#colin and trent are in the same space at Richmond

[thesearchforbluejello]

With the popularity of Ted Lasso, I'm genuinely just so glad that we got such a phenomenal show that has made an impact on so many people, and of course now we've also gotten the first season of Shrinking, which also knocked it out of the park.

But I still mourn Whiskey Cavalier every time I watch an episode of either of those.

There hasn't been a whole lot of tv I've actually enjoyed in the past several years, and these three feel like an absolute trifecta, but WC feels like the holy ghost at this point because there is SO MUCH of it in Ted Lasso and Shrinking-- it's so many of the same writers/directors/producers, but they're also just so similar right to their foundations. All three interrogate tv tropes and relationships (of all kinds!!!!!) and mental health through comedy, and Ted Lasso and Whiskey Cavalier actually interrogate an entire genre. I'd say that WC is more on that side than Ted Lasso even is, because although they definitely interrogate some of the tropes of sports fiction (toxic masculinity, anyone?), WC actually parodies spy fiction while playing itself as straight.

It just makes me absolutely feral to think about what more of Whiskey Cav would have looked like. A second season? A third? The development of the show from the original(-ish, one of the drafts) pilot to what was actually filmed shows so much growth and an acknowledgement that they could really work with what they had-- it turned from a show about a guy (hence the name) to a show about an entire team. Frankie took the spot as the second main character with Will once they cast Lauren Cohan (I don't think that happened before she was cast but I may be wrong) and another character was completely rewritten into Jai when Vir Das was cast. They had an entire plan for how to flip the TV trope of the will-they-won't-they relationship to a how-will-they-make-it-work relationship!!!!!! It would have been so good!!!!!! The amount of character development we got in just one season was far above and beyond anything else I've seen besides Ted Lasso and Shrinking, and honestly I think more actually happened specifically because they didn't have the assurance of more seasons (good thing they didn't assume, I guess) to build on things like the Ted Lasso Method™ but they still managed to do it without rushing it.

Honestly I feel like I could make a venn diagram of how all three of these shows all overlap and it would be hilarious. Excellent theme songs by well known artists without it feeling cheap? ✅✅✅ Excellent episodic music by well known artists also without it feeling cheap? ✅✅✅ Really well executed character development for ALL of the characters? ✅✅✅ Interrogation of tv tropes? ✅✅✅ More specifically, hilariously camp villains who still manage to take advantage of tropes to work? ✅✅ Incredibly well developed character relationships OF ALL KINDS that don't all hinge on only one romantic relationship as the centerpoint of everything? ✅✅✅ Queer characters who don't exist for the butt of a joke or solely as token queer characters? ✅✅✅ Every line is delivered with perfect comedic (or dramatic) delivery and timing? ✅✅✅

Anyway, this has been a barely coherent and very meandering way of saying that the fact that ABC put the episodes out of order really screwed things up, but Whiskey Cav really hit its stride there with the second half of season one and absolutely nailed the vibe they'd been working towards with the foundational episodes that came before them, and I just get SO ANGRY when I watch Ted Lasso and Shrinking despite the fact that they're both so good and I enjoy them so much because it makes me think about just how good a second (and third, damn it) season of Whiskey Cavalier would have been.

[babytarttdoodoo]

This got more traction than anticipated for a 3am post so have a few more nuggets:

Dani is still starstruck playing against his idol but immediately switches to 'national mode' when Zava challenges Jamie.

Roy tells Jamie that Zava is past his peak and exists on reputation alone which A) Roy did himself and B) Jamie should have no issue challenging.

'Sunflowers' goes down the same way except that Roy and Jamie are much more comfortable being emotionally vulnerable due to a longer relationship established between them.

Colin is more receptive to to Trent's camaraderie because there hasn't been as much animosity towards him 'invading' the team's space.

Zava openly insults Richmond on camera and that gives them all they need to fuck West Ham over.

The destruction of the 'Believe' sign is saved for Nate's return.

AU where Zava went to West Ham

Nate, even the dark side manager version, would absolutely cave under the 'pass to Zava' philosophy.

Roy still offers to train Jamie but does it weeks earlier in the season: "you're the best player on the team" "oh, thanks, coach" "but you're not good enough to beat Zava... yet".

Richmond still probably don't stumble onto Total Football until Amsterdam but their teamwork isn't utterly obliterated over the season either. (And hooray Colin isn't benched.)

Jamie (in peak condition) actually gets to go toe-to-toe with Zava (not in peak condition) with full prick permission during the West Ham game.

Rebecca was angry Rupert seemed to 'win' again by getting Zava but Jamie actually became her 'shite in nine-ing armour' by playing fucking circles around him.

The team doesn't need to be 'motivated' by the Nate video and so don't go insane in the second half (regrettably because I love the feral himbos).

Zava still retires after that game whether Richmond win or not (remember when irl Beckham decided to retire because Messi blew past him on the pitch?).

That actually gives Rupert a reason to start hating Jamie and be willing to target him in the final.

[queen-mabs-revenge]

#like. sorry but the same group of footballers so incensed by nate’s SYMBOLIC rejection of the in-group (the believe sign)#that they played like shit just to be able to beat up on ppl who had nothing to do with the sign#are not (believably!) going to come back to nate on a whim#like. even without getting into all the points abt colins demonstrable fears of coming out to ppl he doesn’t trust 110%#the idea that the players incredibly intense sense of us vs them (as seen by them closing ranks in front of Trent on roys word) is#something. inconsequential to their characterisation and can just be papered over off screen is so insulting!!#like. BEFORE they knew it was a personal betrayal they were threatening violence! why would that passion DECREASE?#and that’s INTERESTING! it’s one of the subtle but rlly worrying flaws of Ted’s system#like. that instead of seeing teds open mindedness and good will and continual efforts to give them both the room + the reason to improve#themselves and then in turn extending that open mind + heart to others. they instead get really protective + defensive OF their space in#that ‘circle of grace’ and will push and shove anyone who doesn’t ‘deserve’ that treatment away#like. ted is uncomfortable with that at least as of s1 (‘we’d die for you coach!’ ‘bit intense for me sam!’)#but beard + roy have no problem both acknowledging it and leveraging it for their own ends (ie: icing Trent out + the nate video)#and#fuck man to just write that all off??? like that’s INTERESTING! that’s a really tasty and juice conflict!#and to act like NONE of those pressures exist in the context of welcoming nate back to richmond??#like again im not at all anti nate or thinking he needs to lower himself#but ur so right in that the idea that richmond would welcome him back freely just feels painfully ungrounded#in the stakes + character motivations the SHOW ITSELF conditioned u to expect#like.#ted lasso follow through on the plot lines + motivations u set up challenge [IMPOSSIBLE - APPARENTLY] (tags via @time-is-restored)

i am CLAWING AT MY FACE because YES YES YES YES YES gOD

i didn't even really think through this aspect of the Lasso Way but GOD you're so right and ALSO exploring this would have been SUCH a good way to have the same exact scene with beard and nate re: beard's backstory reveal except it could have been tied in with the team Going Through It about whether or not to trust nate/give him a second chance???

like i do think the scene with ted and beard was narratively satisfying bc beard's backstory has been such an intimately kept secret btw the two of them -- but at the same time, ted did have to hold his hand through it all? if they're setting up that ted has done all he can for everyone and the lasso way is good to go now... uhhhh this didn't really prove that, did it? this could have been a moment where beard took that lesson he and roy learned after the west ham match and put it into action himself!

how much more cathartic would it have been to have beard observing a debate btw the team about nate - some arguing in favor of wanting him back bc, some saying that no matter the reasons he sacrificed his career he can't be trusted. maybe someone points to trent in the corner as an example of the pro side ('look what that prick did to ted, but now he's our prick!'); someone else tries to bring beard in as backup against nate bc it's clear beard has been the model for the hyper-defensive us-v-them i'll-kill-for-tedthis-team and that be the catalyst for beard realising that he's not giving the grace he's been given to the extreme, and that's causing knock-on effects on the team antithetical to the dynamic he's purportedly so protective of. i'm not a writer but drop a cryptic beard one-liner in here that lets the audience and the team know he's not on the side they thought?

(i could see a very beard reaction to that realisation being him walking up to ted and bear hugging him out of nowhere [maybe a confused ted reaction like 'everything ok, coach?' and beard dead serious saying ted's line in response: 'i appreciate you'] and just nodding and walking away, and then cut to the scene with nate exactly as it was).

the way that would have actually created a path through which so many of the obstacles to nate returning are worked through on screen while developing all the characters!! and i do mean all paths bc like after the team's unhinged violence during the west ham match literally why would nate want to come back to that environment, too??? why should we the audience believe that the team isn't holding a grudge that they're smiling through and that will snap back and harm nate in some way??? SHOW ME. SHOW ME TO MY FACE ALL OF THIS PLEASE FUCKING HELL, JASON. YOU SET THE PINS UP NOW KNOCK THEM DOWN, JASON. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD

OK so first of all i am not a nate-needs-to-mortify-his-flesh-to-be-redeemed girlie so fucking jot that down. i don't think he needs to grovel, i don't even think we need an extended boo hoo apology scene for anyone involved. nate's story is about reconciliation with himself and others through real self-esteem and contentment, not about whatever christian penance brainrot ppl are coming up with.

but i am fucking baffled by that opening scene with isaac, colin and will visiting nate at work and how -- yet again -- really essential character beats are just happening off screen and we're supposed to be super chill and emotionally swept along by it all?

(long ass v critical post under the cut)

"we want you to come back to richmond" uhhhhhhhhhh "the whole team talked about it and it was unanimous" …….?????????????? like besides the fact that there is literally no established tactical reason why the team feels that they need nate to come back considering they're pretty fucking successful at the moment, the show has given us no reason to believe that would be a decision made by a team that is and needs to be protective of its current interpersonal dynamic!

now again, i want to be very fucking clear as i go through the following that i don't think that nate is homophobic and i'm not accusing him of that, and again i'm not here like 'oh colin needs an uwu special apology'. but lay out the facts as far as the players know (because that's all that's been on screen): nate tore up the sign and ~~someone~~ exposed information about ted's panic attacks to the press - they're himbos but i mean come on. the last interactions between nate and the team - and especially colin - were pretty targeted cruelty and belittlement laced with misogynistic language (that yes, has been used pretty casually throughout the dressing room - not just a nate thing), and then nate goes to work for a club owned by the man who fostered the toxic swamp richmond was to begin with? bro. bro.

literally my first thought was -- how is colin eager to invite someone back who - as far as he knows - clearly very personally hates him, and has leaked information about someone he supposedly liked and respected that he was told in confidence to cause targeted harm to that person… when he just came out within a trusted organization with no intention of coming out publicly??? like no matter how this show tries to shorthand that everything is OK now, because they put no work into reestablishing trust… there is no way colin would take his safety as 100% guaranteed in this situation, and him being the person to insist on talking to nate doesn't shorthand that away!!!

like for me, this mismatch stands out as some fucking straight nonsense again bc you cannot use the horrifically queerphobic atmosphere in and around professional men's football irl for your very special episode and then just never address the personal vindictiveness involved in the character dynamic that was created between nate and colin previously, especially in the face of seeding the idea that someone would be afraid to come out to their trusted best friend because of the 1% chance the casual homophobia they tossed around was indicative of their actual beliefs.

and like ok the tendency of this show to just use experiences that reflect stuff of incredible real life consequence without considering the context or implications is already established. i get it. but like this is just another example of how by not actually engaging with the full consequences of the experiences they're capitalizing on, they've not done justice to any of the characters or representative stories involved.

the reconciliation between nate and the team had such great potential to bring out everyone's issues and have a real chewy resolution! nate getting tossed back into the rupertsphere and seeing the manipulative bullying inherent to rupert's concept of power, and consequently really understanding how that created the environment mirrored in the team's treatment of him, and how he held on to that concept of power and mirrored it back in vindictiveness.

maybe if they brought forward the bex and ms. kakes story to play out earlier (during one of these insanely bloated episodes), and if nate is tied in with letting them both know what was happening with rupert, the two women going to rebecca for advice could have been something that one of the players found out about (idk overhearing rebecca asking keeley for press/legal advice while passing her office or smth). that could have precipitated a conversation among the team that we were actually privy to about how nate stood up to rupert, put whole ass career on the line to protect people being deeply wronged instead of cozy up to power, and did it without publicly Exposing Their Business in order to get public kudos.

that conversation could have been the perfect way to get the team to understand nate's growth from what he did to ted by revealing and having them work through the implications of nates willingness to put protecting people from being harmed above his own need for power and validation, while also protecting their privacy and not seeking public validation at their expense! colin could have had a part in that conversation that both brought his queerness back into the story as something of actual consequence and not just a token feel-good moment, and it could have showed why the team would trust nate enough to hold a vote to ask him to come back to richmond while also showing the audience that the team has truly grown from its unhinged emotional reaction during the west ham match, and not just because they lost a game bc of it!

like idk man this just isn't good enough for me. this whole thing just isn't good enough for me, especially because they've made the implications and the stakes so fucking high by bringing in the incredibly consequential social issues they have. nothing feels earned, and everything feels cheap and flimsy because of it! everything from the journey we deserved to go on with all of these characters, to the seriousness and respect with which the show has treated the experiences they've profited off of, to the patronizing chintz of the last minute emotion-bombs being tossed to us as good enough wallpaper over the structural cracks we're meant to ignore.