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Anonymous wrote:This is my favorite episode so far this season!

A question. I hope the Dutch guy comes back in Rebecca's life. But did he imply at the end that he and Rebecca did do something? I didn't get that from the scene where he removed her feet from his lap.

My read was that he was saying that they did something more serious than sleeping together. Like they made a real connection and were emotionally vulnerable with each other.

+1
When she asked, "Did we...?" implying "did we sleep together," he says no but then when she leaves, he says "yes we did" - meaning "yes we did fall in love." I think it was clear there was no sex involved - he drew the curtain to his bedroom after covering her up and respectfully leaving her to sleep.

However, I did think it was incredibly unrealistic that she would get on a strange man's boat, shower, change, have dinner, etc. I mean, seriously?? It was a lovely story, but sadly unrealistic. I do wonder why they looked so sad in the morning - couldn't they have simply exchanged contact info to see each other again? Maybe it was meant to just be a one-off, lovely romantic night. But I hope there is more to it than that.
DP

I just typed something similar in the other Ted Lasso thread. Totally unrealistic. And they never asked their names during the whole evening?

Yeah, this storyline seemed almost offensively ridiculous to me. No adult woman with a single working brain cell would jump in the shower on a stranger's boat.

I've done it. Plenty of us have had one night stands, to start with - and I've also gone to people's houses when I didn't know them, just to see where the night would take me. I've even stayed over at people's houses. That was when I was younger and had more of a sense of adventure - but I could see being in my 50s (which is just a year away), divorced, in a different place, and decide to go for it. She got a read on him, a vibe, and decided that it was ok - I believe it.

Oh god. Never. Not me.

Anonymous wrote:They are ruining Ted Lasso by making it political. It was such a heartwarming nonpartisan show. Oh well. Can't have nice things

It dipped its toe into those waters when the team protested their sponsor who was polluting the environment of Nigeria.

I loved this week's episode. I was feeling meh about this season but the Amsterdam episode was phenomenal and I really liked where they went with it this week with Total Football.

I also like that they are showing some cracks in Keeley's relationship with Jack, which just seems like a mess in the making. DH and I were talking tonight about the weirdness of not acknowledging that this is a relationship with a woman. Not because I think they need to make a huge deal out of it, but just because I think it's unrealistic that these characters would be so cosmopolitan and evolved that it wouldn't be addressed at all. Is this Keeley's first relationship with a woman? If yes, the fact that it's with someone in a position of authority over her is even more problematic, and it puts the love bombing in perspective. But in any case, I appreciate that they are hinting at issues here because it definitely seems like something is "off" with them.

It was nice to see Ted fairly happy and relaxed this week.

The scene where they played a scrimmage with the strings tied to their dicks was horrible, I could barely watch! Never again, please.

Love the evolution of Jaime's character this season. It feels earned and honest, like that's how a guy with that background and attitude would evolve as a person under these circumstances. He is gaining self-awareness but in a way that still feels true to who he is as a person, like "okay, okay, I get that I'm a prick, leave me alone about it." It's a really satisfying storyline.

The gag with Beard and Will changing places was delightful to me.

Anonymous wrote:They are ruining Ted Lasso by making it political. It was such a heartwarming nonpartisan show. Oh well. Can't have nice things

Yes, I was disappointed in the political side story. Other than that, I found this last episode lovely.

They are ruining Ted Lasso by making it political. It was such a heartwarming nonpartisan show. Oh well. Can't have nice things

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Anyone watching the latest (and maybe last) season of Ted Lasso?

I was so looking forward to the new season but so far it’s falling a little flat for me. It’s still delightful but it’s trying too hard.

This exactly for me as well

Same. During one Ted-ism I definitely found myself cringing a bit versus adoring it.

They might have made the right decision to stop with this season.

Thats interesting. I feel like Ted-isms are a part of how he handles stress. Like its goofy and affable but it comes from a place of hurt or distraction. They get more ridiculous and schticky as his personal life gets worse

Also it's going to be hard for him to keep that up when Zava is essentially taking over that role, as great motivator and aphorism-speaker, while also having the immense soccer talent to back it up. Ted is going to face irrelevancy with his own team, as he's going through all these other things - and I think that will be a real struggle for him.

The betrayal of having is his former marriage therapist dating his ex-wife isn't going to help.

I actually am not sure I can watch this season because the stuff they are setting Ted up to go through feels a bit too much like stuff I've dealt with and if the take-away is "just go to therapy with your perfect therapist who always knows exactly how to listen and what to say, and lean on your large group of supportive and emotionally mature friends" I"m going to get annoyed because that's no how life works. At all.

This is also something that annoys me about Shrinking (not coincidentally, given the shared DNA in the two shows). Kudos to the show for addressing issues of grief and loss head on, but sometimes it's hard for me to get past the fact that they are doing it with a group of somehow obscenely wealthy therapists in Pasadena who are all friends and have this very cohesive social circle that includes their coworkers, neighbors, spouses, and friends from college. That's literally no ones life. Grief is insanely isolating and at no point do you wind up surrounded by all the significant people in your life you all know what you are going through AND know each other and get to feel supported in real time by that network. And also have no money problems ever. This is not how life works.

You said it. I love the dialogue in Shrinking, but it's too cutesy and one-note for me. SAME thing, on repeat.

Anonymous wrote:I love that Nate and Jade got together. That's a relationship I hope works out.

+1. Maybe this is Nate's happy ending, and it's not necessary for him to return to Richmond.

I love that Nate and Jade got together. That's a relationship I hope works out.

Next episode is up. I found it a bit slow but the ending is quite touching.

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Anonymous wrote:I think this season has been pretty good. I did not love the zava line so glad he’s gone, and I really dislike the Nate story as well as the hostess. He’s just never been a compelling character to me and I know they are setting him up for a redemption but I just would never trust him — the weird spitting to turn himself into a tough guy. I have a particular bias against those jerks who think they are nice guys and blame the world for not recognizing that they are really nice guys or appreciating them—they are the ones that always say “nice guys finish last” when the truth is that they just aren’t very nice, and are confusing low self esteem for niceness. That’s Nate.

I’m also not loving the Jack/keeley thing — it seems random and also really unprofessional of both of them, but particularly for keeley who can’t really afford to piss off her one investor. I thought she was smarter than that. I love the shandy scenes though — truly hysterical.

Jamie is also having a great character arc and one which seems true to who he has always been.

Re: Nate, I respectfully disagree. I think he was *always* nice but completely invisible to all until Ted showed up and made him feel like a real person. Then, when Ted brings Roy on as coach, Nate feels betrayed and hurt and does a complete 180, turning spiteful and mean. But I think deep down, he recognizes that this is not who he really is or wants to be and is going to make a turnaround somehow. I loved his character at the beginning, before he turned into this jerk, and I hope he redeems himself. Maybe the hostess at the restaurant will help him keep it real.

I predict West Ham will lose to Richmond in a playoff, and Rebecca's ex husband (Rupert?) will fire Nate and go ballistic on him, while Ted is kind, and that helps Nate find his way.

And THEN he will go back to Richmond and coach Jaime along w/ Roy and they win EVERYTHING! Rebecca gets married and becomes step-mom. Ted goes home to his wife & kid. The End.

Umm..No. She doesn't deserve Ted. He can do much better

Even if he doesn't reconcile with his wife, I think he'll still go back to KC to be closer to his kid.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I think this season has been pretty good. I did not love the zava line so glad he’s gone, and I really dislike the Nate story as well as the hostess. He’s just never been a compelling character to me and I know they are setting him up for a redemption but I just would never trust him — the weird spitting to turn himself into a tough guy. I have a particular bias against those jerks who think they are nice guys and blame the world for not recognizing that they are really nice guys or appreciating them—they are the ones that always say “nice guys finish last” when the truth is that they just aren’t very nice, and are confusing low self esteem for niceness. That’s Nate.

I’m also not loving the Jack/keeley thing — it seems random and also really unprofessional of both of them, but particularly for keeley who can’t really afford to piss off her one investor. I thought she was smarter than that. I love the shandy scenes though — truly hysterical.

Jamie is also having a great character arc and one which seems true to who he has always been.

Re: Nate, I respectfully disagree. I think he was *always* nice but completely invisible to all until Ted showed up and made him feel like a real person. Then, when Ted brings Roy on as coach, Nate feels betrayed and hurt and does a complete 180, turning spiteful and mean. But I think deep down, he recognizes that this is not who he really is or wants to be and is going to make a turnaround somehow. I loved his character at the beginning, before he turned into this jerk, and I hope he redeems himself. Maybe the hostess at the restaurant will help him keep it real.

I predict West Ham will lose to Richmond in a playoff, and Rebecca's ex husband (Rupert?) will fire Nate and go ballistic on him, while Ted is kind, and that helps Nate find his way.

And THEN he will go back to Richmond and coach Jaime along w/ Roy and they win EVERYTHING! Rebecca gets married and becomes step-mom. Ted goes home to his wife & kid. The End.

Umm..No. She doesn't deserve Ted. He can do much better

Agree! Unless they do something to make her a three-dimensional character. In general the characters on this show have a lot of depth and nuance, but Ted's wife (and especially the couples therapist she's currently dating) is a bit of a cardboard cut out, especially this season. Like you could take at face value in season one that she chose not to move to London with him and they were on the rocks, and you could understand in season two when we learned about Ted's history with his dad and his panic attacks that maybe being married to him was not a piece of cake. But when they reveal she's hanging out with their couples therapist, it's such a "wow, how unnecessarily hurtful and irresponsible and unprofessional" moment, but it's just not explained or justified in any way. It makes her seem either dumb or callous or both.

Maybe we'll get an episode with her in London exploring the last couple years from her point of view, to better understand what is going on with their marriage and her choices. Then maybe I could be on board for a reunion. Otherwise it's cheap.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think this season has been pretty good. I did not love the zava line so glad he’s gone, and I really dislike the Nate story as well as the hostess. He’s just never been a compelling character to me and I know they are setting him up for a redemption but I just would never trust him — the weird spitting to turn himself into a tough guy. I have a particular bias against those jerks who think they are nice guys and blame the world for not recognizing that they are really nice guys or appreciating them—they are the ones that always say “nice guys finish last” when the truth is that they just aren’t very nice, and are confusing low self esteem for niceness. That’s Nate.

I’m also not loving the Jack/keeley thing — it seems random and also really unprofessional of both of them, but particularly for keeley who can’t really afford to piss off her one investor. I thought she was smarter than that. I love the shandy scenes though — truly hysterical.

Jamie is also having a great character arc and one which seems true to who he has always been.

Re: Nate, I respectfully disagree. I think he was *always* nice but completely invisible to all until Ted showed up and made him feel like a real person. Then, when Ted brings Roy on as coach, Nate feels betrayed and hurt and does a complete 180, turning spiteful and mean. But I think deep down, he recognizes that this is not who he really is or wants to be and is going to make a turnaround somehow. I loved his character at the beginning, before he turned into this jerk, and I hope he redeems himself. Maybe the hostess at the restaurant will help him keep it real.

I predict West Ham will lose to Richmond in a playoff, and Rebecca's ex husband (Rupert?) will fire Nate and go ballistic on him, while Ted is kind, and that helps Nate find his way.

And THEN he will go back to Richmond and coach Jaime along w/ Roy and they win EVERYTHING! Rebecca gets married and becomes step-mom. Ted goes home to his wife & kid. The End.

Umm..No. She doesn't deserve Ted. He can do much better

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think this season has been pretty good. I did not love the zava line so glad he’s gone, and I really dislike the Nate story as well as the hostess. He’s just never been a compelling character to me and I know they are setting him up for a redemption but I just would never trust him — the weird spitting to turn himself into a tough guy. I have a particular bias against those jerks who think they are nice guys and blame the world for not recognizing that they are really nice guys or appreciating them—they are the ones that always say “nice guys finish last” when the truth is that they just aren’t very nice, and are confusing low self esteem for niceness. That’s Nate.

I’m also not loving the Jack/keeley thing — it seems random and also really unprofessional of both of them, but particularly for keeley who can’t really afford to piss off her one investor. I thought she was smarter than that. I love the shandy scenes though — truly hysterical.

Jamie is also having a great character arc and one which seems true to who he has always been.

I think you are misinterpreting Nate’s spitting. I don’t think it’s about being a tough guy. I think it is about feeling worthless. The first time we see him do it, he does it to his own reflection.

+1
He has such deep self-loathing, thanks to his dad first and foremost. The team harassing him in the beginning didn't help either. He's probably always been on the outside looking in and Ted changed all of that. And then "betrayed" him (in Nate's skewed perspective). I love the way Ted isn't out for vengeance against Nate - he didn't want the team to see the recording of Nate ripping the "Believe" sign even though they saw it anyway. Somehow, Ted is kind enough to recognize deep hurt and want to help.

Totally agree with this. I’m curious how people will respond if it goes this way, though. A lot of people view TV, especially, in black and white terms. Nate’s a villain now, so he’s bad. Even though if you look at the situation objectively, he hasn’t even done anything that wrong. He felt overlooked at Richmond so took a job with a competitor. Was he supposed to stay an assistant coach (to people who didn’t really seem to value his contributions)? He’s said some not nice things about Ted that Ted didn’t really deserve. He wears black and doesn’t smile a lot. He tore up that sign.

On the other side, his dad is a disapproving jerk to him, and his coworkers ignored or diminished him for years. He has self confidence issues and doesn’t seem very happy. Rupert is using him to get back at his ex-wife and does not actually care for him.

If you think it through, Nate’s a very sympathetic character. And a lot of the people at Richmond who took him for granted and never really saw him or appreciated him even when he was working hard to help them, probably deserve is anger.

I’m curious if Ted will be able to successfully get people to see that. I think most people are reluctant to change their minds on someone once they’ve written them off.

Totally agree with both PPs. Nate breaks my heart and I hope his story has some sort of redemption.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is my favorite episode so far this season!

A question. I hope the Dutch guy comes back in Rebecca's life. But did he imply at the end that he and Rebecca did do something? I didn't get that from the scene where he removed her feet from his lap.

My read was that he was saying that they did something more serious than sleeping together. Like they made a real connection and were emotionally vulnerable with each other.

+1
When she asked, "Did we...?" implying "did we sleep together," he says no but then when she leaves, he says "yes we did" - meaning "yes we did fall in love." I think it was clear there was no sex involved - he drew the curtain to his bedroom after covering her up and respectfully leaving her to sleep.

However, I did think it was incredibly unrealistic that she would get on a strange man's boat, shower, change, have dinner, etc. I mean, seriously?? It was a lovely story, but sadly unrealistic. I do wonder why they looked so sad in the morning - couldn't they have simply exchanged contact info to see each other again? Maybe it was meant to just be a one-off, lovely romantic night. But I hope there is more to it than that.
DP

I just typed something similar in the other Ted Lasso thread. Totally unrealistic. And they never asked their names during the whole evening?

Yeah, this storyline seemed almost offensively ridiculous to me. No adult woman with a single working brain cell would jump in the shower on a stranger's boat.

I've done it. Plenty of us have had one night stands, to start with - and I've also gone to people's houses when I didn't know them, just to see where the night would take me. I've even stayed over at people's houses. That was when I was younger and had more of a sense of adventure - but I could see being in my 50s (which is just a year away), divorced, in a different place, and decide to go for it. She got a read on him, a vibe, and decided that it was ok - I believe it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think this season has been pretty good. I did not love the zava line so glad he’s gone, and I really dislike the Nate story as well as the hostess. He’s just never been a compelling character to me and I know they are setting him up for a redemption but I just would never trust him — the weird spitting to turn himself into a tough guy. I have a particular bias against those jerks who think they are nice guys and blame the world for not recognizing that they are really nice guys or appreciating them—they are the ones that always say “nice guys finish last” when the truth is that they just aren’t very nice, and are confusing low self esteem for niceness. That’s Nate.

I’m also not loving the Jack/keeley thing — it seems random and also really unprofessional of both of them, but particularly for keeley who can’t really afford to piss off her one investor. I thought she was smarter than that. I love the shandy scenes though — truly hysterical.

Jamie is also having a great character arc and one which seems true to who he has always been.

I think you are misinterpreting Nate’s spitting. I don’t think it’s about being a tough guy. I think it is about feeling worthless. The first time we see him do it, he does it to his own reflection.

+1
He has such deep self-loathing, thanks to his dad first and foremost. The team harassing him in the beginning didn't help either. He's probably always been on the outside looking in and Ted changed all of that. And then "betrayed" him (in Nate's skewed perspective). I love the way Ted isn't out for vengeance against Nate - he didn't want the team to see the recording of Nate ripping the "Believe" sign even though they saw it anyway. Somehow, Ted is kind enough to recognize deep hurt and want to help.

Totally agree with this. I’m curious how people will respond if it goes this way, though. A lot of people view TV, especially, in black and white terms. Nate’s a villain now, so he’s bad. Even though if you look at the situation objectively, he hasn’t even done anything that wrong. He felt overlooked at Richmond so took a job with a competitor. Was he supposed to stay an assistant coach (to people who didn’t really seem to value his contributions)? He’s said some not nice things about Ted that Ted didn’t really deserve. He wears black and doesn’t smile a lot. He tore up that sign.

On the other side, his dad is a disapproving jerk to him, and his coworkers ignored or diminished him for years. He has self confidence issues and doesn’t seem very happy. Rupert is using him to get back at his ex-wife and does not actually care for him.

If you think it through, Nate’s a very sympathetic character. And a lot of the people at Richmond who took him for granted and never really saw him or appreciated him even when he was working hard to help them, probably deserve is anger.

I’m curious if Ted will be able to successfully get people to see that. I think most people are reluctant to change their minds on someone once they’ve written them off.