spinoff and the Bo-Katan story being reconfigured to keep them as leads despite being largely incidental to the main thrust of the narrative. But I could be completely wrong about all of that, it certainly involves plenty of reading between the lines.
I don’t know, she seemed more like a co lead for most of the season.I just think they wanted to use Mando as a starter series to spin other things off from, which is exactly what it’s doing.
Maybe it’s just that social media means we know people are doing this? Like, people famously lost their minds when Dickens had “Little Nell” die in his serial novel.
Yeah I wouldn’t doubt that.
Exactly, like last year I turned on the TV looking for some entertainment from one of the paid streaming services, and instead I got “Boba Fett”.
Which is a failure at a criticism 101 level.
To an extent (quite a bit of an extent, to be clear) I agree with you. Some of the critiques ARE valid, I think (no show is perfect, and there’s been a definite shift in overall quality imo) but to criticise TL for, well, being the show it’s trying to be is the wrong angle to come at it from.
Exactly TL is a show about people learning to be better people. I’m not sure how an in depth negative/more downbeat/whatever version of Colin’s storyline fits the general theme of this show.I’m not gonna slate the critic’s viewpoint of how they see the show, I just don’t think TL is going to do the thing they expect it to based on “well it would be more interesting if…..”.
“I’ve come to realisation that “some” people get disappointed in shows/films not being what they expect them to be, based on how they’ve played things out in their head.”
It’s also a failure of the kind of recapping/analysis episode-by-episode that many/most critics still haven’t figured out how to deal with even after shows almost entirely moved from single-episode plots to season-long stories decades ago at this point.
Chris and Arlo’s increasingly off tangent commentary.I’ve enjoyed this little bit of silliness in every episode. They were right though, seagulls are indeed wretched creatures.
Me at campsite: Cover your food up, 9 yo son.9yo son: Why?(Seagull sweeps in, lifts hotdog off bun)Me: Because—(Seagull comes back for bun)9yo son: AAAAAH! (flees into cabin as if in the Blitzkrieg)
I think this reviewer is just the wrong person for this show. I continually come to the review to read the expected bad review and then read the commenters who I agree with much more. This is a show about mostly good people trying to be good to other people. We don’t want a grittier Ted Lasso, there are other shows for that (i.e. every other show on TV). The review seems to miss the point on so many things because his conclusion is pre-conceived. Most of your notes are spot on Wrightstuff. One other thing I’d mention is that Colin didn’t become a better player after the coming out, he had a giant mental weight lifted off his shoulders and could now play more in the spirit of harmony with the team.
There’s also “some” people who like some aspect of a show so much, or are so invested in it, that they will brush off any criticism as people not understanding the show in some way, as if only certain people could have unlocked and truly understand what the show is going for.
Not sure anyone here is saying TL is above criticism.
I do think that picking apart something, for not doing the thing you think it should be doing, doesn’t make it bad.
How can any creator satisfy their audience, if that audience just wants a different story to the one that’s being told?
Not sure your assessment of the more critical view is entirely accurate either.
I haven’t got an issue with a more critical view, I did originally say….
Ted Lasso isn’t a show that’s going to do a deep soul searching plot
about homophobia in sport, but it will try to put its own spin on
things.
and in a separate post…
I’m not gonna slate the critic’s viewpoint of how they see the show, I
just don’t think TL is going to do the thing they expect it to based on
“well it would be more interesting if…..”.
I think the Dubai Airline sponsor storyline also was something that AVC’s reviewer that season didn’t feel was handled well. I agree that was glossed over a bit too easily, but the writers didn’t want to (or couldn’t) examine the real world consequences of cutting off a revenue stream like that. That flagged up that Ted Lasso is operating in its own universe with how its storylines will play out.Anyhoo no harm no foul, nice debating with you. 🙂
Jade is perfect for Nate, and the last scene shows that he knows it. She keeps him grounded, inducing his better nature rather than seducing it from him.
Maybe you need to take a break from reviewing Bill Lawrence shows, Manuel.
This is his style, has been for years, and he’s not changing it now for you or anyone.
THANK YOU.
Thank you! Hello!
Bill Lawrence is not involved with Ted Lasso since s2.
And his style is still all over it.
Funnily enough, Lawrence hasn’t been working on the show this season, as I understand it, as his time has been taken up with Shrinking. I think Ted Lasso would be better if he was still working on it, but then, I also thought this was a highlight episode of the season.
Yeah, Manuel had a few problems with Shrinking too, hence my OP.
No matter how much involvement Bill Lawrence has at any time, these shows don’t seem to be what Manuel wishes they were, so it’d be nice to read a review of something that is for a change.
Ahh, I haven’t been watching Shrinking. I follow you now.I have found the show hasn’t always been what I wish it was, but what I wish it was is based on what it was in season 1, not some entirely different thing altogether that just serves my wishes and desires.
As for the guitarist question: my gut says the answer is indeed “the guy from Cream”. But the guy from Cream himself said that it was Prince.
Wasn’t that debunked, though, and Clapton never actually said that? (a few seconds later) Just googled, and yeah, according to Snopes, the Clapton/Prince quote is a fabrication. (Not taking away from Prince, who was, indeed, a spectacular guitarist.)
I mean, Clapton’s a racist piece of shit, so I’d be surprised if that quote was real.
I’d consider Prince a bit too modern to be considered “classic rock.” (Even if classic rock stations have started playing stuff from the 90s, I still think of “classic rock” as a genre being tied to a pretty specific time period.)
All the comments about the ted lasso recaps are about “you don’t like this show because” so mine is that you like this show because it sticks to the US sitcom tropes as if they were going to be banned tomorrow. It is a very conservative throwaway series of yay statu quo and where the fans do not really bother about the Special Episode tone of almost every bloody episode.At times it makes me miss West London though. But I am watching it with total disconnect now – it grows old for everyone, eventually, and most of you don’t forgive that Manuel got there because.. wait, because he does not like something as bland as Ted Lasso? Are we getting really belligerent for… Ted Lasso?Anyway, the Amsterdam episode was really nice.
I feel about Ted Lasso the same way I feel about Gavin and Stacey, it’s a fun show I like who’s popularity to the general public/media doesn’t matter to me.Both shows blew up into the big things (well in G&S’s case in the UK) and then had numerous folks point out how average/overhyped they were.I can’t control how others view the show, I just know that I like it. I’m not expecting Arrested Development (S1 to S3) levels of comedy genius, but it works as a good sitcom.
Ted Lasso is a heartwarming comedy where things get rough but always finds a silver lining or hope. And I don’t get some of these criticisms critics. I get some, but, like lots of characters have grown, none of them are the same as episode 1. Ted has grown more on this show than Tony Soprano did until the final season. The show is funny and the characters are fun to be around. The fact it’s even trying to say anything is a bonus. The show is more aspirational than real life.
I thought season 1 was legitimately great, but the show has simultaneously gotten longer while spending less time on what made it great.Ted Lasso had a hot rookie season, then bought into its own hype and lost the discipline that made it successful, becoming bloated and out of shape and not performing up to its potential as a result. There’s probably a sports metaphor for that.
As I understand it season 2 was written (and made??) before season 1 had aired, so it seems as though things panned as originally intended before any of us had laid eyes on Ted Lasso.Season 3 (IMO) is just more of the same from season 2, more comedy-drama than sitcom.
The renewal for season 2 was announced five days after season 1 dropped, so I doubt it was written before then, and certainly not made, although the turnaround time was fairly quick.The problems with seasons 2 and 3 for me are less about any dramatic elements – certainly season 1 had its dramatic plotting – and more with the storytelling and episodes not being as tight, and the show drifting away from what made it so good even with all the extra airtime.
Yeah I think some dissatisfaction with S2 and 3’s arc was to be expected, but I agree they aren’t doing themselves any favors with how loathe they seem to be to edit things. S1’s great strength on top of its heart and humor was that nothing felt wasted—stuff like the paparazzi subplot, or Rebecca’s confession to Ted, all were resolved or addressed quickly instead of being kept hanging in the air in the mistaken belief more stuff going on = better. That spirit is still there, but with multiple hourlong episodes and a larger and hence more diffuse cast/disparate pairings, it’s just missing the tight focus that made the first season great, even if it’s understandable why that is (you simply couldn’t have Nate’s storyline in the structure of the first season, but having him figure this shit out within the orbit of the team wouldn’t really have worked either.)
It took about 5 seconds to clock what Rupert was up to. Just his behavior when he met Jade it was obvious he was going to fuck with Nate and her. This episode is the first time since Season 1 that Ted has had me in tears. And Roy’s story about his former teammate sure didn’t help. Are they trying to kill us? I loved Coach Beard yelling at the reporters about Jimmy Page and Joe Walsh. I heard Walsh play at a huge outdoor concert way back in the day, and he is fucking unbelievable.
Regarding Rupert/Nate/Jade, my initial thought when Rupert met her was, “Oh, Rupert is going to try to fuck Jade.” I’m glad they didn’t go that route, but that was a *strong* vibe at first.
Yeah, my wife thought Rupert was going to try to fuck Jade, whereas I just thought he was going to try to fuck with their relationship in some way. Wasn’t the way I expected, but I think Rupert was just more interested in molding Nate to be more like him, particularly in that sense of “We’re powerful men; women are things for us to take and use as we please.”
Um. There’s no reason to think that Rupert’s guy’s night out was part one of his plan to fuck Jade. It just didn’t work is all.
no reason to think that Rupert’s guy’s night out was part one “wasn’t part one” I meant. My contraction must have contracted.
I don’t think there’s reason to think it was that, though. Rupert could just be trying to get Nate to be more like him in how he regards women. Or, perhaps, he just considers Jade too lower-class for his coach to be dating, so he tries to set him up with another high-society model. There are multiple viable explanations that don’t involve Rupert trying to fuck Jade.
I’d love to see Rupert try to proposition Jade and then she just turns and walks away without saying anything.
Rupert wasn’t out to “fuck with the relationship” as much as roping another accomplice into his own philandering ways.
I actually really enjoyed this episode. One thing is clear though, the show REALLY needs the team playing games for episodes to be successful. Just having the team together means you can bring together different stories and characters in a way that makes sense. Too often this season when the team wasn’t playing a game, it felt like watching 4 or 5 shows at once. The Roy scenes were fantastic this week – and shows what a mistake the show makes when they put Brett Goldstein on the sidelines (no pun intended, I swear!), the Beard stuff felt very Beard-y which is all you can ask for in comedy spots like that, the Ted speech was delightfully odd, but in character, and the Keeley/Rebecca scenes just spoke to how well that friendship works and has been developed. The only weak spot for me was, again, the Nate stuff. His arc has just been weird and disjointed. Are we to believe he didn’t know what a bad person Rupert was before? And if we didn’t know have we seen any sort of consistent interaction between the two where Nate has been sweet-talked and duped into believing Rupert is something he isn’t? The redemption arc seems to consist of missing some aspects of Richmond and landing a girl (including through some fairly creepy behaviour). I mean, Nate’s redemption arc was always going to happen but the introspection has been negligible, and any connections between he and the Richmond story has been a throwaway scene here or there with no real follow-up or narrative connection. 3 episodes left. Hopefully the show is smart enough to keep the focus on Richmond and dovetail the remaining arcs into that rather than sending characters off into different directions in the wild and removing them from each other’s orbit.
Nate stuff. His arc has just been weird and disjointed. Are we to believe he didn’t know what a bad person Rupert was before? To be fair, Nate, as he has been written, was/is weird and disjointed. When Nate was a Kit Man, he wanted to be Rupert (powerful, rich, famous, having it all). That’s part of what has always driven him. What he perceives as success and his grappling to have others see those qualities in him has been what has gotten him here. Now that he has many of those things, he is re-evaluating what “success” means to him. Sprinkle in the fact that Ted still treats him well, Jade shows him a world view he never had (her “you should celebrate your wins”, calling out Nates insecure use of the bathroom down the hall and brushing his teeth before she woke up as “weird” and her subtle, spot on, read of Rupert) and his Mom and Sister showing him how much like his father he is (after struggling for his approval his whole life), it is no wonder that he pulled out of Ruperts “guys nite”.It seems the proper arc of someone finding out what is important to them and learning from people along the way. There is a small part of me that would have preferred to have Nate go full throttle and never turn back, but I guess that wasn’t in the cards. Seems it is less interesting to watch how men like Rupert are made.
Here’s the thing about Nate. Because of his authoritarian dad, he’s naturally gravitated to and kowtowed to anyone who he might consider an “alpha” without any second-guessing about their motives. It happened with Ted, and that was part of Nate’s problem in S2 – because Ted was his “alpha” and was nice and kind to boot, Nate’s relationship with Ted remained somewhat adolescent. It wasn’t until S2 when he started to come into his own and have people treat him as an authority figure himself that he began to second-guess Ted’s position of power over him. Unfortunately, as we all saw, he overcorrected big time when Ted’s emotional issues prevented him from being as much of a father figure as he once was. Along came the next “alpha” – Rupert – and Nate latched on.What I like about S3 Nate (while so many others have basically given up) is that, between his father, Ted, and Rupert, he now has a pretty fair corpus of data on how authority figures act, and as he now is in a position of authority himself, he can compare the data and rethink his own actions and motivations. We’re getting hints of that as he’s seeing Rupert’s bad actions – not only through Jade’s eyes (whose perspective has helped Nate a lot), but through his own. He’s seeing Ted now not from an underling’s perspective, but from a peer’s – and that’s going to alter his outlook, too (since now he’s a true peer and not just an underling with an inferiority complex). Maybe in the last couple of episodes, he’ll have a moment to rethink his relationship with his dad as well.I actually think, in the scope of the show, Nate’s arc is one of the most realistic. Keeley’s started strong but has turned into a mess this season. Rebecca’s hit a speed bump with the psychic stuff, juxtaposed with her having to serve as the Feel Good Guru for everyone else. Ted’s varies wildly from episode to episode, depending on the narrative that particular week (where was any of his angst this week when he was making speeches in the locker room?). Jamie’s is nice, but somewhat predictable. Etc.
Ted’s [arc] varies wildly from episode to episode, depending on the narrative that particular week (where was any of his angst this week when he was making speeches in the locker room?)To be fair to Ted, his team is now riding an 8-game win streak, after his bold gambit to change tactical philosophies in the middle of the season has paid off. So I’d expect him to be feeling less angsty, even if his family situation is still certain to be a source of ongoing tension as the season closes out.
I see where you’re coming from, but I dunno – I just feel like I’d like a little more consistency from ep to ep than I’ve gotten. It’s a nitpick, I know, but it’s a little jarring when the bulk of the season has been Ted’s uncertainty and search for the right direction, and then he shows virtually no sign at all of it this week.
I still feel like his heel turn was too harsh, and now I still just hate Nate for all the shit he said and did before. I said it above, but he was also going to be nasty to the delivery person until he realized it was Jade. Dude sucks.
Just had it pointed out on Reddit that the choice of opponent for this week’s episode was pretty telling.Brighton is probably the closest equivalent to San Francisco in UK, so a coming out storyline couldn’t have been better related.
“Jack ghosting Keeley and moving to Argentina for a few months had big “Poochie died on the way back to his home planet” energy. (If that Simpsons reference goes over your head, please Google “Poochie” and thank me later.)”Uh, I’m sorry, did you just Poochie-splain to me? Sigh, there was a time, not too long ago, when around 20% of the articles and 60% of the comments were Classic Simpsons references.
AV Club is Poochie-splaining to all the young readers they wish they had.
Sometimes I wonder how modern critics would have handled the success of Friends.I’m currently watching it for the first time in order and noticing stuff like how the storyline of Chandler kissing Joeys gf because Her and Chandler click so well yet the character of Kathy appears in more episodes as Joeys gf and only appears twice after she starts dating Chandler. One of those appearances is an end credits scene, the other is the breakup episode. Friends might be the king of just dumping significant other characters.
Agreed. The medical explanation of Smelly Cat’s odor was never explained, which I find ailurophobic.
In this house we obey the laws of Poochiedynamics!
I’m sorry, but Manuel wouldn’t approve of that Simpsons reference. Homer being aware of the laws of thermodynamics and violations thereof would be inauthentic, and having characters say something unexpected for the sake of a joke is the cardinal sin of sitcom writing. Purple monkey dishwasher.
In episode 2.09 of Ted Lasso, Beard was riding a winged appaloosa onto the football pitch. Yet in the very next scene he is clearly atop a winged arabian. Please to explain it.
I’ll have no more of your Vasser bashing.Also,“Have you ever heard of Liebkartoffel?” “I’m aware of this work.”
“Urge to Poochiesplain rising…”
Yeah, any bite that Poochie line had was immediately squashed by tripping over itself to explain it. REMEMBER POOCHIE?
“Poochie” was a throw-away gag that somehow keeps coming back like Chucky.
When are they going to get to the fireworks factory??
As a huge Led Zep hater, this episode gets an automatic A+++. Everything Beard said is 100 percent accurate about Jimmy Page. I’ll take Walsh over him any day. Also, Roy and his hairy ass made me laugh for quite a while.
Hendrix is the G.O.A.T. but would also have ended any debate scene before it began.
For sure. Anybody who tries to have this debate and doesn’t say “after James Marshall Hendrix” right from the start isn’t being serious.
We can agree to disagree on the G.O.A.T. but I’m not going with Hendrix personally.
“We can agree to disagree on the G.O.A.T. but I’m not going with Hendrix personally.”
Shhhhhhh.
Yeah, I never liked Led Zeppelin at all -Beard’s choice of Walsh over Page makes sense to me. And not that anyone asked me, but the answer to that question is really Keith Richards.
For fuck’s sake.
Manuel, maybe comedy reviewing isn’t for you? You had the worst takes of “The Rehearsal” I’ve ever seen, and can’t take this show for what it is, and instead criticise it for some vague, nebulous thing you’d rather it be.It seems like you’re upset about not being tapped to review Succession or Barry, and are taking it out on the show you’ve instead been given: Ted Lasso.
Indeed, I mean I don’t need fawning, but a lack of hate watching would be nice.
Most of us are hate-reading these reviews, so I guess it all balances out. From hate reviewer to hate reader, what a wonderful circle AVClub has created!
While Ted’s heart was likely in the right place, good lord that story he tried to do was a massive amount of cringe. Maybe it’s best to say “we support you for who you are” and leave it at that.Also, I get that total football allows for players to play out of position, but Colin getting two assists seems awful convenient, considering assist in soccer are less common than they are in other sports (such as basketball or hockey).I was worried Isaac was going to turn out to be homophobic. Even though I should know better based on the track record of this show, it still felt like “Oh no, it’s going to be Isaac that’s the problem”. Him going full Ron Artest was something to see, and Roy stepping up to comfort him was another good scene by Brett Goldstein.This led into Roy’s story at the end, which was damn moving. It’s a good reminder that we don’t always know what’s going on in people’s lives, especially the hard things, and that we should work to try and be kinder to one another.Finally, a few notes. While I don’t want a full redemption arc for Nate, I’m glad to see him realize that Rupert’s garbage. That whole “guy’s night” was obviously suspicious, and the fact Nate realizes he doesn’t want to sell everything about himself in the name of success is a good sign for things to come.
Finally, thank god Jack appears to be good. She was a terribly written character (the arc she gave Keeley was important, but good God I wish Jack was written better).
Ted’s speech was a Sudeikis thing. A chance to reference his feelings on the Bronco’s Elway retirement party SBs and to reference the Price Chopper 7-layer dip.
In that context, if I was in a press conference listening to Roy explain that Isaac was under pressure that finally blew, my first guess would be that Isaac is in fact gay, Roy’s “none of my fucking business” notwithstanding. It would not be the end of the story. (The guy in his story didn’t beat up Roy because of something completely unrelated to his wife’s pregnancy, after all.)
Are you assuming that anyone at the press conference knew what the heckler had yelled?
That’s a fair question, and yes I was filling in something that wasn’t explicitly there. Hand-waving, I would expect that some reporter would have asked the nearby fans what they had heard.
Ted’s speech was acknowledged as being bad though. That’s not a perfect way of dealing with it, but I thought the intent was to show that Ted really wanted to do the Ted thing and have a story, was immediately called out for doing it in this particular situation, and then acknowledged that it was a bad call. I hated it until that was how it ended, and then I was much more OK with it.
I don’t care how sweet Nate is with his girlfriend, their relationship seems built on her feeling bad for him because the model girl was mean. Also, no matter how often he seems nice to her, remember the nasty shit he said to Ted about not being with his son, the way he made the new equipment manager cry, etc. Even in this episode, he was ready to be an asshole to the delivery person until he realized it was his girlfriend. I may be too hard-hearted about this, but I still hope he gets hit by a bus.
I don’t care how sweet Nate is with his girlfriend; their relationship seems built on her feeling bad for him because the model girl was mean. Also, no matter how often he seems nice to her, remember the nasty shit he said to Ted about not being with his son, the way he made the new equipment manager cry, etc. Even in this episode, he was ready to be an asshole to the delivery person until he realized it was his girlfriend. I may be too hard-hearted about this, but I still hope he gets hit by a bus. I don’t want him redeemed.
I’m with you. He’s a pos goblin troll who deserves an unfulfilled but financially successful life as Rupert’s lackey. He’s good at his job, so he deserves the success, but in a way that makes him look back at his life in his later years regretfully and with no real joy in his life.
Exactly. And they keep trying to make Nate a character arc that is either under developed or too slow paced. Either way, I don’t care about him because his character is going nowhere.
Showering with naked guys and straight men’s inability to say “I love you” to a fellow gay player (because they don’t have to…?)I get most of the criticisms of this episode (although personally I don’t share them, and thought this was maybe the season’s single best episode), but this is a pretty ungenerous interpretation of that final beat between Colin and Isaac IMO. The point isn’t that straight men don’t have to say “I love you” to their gay friends, it’s that Isaac has difficulty being vulnerable and expressing his feelings to the people he loves; that’s literally the entire crux of his arc this episode, that he was too wrapped up in his own head and so afraid to be honest about why he was upset that he didn’t realize he was on the verge of ruining his relationship with his best friend (it’s also why Roy was the one to comfort him in that moment, because he and Isaac share pretty much the exact same character flaw). The fact that he can’t say “I love you” to Colin at the end shows he hasn’t magically opened up overnight, but acknowledging in a roundabout way that he does demonstrates that he’s taking steps to grow out of that framework he’s in.Isaac asking those questions to Colin about gay sex and who on the team he thinks is hot at the very end also ties into what Ted said in the halftime scene, about showing that you “do care” about someone you love being gay. He’s taking an active interest in learning more about who Colin actually is and this part of himself that he hasn’t been able to share, but in a very bro-y way that makes total sense for the characters. I also just don’t feel like this episode was as toothless or “special episodey” as the review does, although I get people’s mileage would vary. The show’s kind of in a weird position where it would feel more inauthentic for the team not to accept Colin as opposed to the other way around, given how they’ve been written, but the reaction from the cast rang true to me. They aren’t outright homophobic, but they’re awkward about it and say the wrong thing initially because they don’t really know how to respond. Even though Ted makes a good point about showing you do care, he still fucks it up with a terrible analogy, which I thought was really funny and totally in line with his speechifying in general. I think the episode also managed to make it clear that the homophobic fan isn’t just a singular bigot without beating you over the head about it; Sam points out they hear it all the time, and when he says the slur, Colin’s reaction is to just roll his eyes because that type of abuse doesn’t even register to him anymore. It only angers Isaac because now he’s forced to think about how that language actually affects his friends and teammates, whereas before it was just regular shit talking. And Colin’s decision that he still doesn’t want to come out publicly shows that being a gay footballer would still create complications in the public eye for him; it’s also refreshing that the show makes it clear not coming out IS a valid option, and that he’s not a coward or somehow incomplete as a queer person for choosing not to go completely public.
I think you’re entirely right about his inability to express his love to another man is Isaac being Isaac, not a generalised inability from the straight characters. In fact, just minutes before that, we have Sam telling the team he loves them all and Jamie being the one to jump on it and reinforce it through the whole team. The show is about growth and change, and we can see that here. Season 1 Jamie would have thrown a hissy fit about not being made Captain, then mocked Sam for saying he loved them. McAdoo is a guy who’s been pulled up short unexpectedly on his own failings (he used homophobic language several times in previous episodes) and has realised that he’s made the life of one of his best friends worse without thinking or realising. To me at least, a lot of the way he behaves reads as anger at himself for not realising and not knowing how to articulate that regret or move forward from it. He can’t say he loves another man (and the way the character is written, I get the feeling he can’t bring himself to say it to anyone), but he’s willing to admit that he does, and that’s progress.
100% on Isaac being more angry at himself than at Colin; one writing choice that I found significant was when he goes to Colin’s house to explain himself, he doesn’t ask “why didn’t you tell me,” he asks “what was it about me that made you think you couldn’t tell me?” The first puts the blame on Colin; the second makes it clear that Isaac’s actually blaming himself.
I caught this too, and was moved by the diction. Enjoyed this episode.
The point isn’t that straight men don’t have to say “I love you” to their gay friends, it’s that Isaac has difficulty being vulnerable and expressing his feelings to the people he loves; that’s literally the entire crux of his arc this episodeI just want to highlight this part because it’s very well said (as is the rest of your comment). A lesser show would have Isaac change overnight, but he’s still the same scowling face we’ve known and loved for almost three seasons. In fact, that’s one of the things I like about Ted Lasso. The characters don’t necessarily have a ton of depth, but they take time to change and grow.
I had no idea they were going to devote an entire episode to Colin coming out to the team. And it managed to go farther (“we don’t not care”) and affect more people (even Roy) than expected. I’m glad Kola Bokinni (Isaac) got so much to do — I was genuinely surprised he’s such a good actor just because he’s never been asked to do anything but scowl before.Was the whole thing too pat? Sure. But I’ve come to think of Ted Lasso as a magical little bubble where all we care about is the inner transformation of the characters we love. The closest we get to the real world is therapy and divorce, which mostly have to do with our American characters. Britain is the place Ted went to escape reality, after all.
Now that Roy is finally getting his shit together, will Keeley have to choose between him and Jamie in the end? My hope is that they form an intensely hot throuple.And I disagree with Colin about who the “fittest” member of the club is, but I’m not telling and you’ll never guess.
“I was genuinely surprised he’s such a good actor just because he’s never been asked to do anything but scowl before.”
Even after his spot-on Dani Rojas impression?
Heartbent, Not Heartbroken was essentially already done by P!nk and Nate Ruess in “Just Give Me a Reason” which uses the line “we’re not broken, we’re bent, and we can learn to love again” repeatedly (in slightly different senses for each singer).
I think this was better than a C episode. There were some issues with it but I like that it went back to the feel good formula, not a ton of Keeley’s random spin off, some good Roy moments even if they were a little over the top at times. The Colin/Isaac story was feel good but also handled strangely. Made to be seen as homophobic based on his angry reaction to Colin, but then revealed to be just mad at him for not coming out of the closet to him (which to me shows a lack of awareness of the difficulties of a closeted gay man/woman on a professional sports team can have in coming out to their team. There’s a reason why there are virtually 0 active sports players who have come out as gay). Then the conversation at the end shows a bit of ignorance with Isaac’s questions to Colin about which players he is attracted to and how does he keep from getting aroused in the shower, etc.Anyways, I think this is more of a B/B- episode to me. But overall a positive one.
Isaac wasn’t upset Colin didn’t come out to the team, he was upset he didn’t come out to him specifically. They’re best friends.
Dear Ted Lasso writers,For the record, the best American guitarist is either Jimi Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughn.
I’d say Jimi, myself. (And funnily enough I just realized you could make this call by comparing their versions of “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)“ if you wanted to.)
Vaughan…. Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Well… that was an episode, for sure.The enormous positive was that the whole Jack/Keeley thing is definitely, irrevocably over. The downside is that, absent a sexual partner or storyline, Keeley was back to being almost wholly inconsequential. Of all of the supposed evils that Season 3 has bestowed upon Lasso fans, it’s how the show has just robbed us of that vibrant, vivacious, bluntly big-hearted woman and left us with this sexual cipher.The rest of the episode… well, Manuel got to it first, but it was very definitely a Very Special Episode and it was filled with speechifying that would have been done a little more subtly or artfully. I’m not saying that S1/S2 Lasso wouldn’t have gone to the same exact plot points and narrative, but for some reason it feels like the writers’ room couldn’t figure out a way to reach for elegance and nuance here. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Ted’s and Roy’s speeches, but I think in the past the show would have parceled them out more sparingly instead of cramming them all into one episode. It’s preaching overload.That said, the end bit with Isaac and Colin was nice, once you get past the way that neither of them resemble their S1 personalities a bit. For me it was turning a blind eye to that element in service of the narrative, and I have mostly gotten away with it. I liked the end-of-episode payoff of the interpersonal tension even if I knew, deep down, that the character nuance really wasn’t there much at the start of the series. As for whether Colin is still in a “glass box” or whatever, I think people need to suck it up and realize that it’s nearly as bad for LGBTQ+ folks to pigeonhole their fellow community members for how they address their lives as it is for people outside the community to want to restrict them in how they live them. Humans contain multitudes, and I believe Colin when he says that, if the team knows and accepts him, it’s all he needs. It’s up to him if he decides later that he needs more – being irate at him for not needing more at this point is shitty behavior, IMO.I do like that Rebecca spiced up her Font of All Wisdom role that she’s played for most of the season with some S1 Rebecca edge when talking to Roy. That is the Rebecca I love – the direct, sharp-tongued Boss Bitch whose powers, when used for good, are legend. The Rebecca/Roy subplot was the closest the episode came to the “classic Lasso” that made me love this show from the start. It was a good course correction and hopefully it bodes well for the next episodes.Finally, Nate and Jade. I may be the only one, but Jade has been my favorite side character for two seasons now – not just because I’m desperately in love with Edyta Budnik’s soul-piercing eyes, but because she’s a shade of Roy Kent. Some might think her ability to see through and slice away the artifice of people like Rupert (and yes, Nate) is a writers’ crutch, but even so I like it – and it was established from Jade’s introduction, so it’s not like she’s the deus ex machina that will “redeem” Nate this season… it’s just that she is good for him. And laugh at me if you want, but Nate embracing her at the end of the episode after finally seeing Rupert like Jade sees him was the most honest and heart-tugging moment of the whole episode for me. It resonated in a nice, quiet way, which was a nice change from the heavy-handed and somewhat forced methodology employed in the rest of the proceedings.I think I’m glad, mostly, that two of the least engaging subplots – Isaac’s potential homophobic attitudes, and Keeley and Jack – were essentially resolved in this ep. I hope this opens the last few episodes for more important and enjoyable narrative arcs and resolutions.
I did at least like that we got to see Keeley around the facilities, interacting with people like Ted and Roy in the context of the team, again. Having watched some of season 1 recently, that was a big part of what I missed about the character. (I love your description of her, though.) Some might think her ability to see through and slice away the artifice of people like Rupert (and yes, Nate) is a writers’ crutch, but even so I like itIt makes total sense to me. If you work on the service side of food and drink, you encounter so many different kinds of people, and you develop really strong skills for sussing out what people are really about– certainly, if nothing else, you learn about their character based on how they treat the help.
I wasn’t a fan of Jade until the scene where she met Rupert. And then she was amazing. She looked through his facade and identified what type of man he was immediately.She’s still somewhat wooden in her acting, but I do hope she figures more in the future.
AV Club reviewer has sinking feeling show is for losers
Nate was one of the first characters the show displayed, I still don’t understand why there is such an insistence on dismissing the plot line that he been there since Ted and Beard stepped on the pitch in the first 10 minutes of the first episode.I am pleasantly surprised by Jade, she seemed like a bad person for the first two seasons and I worried that they were going to use her to reinforce some sort of “people abuse you if you let them” lesson on Nate.It turns out that she just has a well-honed talent for seeing through bullshit. Her interaction with Rupert was great and she sees Nate for who he is and is supportive.I do get the criticism of Coach Beards press conference, but it really isn’t out of character. The guy has been sprinkling weird knowledge and experiences throughout the whole series and some wacky behavior when not on the sideline. If you have been following him (especially where is comes to Jane) for 3 1/2 seasons, his over the top reaction to something he considers “artistic expression” is not out of character.As for “suddenly Colin becomes an even better player, praised by team, press, and coaches alike”, I am surprised given the tone of the rest of the article that there was no consideration that when the weight of the world is taken off his shoulders and he doesn’t have to “hide” from the team, he might play a bit inspired. It’s not like there aren’t a ton of examples where someone uses emotion to have an all-time performance on the field.It still feels like it is being reviewed by someone that hasn’t been paying attention before this season. All of the character development and threads that have been played out though 3 seasons is completely lost on this reviewer.
This episode really had the “very special episode” vibe that you used to get from the one or two episodes of a sitcom every year in the 1980s that the network told them had to focus on some societal issue. I get what they were trying to go with, but they didn’t explore the right beats for it to be satisfying. I will say having the team as a whole just accept Colin for what he is was a nice thing given that in real life most would have reacted like Isaac but worse.As for Nate Lasso (which is what the show within a show should be called), this whole subplot feels like obvious positioning for Ted Lasso without Ted Lasso. I think the show is planning for Jason Sudekis to exit and setting things up if they want to continue (who knows if they will). Feels an awful lot like they’re setting up Nate to win the Premier League with West Ham and be miserable doing it because of everything he does not have with the team there (they’ve been laying these breadcrumbs all season, this week was just the most obvious one) and either Rupert fires him or he up and quits and ends up back at Richmond after Ted decides to go back to the States, where he and Roy lead a rejuvenated Richmond team to untold future glory. Honestly at this point, the show is working better with Ted being a supporting character at most so I’m not entirely against Ted exiting his own show. I think the more interesting stuff is happening with the cast around him and the show has mined most of what it can from the Ted character itself.Of course I could be wildly off. Who knows.
I’m not sure why Manuel hated the Coach Beard press conference bit so much. It was funny. And it was in character — it’s not at all impossible to imagine Beard having opinions on classic rock guitarists that are both weird and weirdly intense.Plus, it lead to Higgins mocking Rebecca — “The guy from Cream?” Which was delightful.
Judging from his Lasso and Shrinking reviews Betancourt seems to be obsessed with “authenticity” without understanding what actually is true to a character. This is particularly laughable in Beard’s case, because having strong opinions and being intensely knowledgeable on a surprisingly diverse array of subjects has always been central to the character.
I was like “Just say Clapton, he’s English! Then run out of the room!”
The implication was that she literally said “the guy from Cream”. The greatest sin is not having a bad take, but not being invested in a take at all.
I don’t understand why Manuel thinks it’s out of character. It’s completely in Coach Beard’s wheelhouse to derail a presser by getting into a shouting match about classic rock. I often find myself wondering “what show has Manuel been watching?” when reading these recaps.
As a member of the press, Manuel is uncomfortable with the idea that a press conference needs to be managed and that it turns into chaos if the press are allowed to do whatever they want.
The comments on Ted Lasso reviews every week have become a fascinating war between people who want TV shows to have stakes and people who love this show precisely because they know it doesn’t really have stakes and everything will work out in the end.“This story was overly simple” vs “That’s what we want! Watch something else if you don’t like it!”More and more, over the years, I’ve come to think that this divide is the main divide in TV audiences. It’s the divide that separates people who turn on the TV for complicated, challenging stories about difficult characters and those who turn on the TV for a relaxing 30 minutes spent with their fictional friends.In the beginning of the TV golden age, this split was easily delineated between “cable and network” or “serialized and non-serialized,” but, nowadays, the techniques that made the big “prestige” shows so popular have seeped into nearly every other show meaning that a series like Ted Lasso can attract both crowds for better or worse.To be clear, I’m not saying that either style of television is “better.” There’s clearly audiences craving both types of entertainment. It’s just interesting seeing both sides depicted so clearly in these comment sections.
it struck me today: it’s exactly the same phenomenon as The West Wing, where if you did not like the show then you were not liberal, democrat etc. Ted Lasso has becoming that kind of show that is part of what you should do and you should like if you consider yourself as part of some political ideology.
His tempting of Nate was never going to work (because Nate is good and wholesome! And Rupert is bad! Oh, for sure Rupert is bad – but Nate? I don’t think the intention was to show him as good and wholesome. Nate is in love with Jade and at the same time beginning to realize that Rupert has nothing on his mind but his own little games. Nate was confused by Rupert inviting the two women, but quickly saw it as the trap it was intended to be. It took a bunch of courage to back out (though without really saying he WAS backing out). And going to Jade for a comforting hug was a step in the right direction. So, yeah, Nate will be redeemed and maybe go back to working with Ted. Or Nate might end up head coach when Ted goes back to his wife in the states….I didn’t see it as Colin magically becoming a good player – I think he figured out that Isaac was defending him and didn’t have a reason any more to think their friendship was over. Maybe I’m wrong on that but that’s how I saw it.I didn’t find the episode gratingly sweet – but I did think it was sweet. The team’s reactions to Colin were what I expected but they didn’t come out of nowhere. Over the run of the show the guys have bonded and been shaped into an actual team, on and off the field.Sorry. Pitch, not field. I’m an American.
sensitive, gratingly sweet- Ted Lasso
I just want to say that I enjoy your analysis of this silly tv show. You take tv seriously and as a real text, an intellectual exercise. While I disagree with some of your points, I find your writing interesting and reading your criticism (these past 9 weeks) has made me watch and judge tv beyond its pure entertainment value.
It’s a world of alternate facts, so i suppose alternate reviews are valid. I go the flip side; i welcome TL’s strange world of fantasy drama where nothing spontaneous happens, every line is script edited to make a non existent football team win through the connective power of love and emotional blows are like cat punches from your favourite feline.It’s like Insta and pre-musk twitter had a baby that was a football team. I’m fine with Nate’s romance, his existential Svengali Jade, panto bad guy Rupert and all that virtue signaling Colin stuff. I was throughly entertained by Coach Beard’s apoplexy regarding musicians.What I am getting a bit tired of, strangely, is every time something a bit dramatic happens Ted or Roy or whoever now has to begin a story about “something that happened to them that got them a bit surprised but then they learnt a valuable lesson” Guilt tripping a press room about a miscarriage and Ted rambling about his lonely friend made me wonder how there’s anecdotes, or parables, were even relevant. It really breaks the drama; before I answer you question let me tell you a story that reminded me of a time….It actually seems a bit narcissistic and then just to remind us it’s good; Rebecca’s head nod.I wasn’t moved or humoured, just confused and a bit bored. Ted says he dropped the ball, getting to the point…Sorry what were we talking about?
I’m going to miss these people. I have a thing for stories that show a character “from outside” come into a community of people and change their trajectory through time, silliness and heartaches. I see Ted Lasso’s flaws and I may, at this point, expect some of the things that happen during an episode but man, when it’s done wholeheartedly and with humor, there is just something about seeing the consequences of characters gradually getting out of their own way and making room for the better angels of their nature (“Try angels”). While still falling down sometimes and remaining imperfect people. I loved it in Crazy ex girlfriend and I love it here. I know the show lives in a somewhat unrealistic bubble, and my bubble is much much more pessimistic, but the overall idea isn’t that unrealistic, right? I guess I’ve started the goodbye process…
this show has always been aspirational, not reality. remember when the first season was winning us all over? and the funny little sad-but-true thing to say was “it’s the best fantasy show ever, people being kind to one another?” sometimes it does it better than others, but it’s always been this.
Life is just too short to spend time here. Bye.
Do they pay you for your incessant drivel? You really should be banned from writing about a show you so clearly do not get…but that might well be most shows.
This episode gave me all the feels. Can’t believe it only got a C.
God, when did all of you hating on this show become so fucking jaded?It’s a show about hope, plain and simple. It’s heartwarming, it’s funny, it’s not trying to be really serious. It’s trying to get you to just smile while you watch and you know what? I smile through every episode.When it first came out people called it a “warm hug” of a show. It’s still that but now it’s not okay? TV shows can just be escapism you know?
It’s totally the opposite. Not liking the show was ok, or disliking using tropes as cringey as the journos face edits during Roy’s speech. It is you, the show believers, the ones who identify liking this show to being a hopeful person, a good person, a democrat, and who take any criticism of the tone as an ethical challenge.EDIT: omg of course, Ted Lasso is the West Wing of today.
What is this “Simpsons” of which you speak? Tell me more!
They’re the short cartoon interludes between sketches on Traci Ullman Show a long time ago.
I also loved the Rebecca/Roy standoff but it was not the first time. Well, maybe not a “standoff” per se but recall the Roy/Rebecca “don’t you dare settle for ‘fine’” speech in S2E1. I thought this was a nice turning of the tables giving Rebecca the opportunity to give some good advice to Roy.Also, Trent Crimm and Jamie Tartt are still my favorite S3 characters which I absolutely LOVE!
Beard losing his cool with the press is 100% in character. Sometimes it feels like some people just really, really lack media literacy(and a good sense of humor).
this was the best episode of the season so far, but that’s not saying alot because most of the season has been sub-par. Great to see Rebecca working and not being obsessed with what a fortune teller told them (i can’t believe that was a plot line this season. jesus). Now, can we see Keeley doing some work please. it was great to see her in the press confrence.i understand Colin’s desire to not want to “come out” any more. i never believed in a “coming out narrative” when i was growing up, but i made an exemption with my paarents, in case anything happened to me. others, can mind their own business. i understand Colin is a public figure but if he doesn’t want to come out to anyone other then the team, then he doesn’t have to.
Well the pattern of horrible reviews littered with trash
takes continues. The author has no business on this type of show, should
probably peddle his misery in reviews of Succession or something. I
come here for the comments, which are far more rational in general.
I’ve
loved every episode of Ted Lasso. Certainly there are minor nitpicks
here and there (in this episode, my only one was when Rebecca called Roy
into her office and he lead with “what the fuck do you want” she should
have dressed him down hard since it was a “boss chastising an employee”
scenario rather than their usual casual one. Told my wife she should
have told him “sit the fuck down.” when he made his comment.) Otherwise,
the folksy idealized relationships and behavior is the point of the gd
show. If you want gritty and realistic, a show about a college football
coach moving to England to coach a professional soccer team without
catastrophically failing is not the show for you.And I
loved the Broncos metaphor, wasn’t tone deaf at all. It was his way of
relating the point to a sports crowd, even if the crowd might not
totally understand the American Football reference. Spot on Ted.
What kind of criticism is “timely but too perfectly manicured”Once again, this article is a strong argument against unionization…
The few times in my life where someone I knew came out were neither shocking nor surprising. Everyone pretty much assumed that was the case and it really didn’t change much once the cat was out of the bag. To paraphrase the Eagles, people tend to live their lives in chains and never even know they have the key. Colin was agonizing over losing his friends and teammates, but his biggest problem was that he didn’t think the people he was closest to in his life would accept him. That was the reason Isaac was so upset—Colin didn’t trust him enough to level with him.In real life there would likely have been at least one teammate who have a problem with the news that they’d been sharing a locker room with a gay man for a few years. But in the Ted Lasso Universe Colin’s revelation is likely to bring the team closer.
If there’s one narrative I really appreciate about this episode is that of the irredeemable cowardice of professional athletes. Their excuses and subterfuge about why they are so fuckign special that they can’t come out is just soooo laughable and such a cliche. The US military guys started coming out.. what… 15 years ago? Actual heros and men. And these jocks— who think they are “heros” and liken their job as war like— can’t fukkkin cope. I’ve dated five pro athletes— 3 baseball, 1 am football and 1 rugby. Jeez the level of paranoia. They were so far in the closet they were finding Christmas presents! And I’ve dated military guys— green berets, rangers, special ops— and those guys didn’t give a fuck after the ban was lifted. They knew who they were. Men— secure in themselves.“I am what I am/ and what I am is an illusion.” That’s the first line lyric from that song form La Cage. That’s the one that Colin is clinging to. And he, like Aikmen and Rodgers and Koufax, can tell himself that he can be “himself” only to a portion of his life—- but it’s just another version of the closet and cowardice. The sporting world needs some gay heros and literally no big name will step up to be Jackie Robinson. But, gosh, it’s soooo cool your team knows.
Sensitive, gratingly sweet episode of Ted Lasso?You mean like most of the other episodes of Ted Lasso?The only storyline that I’m not into is Nate. I stopped caring when he was completely disconnected from AFC Richmond. It’s not that I mind the redemption arc, but it’s happening almost entirely away from the team he burned leaving.
I do still like the show and don’t buy into the talk of it being bad after S1, but everything in this episode was predictable. Isaac was mad that Colin didn’t trust him, Roy fielding the press conference at the end, etc was all wholly obvious and uninspirated.
This strikes me as an extremely ungenerous take on every aspect of this episode.
Since this season started, I’ve seen so many reviews and critics lamenting how the show became too “serious” and no longer the sweet, funny and wholesome series it was S1…and now this episode comes along, as well as the Amsterdam one, and the same critics are out here complaining that the show went….sweet and wholesome and funny.
It is starting to feel a lot like “you’re damned if you, damned if you don’t” when it comes to anything the show’s staff are putting out. Not to mention that this review also has shades of snobbishness towards another person’s coming out story. It comes across as you’re angry that Colin chose to only be out to his teammates, and not to the rest of the world, which is kind of a shitty take that seems to not understand how much of a huge disruption to this guy’s life would be and that it is actually a HUGE step for him to say it to his teammates at all. Something tells me the writer, who I’m gonna guess is a gay man himself, didn’t play team sports growing up and as such doesn’t really understand the stakes at play there and how homophobia is still a big deal in it.
But now that Colin is “out” with the team, can’t we expect him to be more himself and less of a caricature of what a “real man” is supposed to be? As far as his sexuality only being known to the team, Roy summed that situation up (thematically, at least) at the press conference: it’s nobody else’s fucking business. Colin shouldn’t have to be a spokesperson for gay issues if he doesn’t want to be.
When did the reviewer lose their soul? This is why progressives lose so often. We’re good people for the most part, but we can get caught in an easily avoidable trap of being holier-than-thou. I mean it’s really easy to avoid. Just ask yourself if what you’re so eager to criticize is doing harm? Did this episode of Ted Lasso set society back? Was it untrue or invalid? Did it give power to the people that would harm us? The answer to all those questions is no. Write from something other than your ego.This episode wasn’t about a gay man in the world, it was about redefining human masculinity. It wasn’t pat, it wasn’t easy, it wasn’t flat. It was profound. It move us to the next level. There are still sub-human hate-driven monsters, like fascists, Christians, and Muslims that would murder Colin gleefully. This episode removed those billions of those worthless sub humans from the consideration. They get no say because they are evil. Of course Colin got the support he needed. There are monsters out there, and good people need to help protect gay people, a tiny minority, from them.And to the convenience of Colin playing better, of course coming out to your brothers, your team, your friends improves performance. Being in the closet was the thing that was holding him back. It jives perfectly with the themes of the show.
I hadn’t realized that the actress paying Jade is actually Polish until she said she was from Nowy Sacz and she turned up the accent for that line and then turned it back down.
Most of this episode is dull and lame, because that’s what the show is now, but I liked Rebecca telling off Roy. She even looked surprised/proud at her self for a second afterwards, like she didn’t think it was going to work. We needed more of that, sooner, for this season to be worth a damn.
also, it was the rare moment for Rebecca being something else than a romcom character.