#ted lasso criticism

[brilarsn]

one time in college, i wrote a short story that featured two older men who were very close friends. the feedback i got in workshop, from my professor and most of my classmates, was “so they’re gay and in love, right?” and i was like. wow. that hadn’t occurred to me but you are all so right. so in my rewrite i changed it to them being explicitly together.

i don’t mean this about everything, but i feel like some writers out there really don’t understand how the characters and relationships they’re writing are coming across and when fans go “they’re queer, right?” the creators’ reaction is like what the Fuck are you talking about? and i think it’s unfortunate

[melliemd]

Keeley: is famous for being a model, sexy photoshoots including nudity

Jack: funds Keeley’s PR company, facilitating a need to know who she was funding

Also Jack: angry and uncomfortable about nude photos and videos of Keeley

????

Keeley: is keeley jones, head of the Keeley jones PR firm. A firm where she does PR professionally, because she was good enough at it that it got the attention of investors

Also Keeley: is handed a PR statement about the leak instead of handling it herself?

????

it’s dumb, actually

[lunar-years]

GUYS

[instantcaramel]

🥰

[dunster]

i’ve said it once, i’ve said it a thousand times: it ain’t a ted lasso show if jamie tartt’s slutty little waist is not in the main cast

[youwillfindilluminating]

[annie-bunny-out-there]

Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein, and Phil Dunster all looking so gorgeous at the 29th Critic’s Choice Awards! And funnily enough ONLY Phil was nominated for Ted Lasso. Juno was nominated for her role on Fargo and Brett Goldstein was there as a producer for Shrinking!

[billy-crudup]

PHIL DUNSTER at the British Fashion Awards in London on December 4, 2023

[dreamlandbarnes]

i’m thinking about jamie and keeley literally all the time <3

[weclassybouquetfun]

Toheeb Jimoh has ceded Brett Goldstein to Phil Dunster, I guess.

We had it all!

You two saw each other less than 24 hours ago, tho.

I know - how dare I bring that up.

Nice of Ellie to share her man.

-The throuple lives on!

I get why Juno straightens her hair, but I love that she kept it natural for the FARGO premiere.

Oldies of Natural Curls

[brilarsn]

learning about the racial makeup of the ted lasso writers’ room and going Oh. that explains a lot.

[melliemd]

My new predictions for the last four episodes of Ted Lasso because I need to prepare to be underwhelmed and disappointed so that I don’t feel like this after any more of these eps. Now if these things don’t happen, I can be pleasantly surprised instead of whatever the heck this week was. Ted was wrong, everyone else was right: it’s the hope that kills you.

Sam will have no further storylines this season, 307 was it.

Beard and Jane stay together and her abuse will continue to be played for jokes.

Rebecca will never go to therapy.

Keeley/Jamie will happen in some form. And even if it’s not intentional it will come across as a narrative reward for him becoming a better person.

Keeley will lose her agency, which will be even worse because she’s already lost her narrative agency. Also it’ll double as (again intentional or not) narrative punishment for her dating Jack.

Despite his incredible success and proving he’s an amazing coach, Nate will return to Richmond and be an assistant coach, taking a literal and narrative demotion as his “penance”

Despite them making a point about boss/employee relationships being bad with Jack and Keeley, Rebecca’s only trouble for her relationship with Sam will remain her awkward meeting with Ola. It will not be mentioned again.

Trent will not kiss a man.

Doctor Jake will continue to have his license-losing unethical behaviour dealt with as anything other than Ted having emotions over it.

Te*b*cca will happen in spite of the press tours and interviews saying it would be pedestrian, or that they’re platonic, or that they’re like brother and sister.

The use of the bisexual flag in Ted’s BBQ sauce induced vision will be edited to be other colours, because it was just an accident and they’ve shown they will go back and edit episodes to fix things if need be. He is absolutely straight.

[lunar-years]

? He very much did also write Ted Lasso btw. He was a credited writer on Ted Lasso. He was in the writer’s room for Ted Lasso. He was writing it!

[boasamishipper]

i wasnt a hardcore ted lasso enjoyer i watched p casually can u remind me what happened in 2x04 and/or explain why it needs to be disavowed /genq

on a 1977 episode of the hit tv show happy days, the fonz (played by henry winkler) travels to LA with the gang and, when his bravery is challenged, water-skis in swim trunks and his trademark leather jacket while jumping over a live shark. the show went on for another 7 years, but in 1985, radio personality jon hein used this moment to coin the expression jumping the shark - that is, a clear moment when a creative work has "exhausted its core intent and is introducing new ideas that are discordant with or an extreme exaggeration of its original theme or purpose."

when ted lasso premiered in 2020, it was warm, witty, and winsome - the balm many needed after the exhaustion and cruelty of the covid-19 pandemic and the last four years of the trump administration. the show was quickly renewed for a second season, the fourth episode of which was their christmas special. said episode focused on the afc richmond found family and ted and rebecca doing good deeds and ended with everyone singing christmas songs outside the higgins' house, at which point one of the higgins boys sees santa's sleigh flying across the sky.

that episode, to me, marks the exact moment where the show jumped the shark.

from that episode onward, the show became less grounded in reality. the writers downplayed or ignored heavier plotlines with massive implications (sam accused the nigerian government of corruption in a press conference and lost the team a major sponsor in dubai air...and then faced no consequences whatsoever personally or professionally) in favor of elevating silly scenes that did nothing to move the plot forward (ex. the majority of 'beard after hours', the afc richmond team's plotline in the infamous amsterdam episode, the scene where the team tied strings around each other's dicks and practiced that way). the heavier themes that the writers did attempt to tackle (racism and homophobia in british football, sexism, etc.) were done clumsily, with the in-world implication that such systemic issues were the result of a few bad apples and could be solved with teamwork and togetherness.

s1 of ted lasso was so good because for all its focus on kindness and warm fuzzy feelings, the show was still grounded in reality. it still had stakes. the threat of richmond getting relegated was tangible. the consequences of people's actions were real. s2's focus on whether or not the team would get promoted to the premier league was what saved it, but once the team returned to the premier league in s3, all was lost. what was the show's goal that season? to beat west ham? to beat rupert? to get one over on nate? to win the whole damn thing? even characters in universe didn't seem to know. s3 was as aimless and disjointed as it was bloated, with episodes regularly clocking in at over an hour. the show had, very obviously, run out of things to say, and did its best to hide that fact behind season-long mysteries (what did the psychic's prediction mean??) and scenes in the locker room written with all the grace and charm of a 1990s after-school special.

s3 was shut out at the emmys, and didn't make a splash with audiences or critics. and despite the change of setting (ted's coaching the women's team now!), if the writers don't abandon the aimless bloat and exaggerated saccharine that permeated the show from 2x04 onward in favor of real stakes and real character growth and tipping the scales back in favor of realism, s4 will likely go the same way.

[jamietwat]

Jamie would 100% make Roy a dating app profile sometime after the Keeley rejecting both of them thing to try to help him move on and meet people when clearly he’s refusing to get back out there organically and he’d think he’s being so helpful and generous and the best wingman ever. He’d handpick what he considers the sexiest pictures he can find and put a bunch of shit Roy would never say thinking he’s being accurate and helpful and not even taking the clear opportunity to make a joke account to embarrass him or anything when he easily could have just made fun of him and chosen the worst pictures possible instead

And then he would be SO offended when it doesn’t go well when Roy finds out about it and is not properly appreciative at all

Roy thinks it’s Jamie’s account when he starts showing Roy girls like what do you think of her and asking him way too many questions when Roy has no interest in participating and has no idea why the fuck Jamie seems incapable of swiping without trying to get Roy’s opinions first. Meanwhile, Roy’s giving one word answers at first and then increasingly trying to brush him off when he doesn’t stop and then he’s just flat out like “Choose your own dates and leave me the fuck out of it” and Jamie’s like “Nah, this is your account. You should have a say” and instead of being grateful and appreciative and thanking Jamie for being oh so generous with his time and energy, Roy just scowls at him and growls out “You did not make a fucking Tinder profile for me” and Jamie just smirks and decides now is not the right moment yet to mention that he actually made him accounts on like three different apps because he wasn’t sure which Roy would like best

Roy barks at him to delete it and Jamie’s all whiny like “Come on, I spent a lot of time on these and you haven’t even considered it. Plus, even if you’re not ready to date someone yet, you’d still be less miserable to be around if you at least found someone to shag in the meantime”

And Roy’s like “Delete it. I don’t want a fucking Tinder profile.” And Jamie looks at him confused for a moment and then seems to have an epiphany as he goes “Oh, do you want a Grindr one instead? Hold on a second” and he flips to a different app and Roy’s too busy being baffled by the fact that Grindr is already on Jamie’s phone and that he’s having to sign out of his own account to try to make one for Roy to even stop him before he’s already trying to sign up for a new account and Roy goes “That’s not what I meant. I don’t want any dating app”

And Jamie pauses his typing and turns and looks at him so skeptically and so judgily and suddenly somehow Roy is trying to fight for his life trying to defend why he’s not looking for some random stranger to date or fuck around with

[contingencyprotocol]

in a horrible mood thinking about the nudes episode of Ted Lasso season 3 again.

-Roys a dick with no consequences

-Jamie’s nice but a dick later with no consequences

-Keeley regurgitates a popular quote about women being hated for being sexual and says nothing else of note about this whole thing

-Keeley is slut shamed by her boss for no reason

-Rebecca makes a joke about Keeley getting groomed

-Rebecca apparently humped all of her furniture to death (cannot get over how unfunny and unmoving that office scene was)

-Keeley dumps her girlfriend boss who slut shamed her but instead the writers change their minds and she’s the one who gets dumped next episode

-Keeley cannot handle a PR crisis to save her life despite us being forced to watch her dumbass PR office plotline all season long

-locker room scene that literally went viral on twitter for being cringe

being a total hater here but I actually cannot believe that episode aired. ted wanted to hire a PI to stalk his ex wife that episode btw. MY GOD