TED LASSO - S2 - EP2 - It’s The Prince Of Tides (Patreon)

Reminder! Like I went into a lot of detail about last time, I know people involved with the very heart of making this show so I’m crazy biased / disregard my take / yada yada yada. I just mostly want us to have a space to talk about this show each week and hear what y’all think. Cool? Cool!

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“Where’s the conflict?”

That was the driving question / challenge at the heart of last week’s discussion. Because the secret behind any “feel good” show is that they can’t just coast on good vibes, they need believable conflict to create that meaningful catharsis. Again, season one felt so damn emotional precisely because everything started with great distance between all the characters (who were all slowly won over). While last week mostly brought us a lot of stasis and table setting, this week there are not only some brilliant nods about where this may be going - and we’re also starting to find the key sources of tension. Enter…

JAAAAMIE TARTT do do dado do do! -  So yeah, we get to the crux of this one pretty quick. Seems Jamie fucked off from Man City to go be a reality star (later revealed he did it to make his dad pissed). My only real problem with the “Lust Conquers All” thing is I have no idea what this show is referencing or how the rules on those shows work so I don’t really understand the tension of that other than “he was kicked off” and people don’t like what he did on the show. Like I get the gist, but I feel like I’m missing some fun specificity. Anyway, it brings him immediately to the feeling of being lost. And while it’s certainly good to see Jamie humbled, it perhaps feels a bit fast to us? Like, maybe we wanted to see a bit of this play out with Man City first. But even though that may make more sense for HIS story, the conflict with Richmond is kind of necessary to get to early. So Jamie goes to Keeley and then Ted who, perhaps surprisingly, says no to his return… At least at first. I’ll be honest that I kind of wished they put a more direct button on Ted’s motivations for saying no, specifically knowing the team wouldn’t have it. Because it turns out the whole core conflict is going to have a lot to do with…

SAM / THE TEAM - Poor Sam. His angry outburst seemed so out of character, but then meaningfully contextualized in the great conversation after (I feel like they’re back-door-ing a lot of explanations this season?). Anyway, the cathartic conversation is sweet and great and everything that makes the show the show. But ironically, that very conversation with Sam is what convinces Ted to give Jamie a second chance. Because the thing you really sense in their dad talk is how much Ted likes being a dad, and how much Ted WANTS to be a great dad to Jamie (whose real dad sucks). But we can’t be perfect dads to everyone, especially when your kids want different things. There's a real cost to betraying Sam’s trust. And I know there are going to be parts of this conflict that are going to be handled well, and I get the “tv-ness” dramatic effect of having Jamie get revealed out on the field… but coming right after THAT convo with Sam? I honestly find it hard to believe that that’s the way Ted would do it. He would talk to Sam first, right? I don’t know. It’s a small detail, but it can be the difference between tension feeling manufactured vs. sincere. To that, a great example of sincere conflict this episode is…

ROY / KEELEY - God this is exactly what the show does so well. Because the conflict is simple, silly, but achingly sincere. Roy’s been grumpier and as distant as ever, often driving away in a huff (while still not betraying his inner sensitivity to people). And they find the most amazing way to bring this character issue out: him discovering Keeley masturbating to the video of him crying and being vulnerable is just AMAZING. It’s funny yet completely speaks to all his terrified feelings of appearing weak. But of course, it gets under his skin in the cathartic way that drives him to give Pundit a try. And then it’s all about the moment he leans in and whispers on the phone right before: “what if I’m shit?” THAT’s the same kind of vulnerable moment right there. And by him showing it? Suddenly I care more about him being good on TV than I care about anything else in the world. You could say his success on TV is the payoff, but the real payoff at the end with his full-hearted thanks of “you helped me to help myself” and uh, his other gift, haha. Again, this is such a great example of how the show can do inner conflict so well. And we just hope they can bring this heat to the main thrust. Because last episode, Ted was on the outside of the central therapy plot-line. But here we finally take a step into those waters…

DOC SHARON - I realize the show is attempting to do something incredibly tricky here because it is trying to write for two groups of people. There’s the people like me, already hardcore advocates of therapy who are ALREADY cheerleading where this going. And there’s others who, like Ted, are certainly appreciative, but general skeptics for themselves because they think they don’t need it or that it’s “for other people with real problems.” (note: I’m not talking about those who can’t afford it and the many socio-economic problems that go around it. I’m talking about that gentle skepticism). The thing about these two groups is we’re naturally going to need the characters to lead us into the tension, instead of letting our pre-existing notions do all the work. Luckily, we now get to see the conflict of their interaction in more stark terms.

Feeling nervous, Ted attempts to do all the same things he did in winning over Rebecca, but his usual tricks don’t work. He can’t barge in, she doesn’t like sugar, and a therapist doesn’t usually take gifts anyway. It’s really his lack of recognizing that she’s not a “coworker” in the strictest sense, but someone whose job performance relies on this being a one way street with certain boundaries. And by not being able to be his usual self, Ted has no idea how to get through. Thus, we stay with him in the episode as he constantly fears her judgment. She seems to see through all his tricks. What terrible thing will she say about him in the team? But when we came to the final conversation, I didn’t realize how much I was feeling the tension I was feeling with that until we got to the catharsis. Because Sharon tells him with such insight: “there’s a wonderful atmosphere here. All the employees are thoughtful. And kind. And they actually listen to one another.” As she says this, she knows it’s Ted’s doing. And you can even see the small smile Ted gives as he talks around noticing the same thing. There’s no cruelty behind her gaze. And she sees this for what it is. But then came her answers to the “ain’t broke, don’t fix it?” question - which lead to what I believe are going to be the two things that will have a massive impact on the rest of the season. The first?

WINNING - Sharon correctly identifies a team in stasis, one perhaps too comfortable coasting in neutral. After all, it’s easy to stay in the place of good vibes and do middling work; a team happy forever getting ties. But that’s the real question of this show’s intersection with sports: how do you ETHICALLY create the drive to win? Because most of the usual solutions involve toxic sport ideas or the relentless drive to make others feel small. Nate articulates it in this episode as thus: “we don’t want calm athletes, we want killer athletes.” Understandably, an athlete like Michael Jordan gets lauded for that killer drive. And hey, rightfully so. You need that fire to win. But for years before, Jordan couldn’t win on fire alone. What The Last Dance hopefully taught us is that you need to create a combined headspace with other kinds of athletes, all with different motivations. It takes fire, but it also takes humor, and inspiration, and losing, and the ability to bounce back. And weirdly enough, what’s now missing in Lasso land is that fire (something Roy Kent had in spades). As an individual and as a group, you have to find those healthy bits of fuel.

Because hey, is anger always bad? No, it’s an emotion like any other. And healthy expressions of anger often involve talking about its existence / fighting for selfhood / drawing boundaries. You can already see it happening with Sam, who is having real trouble with his outburst and even more trouble with Ted’s decision at the end. On the flip side, a people pleaser like Ted is going to have come to become comfortable with people’s anger toward him, too. But here in that moment of discussion, what Ted notices is that Doc has empathy for him in this pursuit: “heavy is the head that wears the visor.” It’s the first time he’s REALLY getting someone to see the complexity of his feelings. And better yet, she’s there to talk if he needs it. After all, you can’t MAKE someone go to therapy. And it’s just a perfect moment of opening her proverbial door and letting him in. And best yet, she offers one final nugget of inspiration when she finally tells him her favorite book. Which brings us to…

WHERE THIS ALL IS EMOTIONALLY GOING - So it might have sounded like a cute answer, but when she said, “It’s The Prince of Tides” I slapped my forehead because they may have just given us the emotional architecture of what’s coming. I mean, if you’ve never read it or seen the movie, you may even consider the rest of this paragraph a spoiler? I don’t know, it’s just really telling because it’s literally about a football coach moving to a new city to help his suicidal sister, escaping his own family trouble, meeting a therapist, and in the process finally uncovering his family’s past trauma - and how it’s impacting their lives now. Don’t get me wrong, the book is a MUCH darker story than anything that will probably happen in this show, but it’s easy to start doing the math about what this probably means… it means that we’re going to be getting into Ted’s trauma and… Gulp… Some things start adding up. We know Ted's father died when he was 16. We know they spent every Sunday in a sports bar. And just this episode Ted said his dad “a lot harder on himself than he ever was on me.” There are some big warning signs of depression here and I genuinely hesitate to make the guess that “Ted’s dad possibly killed himself,” because such guesses feel crass. But... we know there is an emotional nugget here that is sincerely traumatic. And more importantly, we know the version of Ted who has come out of that whatever this traumatic event was. We see the way he staves off depression with relentless positivity, the way he bounces off so much pain, the way he’s quick to forgive, and also relentlessly tries to fix problems, and we even saw him have panic attacks last season when couldn’t fix said problems.

And now we also know the way the show is starting to address the nature of “toxic positivity.” It’s not that it's toxic in the way that obvious abusive behaviors are. After all, we can see all the wonderful things that come with Ted’s optimism! But it’s also an incomplete method of coping. Mostly because it often fails against the enormity that IS trauma (like with Danny’s dog murder of Earl). Sometimes, constant positivity even adds up to forms of denial (and personally speaking, given everything in my last decade of life I can already tell them dealing with this topic is pretty much going to annihilate me). But again, I hesitate to say “this is where it’s definitely going!” But we’re already in that ballpark. The math is starting to make too much sense. I mean, the mourning of the dog in the opening of the season? Ted’s analogy about the dog who had to be put down? Danny Rojas put it succinctly: Football is life. But Football is also death. And I think coming to grips with that notion is going to be a huge part of how our sweet man from Kansas City - and the team around him - are going to move forward.

Oof… We’re going to hit that stuff head on, aren’t we?

I can already feel myself welling up.

BEST JOKES / RANDOM THOUGHTS

-I love how Coach Beard’s love life always seems to exist just off screen. Also, his line reading when he sniffs the towel and says “Parisian bedroom” is incredible.

-I readily admit the opening sequence left me a bit confused because it seems “The Morning with Phillip and Holly” is a real thing? Also, those were real famous football pundits in Kent’s scene right? I feel like I’ve seen those guys before. And yes, I know these are easily google-able things, but I more wanted to mention how there’s this funny feeling when you can tell something is a cameo that’s meant to get a big reaction, but you don’t know the people so it can’t help but just feel like a slightly weird scene to you!

-The thing they really nail about Jamie’s opening scene isn’t just the sad music cue, but how it absolutely understands the sadness of signing autographs when your head is just completely somewhere else. Those sorts of autopilot experiences are really something else.

-Ted: “I’m starting to realize old blue eyes mighta skewed mercurial.”

-Jamie: “You weren’t even speaking Spanish”

-Ted / Rebecca on therapy being “what a friend should do for you for free” / “That’s why you have friends!” Hahahahahahahhahaha, their terrified faces at the very prospect of talking at the end, too.

-Did anyone else find it weirdly sweet when Jamie said “whenever I think of talking, I think of you” to Keeley? Like it’s such a lizard-brain line from someone who only vaguely understands the positivity of what they just said (it’s like him not wanting to be a lion or a panda).

-Also, leave it to Ted Lasso to throw in a BLACK HOLE LEVEL DARK JOKE of “now you’re like a dead son, which means I love you even more” right into the mix. Also once again, notice the the subject matter.

-Yes, the ice pack girl IS BACK! Go back and watch her blank face at that line, “burn this moment into your brain!” Because it’s amazing. How do I sign her to a three picture deal?

-Roy Kent on why he likes watching porn of couples in the woods: “cause I could never be that free!” He also gets some fucking gems this episode like: “how the fuck does he know I love white orchids?” and “What do you usually do with your lashes” / “I leave them the fuck alone”

-Also, this is small, but I had to rewind to catch the dialogue a bit more than usual in this one?

-The visual beat of Doc getting closer in the stands was done so well. Also, my genuine biggest laugh was the little beat of Roy’s seat going down as sat on stage. Probably because I felt so much tension from him going out there. More proof tension is necessary for laughs!

-Sweet third fan Himbo: “I enjoy his candor!” Man, I love sweet third fan Himbo.

-Okay, last thing! Nate is still being a jerk and so far the other characters aren’t calling it out and at this point it feels downright weird, right? Like you can tell it’s weird because they keep cutting away from it or giving a weird long stare. But at least the show itself is calling it out. Both in the beat where Nate doesn’t realize he’s being belittling, but also more crucially on the show showing that the reason he’s being so hard is he’s just duplicating how hard he was on HIMSELF in that role. But I also like how they’re setting up a solution in his potential odd couple-ing with Higgins, which I think is going to draw out the conflict in a good way. But like I said… with this show? That kind of hope is certainly earned.

Man oh man. I said last time that the amazing thing about really good set-ups is that you often don’t realize how much you are already in them. Season two perhaps feels a bit messier, but unlike season one, they have to spend time creating the new conflicts. And given the thematic possibilities outlined above… I already have those nervous butterflies in my stomach.

How I wonder what will release them.

<3HULK