#be a goldfish

[trustlife2day]

[what-gs-watching]

"If that's a joke, I love it. If not, can't wait to unpack that with you later."

So, here’s a thing - winter makes me sad. I mean, it makes a lot of people sad, but also me. When I was younger I used to just cause a whole bunch of drama to get it out of my system but I’m an adult now and I’m still mostly fruitlessly job searching and I can’t really just go around starting fights anymore so I’m just sitting in my ennui, feeling unmoored. 

Which made me realize: I need Ted Lasso. Desperately.

Wherein, a low level American football coach moves to England to coach actual football (aka soccer) and ends up creating something so beautiful it’ll make you laugh and cry until you just can’t anymore.

If you’ve never seen Ted Lasso, first of all - how dare you? And secondly, start it now. Like, literally right now. It’s everything you didn’t know you needed. 

I will admit I didn’t get into it until my husband watched it and encouraged me into it because of my love for Jason Sudeikis. I tend to pick up unnatural obsessions for SNL alumni, I just want all of them to succeed, so I gave in and instantly lost my mind over it. I couldn’t get enough.

During the second season run, I literally had a standing weekly fifteen minute meeting with my engineers to talk about the latest episode and our theories on what would happen next, or what our favorite joke had been. There were MANY heated debates.

Before the third season came out, I made my family binge the first two seasons while we were on vacation. I remember my mom calling me after she and my dad had watched the series finale so we could talk about it - she’d never bought into a show like that before.  

Ted Lasso just brings people together, and I find it absolutely ridiculous that this poignant, wonderful, life affirming show came out of a bit that Sudeikis wrote in 2013 for an NBC Sports commercial. It’s mind boggling. 

You guys know, it’s all about the relationships for me, and that’s the entire show, really. Ted is unrelentingly positive and charming and understanding and the reason he likes coaching is because he wants to help his players be the best versions of themselves and wooooph throughout the show, you get that, for every single character, even Ted himself. It’s about loving each other and loving yourself and also somewhat about football and it’s just so fucking…delightful. 

And I’m obsessed with all of the different dynamics. Ted and Beard, and Roy and Ted and Beard, and Roy and Jamie, and Roy and Keeley, and fucking Keeley and Rebecca! If you need to see a perfect incredible WONDERFUL female friendship, it’s Rebecca and Keeley fucking Jones. Someone needs to write a long-winded essay about these two, because dear lord, I want a best friend like that. Everyone wants a best friend like that. Like, I just can’t with all of the messy, hilarious, beautiful relationships. I want to be part of them all.

Also,  it’s funny. Like, properly funny. Laugh-out-loud-no-matter-how-many-times-you’ve-seen-it funny. The bits are layered. And you’ll get something different out of them every single time. Nuance, gang. It’s all so nuanced. 

The first season is absolutely perfect. You get to know all of the characters and you get a general sense of what’s up. Everyone is kind of charming and you’re immediately annoyed with Rebecca and charmed by Roy even though he tries his best to be threatening, and you think that Nathan is adorable and you’re pulled into Ted’s unwavering enthusiasm and Beard’s silliness indulgence and straight-man stoicism and Keeley’s adorableness. And it’s WONDERFUL! I’ve seen season one at least four or five times, likely more. It’s everything.

There are so many good moments. At one point, Ted says he’s having salads for lunch with Higgins who is communications director or something and as Ted goes to leave Higgins says “Cesar you later!” and Ted BURSTS back in through the door and just yells “YES!” and it’s hilarious every time. 

When Ted and Beard realize that Roy is a bristling motherfucker who wants to hate everything, Ted says something like “wait til we win him over”, with Beard announcing “He’s. Going to be. Furious.” (And he was.)

It’s the little things in the first season that really endear you to Ted Lasso. It just wraps you up and makes you feel warm and appreciated, like there are people out there that are pure and good and they can make you feel pure and good too. 

And then you get into season two and you start to see behind the curtain. Ted’s really not okay with his divorce (which, I still think is because his wife couldn’t deal with his optimism? Which is so insane to me and I can’t even, I never forgave her like, what the fuck is that) and in general and they tackle a lot of mental health issues and social issues and it’s a bit hard to get through.

But at the same time, season two has some of my favorite bits? Which is confusing??! The scene where Sam asks Isaac for a haircut - everyone gets a single cut from the captain once a season - and the entire team watches and whoops and freaks out and it’s like, an intricate performance and everyone is just so fucking thrilled to be witnessing it? It’s weirdly beautiful. 

Ted and Beard teaching the entire team the choreography to NSYNC’s Bye Bye Bye so they can send off the team shrink in a ridiculous way? Incredible. When they finally get the dance right, they lose their fucking minds. It’s so JOYFUL.

The episode where Roy finally realizes he wants to join the coaching staff and he makes a dramatic trek to the stadium while “She’s a Rainbow” blares? The theme of that one was believing in rom-communism - to rouse the team Ted tells them “Fairy tales do not start nor do they end in the dark forest” and yo that’s so TRUE - and when Roy finally showed up on the pitch he said, “You had me at ‘coach’.” I cry every single time I see that one. I literally watched it twice in a week when getting the family into the show and I cried both times. Hard. 

I think part of the reason this show is so resonating is because dark shit happens, but a lot of really sweet things happen too. There’s an episode wherein Rebecca’s dad dies and they’re all attending the funeral but it still is somehow achingly funny too, even though you learn some terrible things about Ted and Rebecca both in that one. They really ride the line of darkness and light and it’s messy and that’s life.

And then season three is hard.  So much happens. And you know that you’re barreling toward the finale. There’s only 34 episodes in the entire series and it’s not nearly enough but they do try to make the most of their time. 

Watching the finale season in real time was really interesting though, I’ll say, because the fandom was so nuts at the time. So many random theories and outrage over some of the story points. And at the time I did kind of agree, but seeing it all back to back now in my first true binge, it all makes sense. Everyone had their own journey and some of them were ridiculous and maybe we just wanted things to stay the same because that’s how we fell in love with the characters but that’s not the point, gang. Shit is forever changing.

I’ll never get over the moment when Roy finally relents to the diamond dogs. Or Jamie teaching him how to ride a fucking bike in Amsterdam. Or when the team comes together to help Sam put his restaurant back together after it’s completely vandalized. Or Beard explaining to Nate his background with Ted, and offering his forgiveness to Nate as a way to honor everything Ted has done. Or Rebecca calling Roy out on his shit, saying that instead of helping himself he’d rather “eat shit soup and then complain about the portions”. 

There are so many little beautiful pieces. So many things that will pull at your heart strings and make you realize things that maybe have been niggling around in your brain but refusing to come forward because you were scared of them. Ted Lasso helps you be less scared of them. Ted Lasso helps you be less scared of everything, because it encourages you to accept yourself as you are.

In the final episode, Higgins says “Human beings are never gonna be perfect. The best we can do is to keep asking for help and accepting it when you can. And if you keep on doing that, you'll always be moving towards better.” 

And that’s what all of us need to understand. This show will ingrain that thought into you, and it’ll buoy you, and you won’t even realize it. 

So maybe now I’m feeling less ennui. Because I’m still laughing at the hijinx and basking in the wholesomeness and the amazingly perfect relationships  and the belief. Ted Lasso makes you fucking believe.

[aha-aha-ahahaha]

Ted Lasso. Oh man.

Honestly, I didn’t realize what this show would mean to me or do to me when I started.

I didn’t think a tv show could do this to me.

It brings me every identifiable emotion I have ever felt over the course of of life. Feelings I thought I couldn’t feel anymore.

For every feeling of immense sadness and longing, I feel a sense of hope and happiness.

I didn’t think it was possible to feel that combination at once, but this show has shown me it is.

This show kept me from quitting therapy recently. This show pulls me out of numbness and nothingness. This show makes me feel seen and hopeful and lighter. So much lighter.

AND it made my extremely conservative family laugh and binge it with me LIKE WHAT

Thank you Ted Lasso

[deenadraws]

I present to you a Ted Lasso sticker sheet Ala me! I adore this show! I’ll have these sticker sheets with me at Fan expo Canada this week at table A249 in artists alley and they’ll go up on my online shop afterwards in late September.

[prfcthands]

TED LASSO - HEADERS (3:1 ratio / 1500x500)

likes and reblogs are appreciated! ♡ if used please give credits.!

[aume]

Ok Panther fans, time to be a goldfish

[mexicangela]

actually? honestly? you know what upsets me the most? is that after everything ted lasso has given us, people within the fandom are still choosing to be mean. what’s the point of being part of a community that’s based around a show that’s based on being kind? on being curious, not judgmental?

i mean, really. it’s a piece of media, for christ’s sake. it’s meant to be interpreted differently. no need to be deliberately cruel. i dunno, maybe i’m just on my soapbox but it makes me legitimately sad to see people belittle, bully, and generally be vitriolic to others over such a wonderful series. which it is, even if the finale left people desiring more.

can’t we all be better than that?

[meg-a-nerd]

Tomorrow (August 14) is exactly three years since Ted Lasso was released on Apple TV+. Words cannot express how much this show means to me. It has changed me for the better. And as much as I am devastated that it has ended (please, let it be just FOR NOW), I’m grateful for having been able to see it and forever jealous of people experiencing it for the first time.

Anyone up for a rewatch starting tomorrow?

[wastelandbaby7]

[idciminlove]

Ted Lasso wall part 1 😋

[lexi-cology]

Ted/Nate Coaching Style Parallels

Okay I have so much to say about the Ted Lasso premiere and the countless parallels to other seasons, other characters, it’s just so masterful. We’re already seeing the clear story mirror that is happening between Ted and Nate

The one scene I want to highlight is the first one on one player interaction we get from both Ted and Nate as managers. 

In S1E02 we see Ted pull Sam aside after making a mistake in practice. Do you know what we get? The infamous “be a goldfish” scene.  Ted sees a mistake in practice and instead of telling Sam what he should have done differently or tell him off for letting Jamie get by him - he refocuses Sam to the big picture. The most important thing to Ted in this moment is not the mistake that just occurred on the field, its giving Sam advice that he knows will make him not just a better soccer player, but a better human. Ted responds with compassion in an intimate 1:1 moment with a player to establish trust and motivate Sam. This is not a quick fix solution (as seen by Sam’s look of confusion at the end of the conversation lol), it is about playing the long game.

In contrast, what happens when we see Nate witness a player make a mistake in practice? He publicly calls that player out in front of his team and uses fear as a tactic for motivation. 

“”You! Come over here... this is the dumb-dumb line, this is where dumb-dumbs go”

“You go in for the dumb-dumb, try not to join him on the line” 

In this move he has effectively pitted teammates against each other and used fear as a motivation tactic. By berating the player in front of everyone else, it causes the rest of the team to want to avoid the same humiliation and, in theory, play better. This can be viewed as a “quick fix” solution. In the moment, the mistake was addressed by pulling the source of the “problem” off the field, but long term this strategy can eat away at a player’s confidence and the trust between Coach and players. 

I guess we will have to wait and see how these strategies play out against each this season!

BONUS ~ The fact that Ted specifically calls Sam by his name vs Nate yelling “you” to his players is another great but extremely subtle testament to their coaching tactics.  

[cosima-nova]

I can’t stop thinking about Stede’s goldfish mermaid tail and Ted Lasso’s “Be a goldfish” philosophy and it really is just about starting over from where you can and not letting the past (literally) drag you down.

[an-sceal]

Added some new foliage to the little pond. A few extra ferns are always good. The water hyacinth is about to bloom! And I have no idea where that mushroom came from, but I love it. Please also make note of Ted swimming his best little comet life there in a couple of shots.

[snow-licity]

Went to my local walmart and these were the only ones they had BUT I'm making it my mission to go to every Walmart I can until I find the REELEY glasses!!!

[tbeorthottobe]

So I found a Ted Lasso calendar at the start of the year and I just noticed that the little graphic for this month has a mustache and I'm obsessed with it

[scrumptious-finicky-illusion]

This is totally my experience and it especially applies to Neil Gaiman's "The Ocean at the End of the Lane"

having short-term memory is like. this book profoundly affected me. that show bared my soul. i don’t remember a single thing about it. but it did