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tv_talk2023-08-17 06:32 pm
yourlibrarian) wrote in tv_talk2023-08-17 06:32 pm
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Ted Lasso S3
I finished S3 of Ted Lasso over a month ago but found it difficult to write about. Spoilers for the season behind the cut. I can see why people weren't that enthused with it. As I discussed in comments on an earlier post in my blog, they tried to take on bigger things this season which didn't work well given the show's limitations. At the same time, other developments rather lost some of the "feel good" aspects of the show.
For one thing, I felt that Nate's storyline had an abrupt and unconvincing turn. I could understand why dark!Nate came about, but understood less how he could do a U to return to take on even less than what he had before. I felt the show was trying to tell us that had Nate felt the love and respect he felt he needed (from a girlfriend and his father) that he would have never taken his dark turn. And that once he and Jade were together and his father explained himself, that he no longer needed the sort of validation that came from the public and from a well rewarded, high profile job.
But this makes little sense given that his father called him a genius child. A genius child needs challenges and work that exercises their skills. It's quite understandable that he was never given that opportunity under Rupert's original ownership -- due to Nate's personality, his lack of connections, and probably racism.
So I could understand why Nate wouldn't want to work with Rupert anymore (and also why he went to work for him in the first place). But are there really no other opportunities in the sport for him to serve as a coach? It didn't seem that he was just taking jobs as a waiter or as an assistant equipment manager in order to do something while waiting for other job opportunities to arise.
I mean, not that much in Ted Lasso is realistic (Keeley's work life, for example), but this is a character development issue which served as a centerpoint for much of two seasons.
At the same time other stuff just seemed to be tied up with a bow in the epilogue yet a central feature of the season -- the developing relationship between Keeley, Roy and Jamie -- was left hanging. They were clearly all still friends but that seemed a cop out.
While it certainly seems possible that producers could spin the show off to follow Richmond generally (especially if we consider Trent's book title) or various characters, I think it's good that the show ended here. Unless there's a very clear idea for what to do with a connected show that doesn't change characters in order to fit an idea, I feel it's better to leave it with the ending we got.
What were the pluses and minuses of the season to you?
For one thing, I felt that Nate's storyline had an abrupt and unconvincing turn. I could understand why dark!Nate came about, but understood less how he could do a U to return to take on even less than what he had before. I felt the show was trying to tell us that had Nate felt the love and respect he felt he needed (from a girlfriend and his father) that he would have never taken his dark turn. And that once he and Jade were together and his father explained himself, that he no longer needed the sort of validation that came from the public and from a well rewarded, high profile job.
But this makes little sense given that his father called him a genius child. A genius child needs challenges and work that exercises their skills. It's quite understandable that he was never given that opportunity under Rupert's original ownership -- due to Nate's personality, his lack of connections, and probably racism.
So I could understand why Nate wouldn't want to work with Rupert anymore (and also why he went to work for him in the first place). But are there really no other opportunities in the sport for him to serve as a coach? It didn't seem that he was just taking jobs as a waiter or as an assistant equipment manager in order to do something while waiting for other job opportunities to arise.
I mean, not that much in Ted Lasso is realistic (Keeley's work life, for example), but this is a character development issue which served as a centerpoint for much of two seasons.
At the same time other stuff just seemed to be tied up with a bow in the epilogue yet a central feature of the season -- the developing relationship between Keeley, Roy and Jamie -- was left hanging. They were clearly all still friends but that seemed a cop out.
While it certainly seems possible that producers could spin the show off to follow Richmond generally (especially if we consider Trent's book title) or various characters, I think it's good that the show ended here. Unless there's a very clear idea for what to do with a connected show that doesn't change characters in order to fit an idea, I feel it's better to leave it with the ending we got.
What were the pluses and minuses of the season to you?
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- Trent being a little nerd. And his T-shirt journey.
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Yeah the super league thing paid short shrift to everything.
Yeah I wasn't thrilled about this either: How they made Colin's coming out entirely about Isaac's feelings for ~drama.
Agreed about how, short of Barbara becoming a character, the whole KJPR seemed unnecessary. I don't see how the season would have been much different had Keeley not had her own agency.
Yeah I missed Dr. Sharon.
And this coming from a show whose cast and writers were invited to the White House to talk about mental health?
Such a good point! That is so not on.
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Honestly, Jamie's scenes with his mother make me side-eye the choice to reunite him with his father even more. Do they honestly believe they can let her, a woman who must have known this man for years, utter the words "Jamie... your father, he is who he is. And he is never, ever, ever gonna change" and still make me believe that this one time things will suddenly be different just because Ted Lasso thinks that forgiveness would be the more graceful option. [insert expletive of your choice]
And that's not even touching on stuff like Jamie's dad "gifting" him a Dutch prostitute to lose his virginity. And the dialogue following this reveal: ROY: Jesus. Must have been traumatizing. - JAMIE: No. She loved it. Oh, for me... Sorry, me, you mean. Uh, no. I-I don't know. I don't remember. How do you write *that* with the intention of bringing that... stain... back into the life of his son? [insert more expletives of your choice]
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Absolutely don't understand what they were thinking with regard to Nate's arc. I quite liked seeing him at West Ham. Then, suddenly, they dropped the entire thing like a hot potato once he got with Jade. Maybe if the Nate/Jade moments had been more emotionally resonant with me, I could have appreciated them complementing the picture of a complex character but it mostly came off as wishy-washy and not particularly engaging. Nick Mohammed deserved so much more.
I would probably watch a show about a Richmond women's team. Bring Shannon back. Bring Trent back as... something... within the club. Communications manager? That's the job several fanfics gave him. Bring in some female trainers. Make it gay.
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And yes, what was with Nate's arc? I was ready to follow them where they were going and then this abrupt shift that makes no sense in anyone's life, much less someone who had been missing that level of challenge for so long.
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Nate truly deserved a better story. Can't believe that this is what they always had in store for him. I was absolutely fine with him not doing an apology dance for Ted (which several fans wanted to see) but it was an odd choice that his West Ham career suddenly went nowhere once Rupert tried to undermine the Nate/Jade relationship. I really wanted to see him live with his choice to leave Richmond behind, in all the good and all the bad ways.
Apparently I'm still mad
He could have just chewed out Rupert, apologized, and taken another coaching job on a different team. Maybe show him successfully building a core coaching group using some of Ted's philosophy or something.
And REBECCA. Even more furious about this. Boo-hoo she wants a family, she's so LONELY with her isolating woman power! I legitimately thought she'd end up adopting and building her own family. But no, random boat man to the rescue. I really wanted her to solve her own (self-created, because she HAD a family) issue and just get over the family thing or adopt.
I liked Trent. And the weird vibes between Jamie, Roy, and Keeley but they should have been a thruple by the end.
Re: Apparently I'm still mad
Yeah, the boat man thing was just too undeveloped for that to be any kind of substitute for what a lot of people wanted. It was kind of like they thought giving her what some fans wanted, just with an entirely different person we know next to nothing about, would be satisfying? Er, no.
Re: Apparently I'm still mad
Re: Apparently I'm still mad
Thinking about it, I might generally have been more open to the idea of Boat Guy if the psychic had been wrong all along. If they'd chosen to somehow cleverly subvert those predictions instead and let Rebecca go her own path, free of outside meddling. It was such a weird storytelling choice, IMHO, hanging like a sword of Damocles over everything.
Re: Apparently I'm still mad
Yes! I agree. And yeah, I was also not fond of the psychic thing. I felt they could have done more with Rebecca and her mom, or, as you suggested, flipped that by having her become an aunt in a different way.
Re: Apparently I'm still mad
I would have loved that!
Re: Apparently I'm still mad
And without any proof that the club environment had changed / the microaggressions were going to stop. It's like he was supposed to "rise above" everyone else's attitude to him, through the power of his own positive thinking and self-esteem?? /o\ /o\ /o\
Maybe show him successfully building a core coaching group using some of Ted's philosophy or something.
That would have been awesome! And building bridges with the Richmond club, and re-establishing those friendships, too.
Re: Apparently I'm still mad
"Don't fight back, fight forward." .____.
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Ah well, I'll always have the first two seasons.
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So it bothered me from an immersed-in-the-story POV, but it was entertaining on a more shallow level, if that makes any sense? (Ftr, I'm not in the fandom, though I've read a few Ted/Trent fics.)
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Shipping issues aside (and they seemed to actively relish in disappointing the Tedbecca fans), we didn't get as much Roy-Phoebe or practically anything much about Roy's private life. Sam didn't get his own arc after telling Rebecca last season that he would only get more wonderful -- and despite being a fan favorite. For example, I saw many fans wish for a Sam romance with Simi, the chef at Ola's. Obviously, we all wanted more Ted. The expectation that the show would stay true to its Romcommunism core when, after all, the only couples that got their happy ending were either newly established (Rebecca/Boat Guy, Jade/Nate) or widely interpreted as abusive (Beard/Jane) and, as such, none that people were already actively invested in at the start of the season.
Absolutely agree with you re: Roy, by the way. He used to be my second favorite TL character and I really disliked what they did with him in this season. He was a good support during Jamie's arc but, on his own, he seemed so hollow. While I thought that his reasons for the separation made sense, I really wanted to see him work through his issues throughout the season, not starting to do it at its end. In that context: I also wanted *so much* more Dr. Sharon.
I recently left the fandom because the characters simply don't compel me like they used to. Plus, the knowledge that the writers' room didn't care about the Michelle/Jake messiness or the Beard/Jane criticism, to begin with, simply made me aware that it was never the kind of show that I wanted it to be. Which is fine, obviously, but still a little disappointing because I did (and still do) really love the first two seasons. (You're so valid for reading Ted/Trent, by the way! There's a lot of really great stuff out there.)
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I guess there's two kinds of fan service: one where they take fans' wishes and opinions seriously and integrate them into the story, and one where they throw in a few scenes or a minor storyline hoping to make fans squee but without any intention of following through. I'm an old school fan with low expectations of TV, so I sometimes enjoy the latter, but it's hard to make it seem organic to the characters, and there's often a cost in terms of the cohesiveness of the show.
I'm so sorry you felt betrayed/got burnt by the writers' room. That sucks so much. :-(((
(In my fandoms, I tend to avoid any behind-the-scenes, TPTB or actor info, because I much prefer to connect directly with the show on my own terms. Death of the author, and all that. But even then, yeah, when the characters change in ways that don't work for you, it's always really hard.)
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I used to be that way with many of my shows before I joined online fandom, and yes, it made it easier to appreciate what I got. Now, if I develop a fixation, I usually do a deep dive and feel the involved parties out. There's typically a lot more love involved than disappointment. The closest I nowadays come to "Death of the Author" is by watching more obscure, older non-English language productions that rarely attract much English-speaking press or fan attention.
I'm actually not sure how I feel about fanservice in general but, I suppose, my first instinct is always one of pure delight because, at last, fandom isn't treated like a shameful secret anymore. Then again, I prefer an intact fourth wall between me and the people and minds I adore because my fannish desires do not always reflect the things I actually want to see. Plus, I don't like the feeling of being observed while I'm playing in my little sandbox.
If I may ask: Do you actively try to avoid this BTS knowledge while engaging with other fans about the shows you watch, or do you engage with them in situations and contexts where this BTS knowledge is either absent or unneeded? I genuinely find it hard to imagine fandom spaces that don't also invite discussions of all these other aspects but I'm guessing your fandom environment might already be cultivated in a way corresponding to your preferences.
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Yes, both of these things. Plus, I really enjoy non-canon pairings -- as soon as something becomes officially canon, the probability wave collapses, and there's less space to play. (I tend to write canon setting fic, rather than AUs, so.) My current fandom is the Cdrama Guardian, which is a show based on a m/m novel. Because of censorship, the pairing isn't officially canon, but the entire story is built around them, and it's (as one person described it) a firehose of slash. I love it! :D
(I also love actual queer rep, of course! I just don't tend to get fannish about it in the writing-fic kind of way.)
Do you actively try to avoid this BTS knowledge while engaging with other fans about the shows you watch, or do you engage with them in situations and contexts where this BTS knowledge is either absent or unneeded? I genuinely find it hard to imagine fandom spaces that don't also invite discussions of all these other aspects but I'm guessing your fandom environment might already be cultivated in a way corresponding to your preferences.
Ha! Yeah, it's a weird mode of engagement in this day and age. My strategy is to stick to Dreamwidth, only follow people who don't talk about the BTS stuff on their journals (or who cut-tag, or tag consistently enough that I can filter it out), and I have a plug-in for Firefox that replaces the actor's names with a different text string, so if I see that, I start skimming or back button.
It started because I was trying to avoid falling into any more RPS pairings (my partner's squicked by RPS, and I'm someone who can't shut up about my fandoms, lol), but now I find that thinking about BTS stuff disrupts my suspension of disbelief to the point it makes it hard to watch the show in an immersive way. (I don't want to be thinking about the acting or the production; I want to be feeling the characters. If that makes sense.) I don't have this problem nearly as much with shows I'm not fannish about, though.
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I want them to have ended with Ted facetiming the team, like he spent the rest of the show facetiming his kid.
Ha! That would be a great idea.
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Yeah, I certainly went in with very high expectations.
I guess it comes down to the way the first two seasons were built around Ted's arc, with the panic attacks, his divorce, his dad, and "I never quit," while the third season (although it had a lot of fun moments) felt like it never quite cohered the same way, for me. (But I have only watched it once. I should give it another try, maybe.)
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Personally I was most disappointed by the lack of Roy/Jamie/Keeley endgame, though I didn't REALLY think they would do something that cool lmao. It just seemed like they were potentially inching there through the whole season and I was like 👀 but sadly no dice. What I was genuinely surprised about though was them not making Ted/Rebecca endgame?? I had no real skin in that game like I wasn't out here reading Ted/Rebecca fic or anything but it genuinely seemed like they were setting them up to be endgame, so no idea why they dropped the ball there. I guess because they planned to send Ted home they didn't want to tie them up like that?? (Me giving the writers the benefit of the doubt that they went into any of this with any foresight lol)
I did like Trent a lot, which seems to be the common sentiment haha. (If I was going to ship Ted with anyone it'd probably be Trent/Ted.) I'm glad they made him gay/he got to have that conversation with Colin, that was a nice scene. And I loved Trent just hanging out with them in the office and working his way into the gang. Otherwise yeah a lot of season 3 felt like...a problem would crop up just for the sake of drama and then be neatly solved 45 minutes later. Keeley's relationship drama, Nate's storyline, Ted sort of just coasting along the whole season with nothing to really do...
All that being said I'd totally watch a spin-off if they did one anyway lol
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Had they kept Keeley single they might have felt more pressure to explain why she wasn't going back to either Jamie or Roy. Yet if they introduced another man into the picture, that would have complicated the threesome setup. Instead they set her up with a woman, which would be seen as less threatening and also fan service for many viewers.
They definitely seemed to be teasing Ted/Rebecca until the last 20 minutes of the season, as if afraid they'd lose part of the audience if they didn't.