The Lasso Way

Marissa  

Hello and welcome to the dog track greyhounds This is Richmond till we die a conversation about the Apple TV plus show Ted lasso. If it wasn't already clear by the existence of this podcast, Ted lasso has found his way into our homes and into our hearts. And we're so excited to share our thoughts about the show. As we discuss Episode One, the pilot.

Brett  

I'm Marissa. I don't love podcasts, but I love Ted lasso. I'm Brett. I do love podcasts. And I love Ted lasso. 

Christian  

I'm Christian and I love watching soccer and I'm very excited to come here today to talk about fictional soccer.

Brett  

Speaking of soccer Christian, I noticed that you are again wearing more soccer gear but believe it would you tell us a little bit about what you're wearing today 

Christian  

 Today I'm going with the old school long sleeve 2009 Portland Timbers red and white kit from their first year in MLS. 

Marissa  

Red for the rose city. 

Christian  

Yes. It's also got like little thorns on is very thematic layers. 

Brett  

What year would you say it was from?

Christian  

2009. 

Brett  

It looks like it's from 2009 

Christian  

The year of our Lord and Savior.

Marissa  

But they're not ready anymore. Are they?

Christian  

Yeah, green and red. Oh, and soccer teams like they always have to alternate color that sometimes doesn't match anything else they do. So just for funsies Yep, fundies.

Brett  

So before we get to the main part of our discussion today, we want to remind everyone what happened in this episode, just in case you haven't watched it recently.

Christian  

We opened in Rebecca's office to learn that she has just gone through a nasty divorce and is now the owner of football club AFC Richmond.

Marissa  

As one of her first official acts as owner she fires the current manager and tells her assistant Higgins that she's already hired a replacement. One that she secretly hopes will destroy the club her ex husband, who was the previous owner

Brett  

loves so much. Meanwhile, Ted and coach beard are flying to London to start their jobs as English Premier League Soccer Coaches even though neither of them have ever coached soccer before.

Christian  

Shortly after arriving in London, Ted meets Nate, Rebecca and Higgins is surprised to learn that he's expected to introduce himself at a press conference right away.

Marissa  

After the disastrous press conference, Ted meets his players and Keely in the team locker room. Ted and coach beard take a moment to rearrange their office space and then head home to their adorable English flats.

Brett  

Once inside, Ted calls his family and we find out that one of the reasons he has accepted this job is to give his wife Michelle some space in an effort to repair their relationship. And everyone cries

Christian  

and everyone cries and that is all the recap we're going to give you. For this episode, we want to discuss the hearts that each main character is carrying with them. And it's nuts because it's this show that has a huge cast. And then at the end of just 20 or 30 minutes. We understand so much more about each character after just one episode. But before we get into the serious stuff, we need to talk a little bit about soccer. Are you guys okay with that? Yeah, yep.

Unknown Speaker  

Okay.

Christian  

Soccer, sir. For each episode, we want to briefly discuss the most convincing and least convincing soccer thing that we see. today. I want to start with the least convincing soccer thing. And I'm going to do this from a place of self awareness. Just for the record, I understand that I'm going to sound like people who watch Hamilton and then say, well, it's not historically accurate. And you're like, Yeah, well, you know, once Jefferson, the happy Negro came down the stairs singing like we probably were gonna suspend some of our belief about what was going on here and understand the liberties that were being taken. Nonetheless, I would like to say there's a 0% chance that the owner of our English Premier League Soccer Club is going to purposefully tank the season and get relegated. I can't buy it. I don't buy it. 

Brett  

Why is that? 

Christian  

Because there's too much money at stake. So in England and in a lot of European countries, soccer is set up as a table as a kind of pyramids, there are different levels. And in England, there are 20 teams in the top level, it just so happens, it's like the most lucrative league in the entire world. The bottom three teams every year, they get sent down to the league below them, which ends up being a giant demotion, the three teams at the top of the league below them then get to come up and try to stay up for another year. And it's estimated that if you're one of the teams that is in that second division, if you can come up and stay up for two years, that is worth an extra $500 million to your bottom line, so I don't know that I'm buying that someone is just gonna allow themselves to go down and flush all that money.

Marissa  

I think that takes us to though like the the real the realistic part of Rebecca has hurt though as we meet her because it's not it's not about the money for her.

Christian  

She really is burning the house down or trying to she really is she has a desire to. I have that off my chest. And I do feel better. Somewhat, I'm going to show some restraint and try not to bring that up every episode from here on out, though it might come up one more time. That being said, even though the premise of the show is totally unbelievable. The soccer part is actually really believable, like the fact that they make this feel like a real soccer club.

Brett  

Yeah, they do a lot to build the environment. I mean, even down to the locker room, we spend a lot of time there, but just all the branding and the Latin motto that's on the wall and just the logo being everywhere. And it's all very branded, which is very English Premier League.

Christian  

Yeah, a big part of it is they co opted the environment. So when they went to film the show, like they film it in a stadium that an English English Premier League club plays in, so they didn't go get a high school like they didn't build a set. They went in the exterior shots of the stadium like that is actual Selhurst Park that Crystal Palace plays in. That is their locker room. And there are times where, while they've done a very good job with the branding, there's some times where the like Crystal Palace-ness shows through. So in this scene where Ted and coach beard are walking into the stadium, and they're talking about the apocryphal origins of the game of soccer, you'll see these vendor booths that have Eagles on them. And that's because Crystal Palace is the Eagles. And so there are a couple of those like easter eggs that you see as well as the fact that Crystal Palace ends up in the sports the actual legit sports part of the show. They tend to play a part in that.

Brett  

Yeah, their first match is against Crystal Palace.

Christian  

Yeah. And Crystal Palace shows up again later in the season as well, which is fun, and a palace made out of crystal seems mighty fragile. If you ask me. 

Brett  

It does. 

Christian  

The funny thing about Crystal Palace is while there is no team that would act the way this team x Crystal Palace might be the closest like it has American owners and they do funny things. So they have this bald eagle that flies around the stadium like a real live bald eagle mascot. Back in the day. Crystal Palace is cheerleaders, which is a huge taboo to have cheerleaders do any other clubs even have cheerleaders, the Houston Dynamo do but like that's, 

Brett  

That's an American. 

Christian  

I mean, barely American that's like Texas. So who even knows? Whoa, whoa, hold on. Hey. But I mean, the Crystal Palace cheerleaders back in the day, they did their own harlem shake video. So the whole thing is very, not proper English. The Queen would not approve.

Brett  

So now I want to take us back to the beginning of the episode, the very beginning of the episode, where we hear the first thing that we hear is the song God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols. And when we were discussing this song, before we started taping, Christian mentioned that he thought this was an interesting choice for a song to start the show, because I thought it was weird. Yes. And why was that? 

Christian  

Because it seems like an in group conversation that people in England are having that they're very passionate about. And here comes like Ted lasso. He-Hawing and be bopping on to the scene? 

Brett  

Yeah, I mean, what the song itself was extremely controversial. When it was released, it was banned from the BBC Radio. And so I think that that controversy that surrounds the song maybe kind of mirrors the controversy that we see with Ted being hired as someone who is unqualified to do this job, supposedly,

Christian  

And I can understand the passion of the song and the dustup. You know, this idea that like the royal family is a drain on society and in resources, like I as a United States citizen, would not be very happy if my tax dollars were going to like house and feed and clothe the Kardashians. Like it's annoying enough that they take up as much disposable income and attention as they do. So, like, I mean, the Sex Pistols like they make a good point and I could see how people would have feelings about that. Especially when They named the song God Save the Queen. That was a seemed like a purposeful dig. Well,

Brett  

I think the what it really what it really does when you think about that way is it really underscores the fish out of water. Everyone calls this show. It's a fish out of water comedy, which is like the most productive way of kind of talking about it. But I do think that this really underscores the differences that we're going to see between Ted's folksiness and kind of proper English culture and how that kind of clashes and how each kind of grows toward the other in certain ways. The next thing that happens right after we hear that song as we come into Rebecca's office, and she and Higgins are staring at this piece of art, and she offers it to Higgins. And he says it's a Hockney, it's probably worth a million pounds. And so to me, that's interesting for a couple of reasons. One is that sort of we talked about this earlier. But the fact that Rebecca is just willing to give away this valuable piece of art, I think, is supposed to show her icy ethos as a person. But really, it's sort of revealing how she's hurting and how she really just wants to she doesn't want anything to do with this painting that she and Rupert purchased together. 

Christian  

Well, it seems like she's also blowing her ambivalence out of proportion. To cover some things up. 

Brett  

She's, she's being too cool. Yeah, yeah. But when you look at this, this piece of art as a piece of pop culture, Hockney was a major figure in the pop art movement of the 60s. And he himself is a is a gay man. And he has a painting based on a Walt Whitman poem, that is called we two boys together clinging. And so I think that even even on the subconscious level, we have this piece of art, which is, which is a drawing of a football player, a soccer player, that sort of subverting traditional ideas of masculinity, which the show does a lot as well in different ways.

Marissa  

Oh, yeah, we get a lot of that right at the beginning, when Rebecca gets rid of the first manager, George, who we never see again, and rightly so. Because he represents all that is anti Ted, his sexism, homophobia, misogyny, they don't belong in this clubhouse anymore. And Rebecca gets rid of him and really kicks him right in the balls.

Brett  

With an excellent Oasis joke.

Christian  

That was a good joke. It was a it was a deep cut. But I have laughed multiple times. I think it's interesting to look at TED as a sort of Walt Whitman character, and there's a lot about them, that's not the same, but just Walt Whitman as a person who feels deeply. And that feeling does for him, much like we see with Ted and some of the other characters coming out of pain, like, it was really difficult, I'm sure in the Civil War era to to be a gay man. And I was reading about how white women went. And during the Civil War, like volunteered at a hospital, and now just be like, the most intense heartbreaking thing ever. And he was able to sort of absorb all of like, everything, like I'm leaving them up at arms right now, like all of that stuff, and then turn it into to something that people consider like, quintessential American art, which was also fairly racy and got banned and controversial. And

Brett  

Leaves of Grass.

Christian  

Yeah, very, very God Save the Queen in some ways.

Brett  

Yeah. Well, interestingly enough, there's another wall women thread that's in this episode. It occurs a little bit later, in this episode, where Ted and coach beard are on the plane. And they they both kind of have their books that they're reading because that's what you do on a plane, you take a book and you read and that's like the place people read. The book that we see on Ted seat is the Dharma bomb

Christian  

people used to read in the bathroom, but now we have cell phones. So it's all we get our cell phones. Yeah, through Candy Crush Saga.

Brett  

So yeah, Ted's reading the Dharma bums, by jack Kerouac and jack Kerouac is probably best known for his book on the road. And the Dharma bums was published right after that. But this was part of the Beat Generation, which kind of existed alongside the pop art movements and the Beat Generation poets and writers and authors were heavily inspired by authors and poets like Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson, just dog ear, the Walt Whitman vibes in your brain, because there it's gonna pay off later in the season.

Christian  

Yeah, and read a poem. It wouldn't kill you. Yeah. And there's a nice juxtaposition there. Ted is kind of he on his way over to England, and yet he's reading like this deep kind of literary stuff. And then here's coach beard who is not reading philosophy, but instead taking his actual job very seriously, which, that's a good look for him.

Brett  

Coach beard has open the book, inverting the pyramid by Jonathan Wilson, which is a very well known and lauded book about soccer tactics. Every serious soccer person has read it. Have you read it? No,

Christian  

I've never even had it in my presence before.

Brett  

I'll buy it for you for Christmas. Thanks, you will get it. It's on tape now. So I have to do it.

Marissa  

It just goes to show that beard is more practical in his approach to their relationship and how they coach together. And the show is Ted lasso, right? And we get all this like, exposure to who Ted is with a little blip about, you know, his little dancing with his team. And you know, we're sort of introduced to him with his cute little mustache, but beard is just tagging along and we don't we know nothing about what his story is right. But we can see how he's so much more practical already in his studying the inverting the pyramid and also on his lap in on the airplane is coaching soccer for Dummies. So I mean, he's not too proud either to just really do the work. He's there to do the work. Dang it.

Brett  

And to make sure Ted does the work,

Christian  

I would say to make sure the work rubs off on Ted.

Marissa  

I think he knows you knows his friend well enough to know that like he needs to be the one reading soccer for Dummies.

Christian  

Yes, they're good. That's what makes them a good team.

Marissa  

Yes, work husbands. They they're lovely pair of work husbands

Brett  

or Marisa. You mentioned the the dancing segment that they show on the Support Center segment. And it's interesting. It was interesting to me that the show cast Ted as the head coach of the Wichita State Shockers football team, which if you don't follow college football, that is not a team that exists.

Christian  

Like I don't know, how did that make you feel any kind of way when you saw Wichita State? So we live an hour 30 minutes all of us from Wichita State University. What did you think when that first showed up?

Marissa  

I laughed really hard. And I was super excited to see Kansas represented on an Apple TV show. But I've been also just like, you know, kind of makes you giggle but then also makes you sad, because if you know anything about Wichita state's football history, there's a reason why they don't have a team.

Christian  

Yeah, so it goes back to 1970. The team was flying to Utah to play a game and they were kind of in two different planes. And one of the planes crashed, and 31 people died in that crash. So it was just kind of I don't know when it came up, but I wasn't expecting it to come up. I was kind of conflicted about like, what does this mean? And am I can I laugh at this, the fact that like, this is where he coached? So I decided to and in looking into it, it's a little bit of a funny situation. So Sudeikis just wanted a Kansas School. Like that's what he wanted. And so they kind of picked Wichita State, because it didn't have a football program. But warner brothers went to sort of an intermediary, like someone who represented Wichita State and just asked, you know, can we use your stuff in two scenes in this show? And Wichita State said, Yes, as long as like we get the final check off on what you actually used and he's like, Okay, and so they paid wichita state money. And then it ends up like being this big, huge viral thing that like 11 million people like downloaded the Wichita State promo video for Ted last on the internet and stuff. And so it worked out like I think most Kansas people in the end are happy about it, except for maybe Pittsburgh state fans. Because the Pittsburg State gorillas love them some football in southeast Kansas, and they've actually been really good at football, and I think they probably would have liked them a little table so

Marissa  

well. I mean, k states also like okay,

Christian  

yeah, I just don't know that you could have used them because they already have a Hall of Fame coach that took them from horrible to good. So

Marissa  

plus, no one wants to see purple. Just

Brett  

the color engine. Sorry, purple.

Christian  

Back to some serious business, all of these people and all of the ways in which they hurt like there. There's a lot of hurt in this show.

Brett  

Yeah, there's a lot of hurt. There's a lot of shame. A lot of insecurity,

Marissa  

like that saying goes though. hurt people. hurt people. Oh,

Christian  

that is true. But so Yes, that is true. The other there's no saying for this. Also, I'll make one, Ted lassos authenticity brings everybody's hearts to the surface. Like, it's, it's crazy how often he will say something or ask something. And it paralyzes people because it like, brings their thing to the top no matter how hard they're trying to shove it down.

Brett  

His directness with people really catches them off guard. And I think that happens to us as Americans. But it seems like it may be even more so for all of these English people that he's meeting for the first time and encountering and having conversations with

Christian  

us kind of covered up with the idea of them, not understanding him. But I think actually, they do understand him on a very deep level. So like Trump prim, the reporter, Ted says nice glasses, and here's this do that, obviously, like has a very manicured appearance, but giving him an authentic compliment of something that he's probably really thought about and put a lot of effort into, like, stops him in his tracks. Or when he talks to Nate and he just asked Nate, his name, Nate does not know how to respond, how do we exist in a space where somebody wants to know something about him and see him as an individual. And so there's just the way in which Ted Lascaux gets himself in people's space, they find it really hard to then deal with him.

Brett  

Yeah, his interaction with Nate where he just immediately asks him, his name is one of my favorite instances of emotional quotient or intelligence that is, in this episode, have you read any reviews or anything about the show, you've seen that term thrown around, but that's like a very subtle thing that makes a very big impact on Nate.

Marissa  

I really love the the moment we get with Roy and Ted at the end of the episode because he's, he's angry, he's, he's upset that it's the end of his career and, and he says, he's, he's gonna be coached by Ronald McDonald. But you know, to take that and he he doesn't internalize that he's not getting upset by that. But he turns to beard and what does he say? He thinks he's mad now,

Brett  

which we went over. Right. And

Marissa  

that's kind of like where, where they all are, right? That's where we're starting from. And like Krishna was saying, kind of anytime Ted encounter someone in this pilot, all of a sudden, we see something very real about them as a character as a human. I really like to when he he has the moment in the locker room with Keeley because he's just kind of walking around the locker room. Taking in the space. He says he loves locker rooms, right. But he also wants to make this space better. So he has, he has a some tape with him. And he he covers up some, you know, sensitive parts of Kelly that are hanging in Jamie's locker, when she walks in, and she's kind of you know, she's kind of moved by that she sees it and she thinks like, Oh, he's like, respecting me and trying to give me a space in here. That's, that's more than just me and my huge knockers.

Christian  

So the crazy thing about that scene is, she sees that, like, he covers her up, and she like smiles like she's warmed by that. The part that she can't deal with that short circuits. Her is when he says, like to hang the sign. And he says, nice teamwork. And he like freezes her. And she gives this awkward laugh. And if you're keeping track at home, like Kelly has an entire language that she is able to speak with her laughs like, I don't know if Juno Temple did on purpose or an accident, or if they like, turn the volume up on her mic, like when she was when she was laughing or giggling or whatever. But in that moment, she has a forced laugh. And it's just like, you would think, Oh, you know, this person, like seeing me without clothes on and caring for me. Like that would be a disarming thing. It wasn't that. I guess she was just like used to that. But when he says hey, way to be a good teammate, that Meltzer

Marissa  

Yeah, and she too. I mean, I think she's really searching for meaning outside of how she looks right. And so we kind of see that right away with Ted that he gives her this opportunity to be a part of something that's beyond just her just her body and her look. So I really I enjoy that interaction. And I just I really love the TED and Kelly relationship as it evolves.

Brett  

Yeah, I was struck by how really Ted and Kelly are the only ones who seem to build any kind of rapport in their first enter in their first real interaction with each other. Obviously, Coach beard is the exception because he already knows Ted, but they're the only ones you can Feeling like Oh, they might have a relation, like a good relationship at the end of this episode, or at least the start of one. And going back to what you said about sort of the way Ted respects her body, and she's oddly warmed by him sort of like censoring her photos that Jamie has in his locker. That's probably a nice feeling for her to because in English football, especially, there's this sort of the wives and girlfriends of footballers scene. And that's like, what the British tabloid media is all about, kind of like exposing and talking about these women's lives. Like they're just, they're just accessories to these professional football players.

Marissa  

Well, we see that too, with Rebecca, like, the very first thing we see in her office is a tabloid and how she's being portrayed. And we get a glimpse into that life too. And you can understand why she wants to burn it all down, and she doesn't really have any regard for maybe the $500 million, that she might be losing the club because she just wants to seek revenge and to to make her ex just suffer as much as she can.

Christian  

The two women are the strongest characters at their core. And they are also trapped in the same prison like that wives and girlfriends thing. There is a term in England called Wags, and it's kind of a derogatory term, like you're saying that it's an accessorizing thing. Where that tabloid culture just like follows them around and defines them by these famous men that they are married to and harasses them incessantly. And so it's something that we don't see quite as much in the United States like, I don't know, LeBron James wife's name, like I there are very few spouses of

Marissa  

ayesha curry. She's got her own, you know, like, cooking shows, really,

Christian  

I need to watch more Basketball Wives. But but funny you mentioned that like the first before there was Basketball Wives in the United States. There was Wags botique in England, where they would like put these wives and girlfriends together and they would compete to run the shops. funny little like side trail. Roy can't. There's a big portion of a soccer player named Roy Keane, that's just like, dumped into him who has a really good, really popular but also really gruff player. And there was a point in time where he played for Manchester United like one of the biggest clubs in the world and he like, lashed out at the wives and girlfriends of the players after Manchester United had a year where they played Super poorly. So he, this Roy Kant character is based off of somebody who was very derisive toward wives and girlfriends of footballers.

Brett  

I did not know that about Roy Keane. I think it's interesting that sort of, we'll see Roy kind of grit like he's very gruff. And he seems like a person who could kind of embody maybe a not so not so pleasant type of masculinity. But we'll see in the show how he kind of really is like, has a soft heart. But I think the show is really great in the way that it opposes this idea of toxic masculinity or just traditional masculinity. Even after Ted's conversation with Roy Kent, he turns to coach beard and he says the last time I saw eyes like that they were going head to head with Roy Scheider. And then beard says, oh, jaws and Ted says no, all that jazz, which is just a great demonstration of Ted's love and affinity for musical theater, which is just another way that the show continues to subvert sort of the traditional, like hyper masculine athletic culture.

Marissa  

Well, speaking of hyper masculine and athletic, we have Jamie tart. And his his interaction is pretty much what you would expect from that type of character, right? Who is as Nate describes him, he's he's really great at football. And Ted says, Yeah, I know those guys. It is just like, it's one of those moments where we all know those guys, right? And so but Ted doesn't, you can just see it in his eyes. It's like Well, I'm not gonna let him just continue to be one of those guys and, and that's even before he and Jamie even exchanged words like Ted's already got a mission and you can see it in his eyes. But, you know, he doesn't he doesn't try to put any parameters or expectations on Jamie as as he leaves you know, mid, meeting the coaches for the first time. And we see his sort of narcissism and need to be important and loved and cared for as he heads out to his waxing appointment. But we can just see here that that Ted's ready to tackle this head on and really try and make Jamie understand it. He's part of the team and not the entire team. We talked about how beards approach to coaching or, or to this partnership is very practical. Whereas we see Ted getting really excited about opportunities to really sort of dig into making people better. And, you know, he'll say over and over again, he's not concerned with wins and losses. And, and we see that the wins and losses that really matter to Ted are those relationships that he's building with these people who are in the clubhouse. And in the locker room, really, beard and the lasso are

Christian  

if you separate out like the two aspects of phil jackson when he was with the Chicago Bulls, because he was a coach who would give people books, he was a coach that allowed Dennis Rodman to go to Las Vegas, like during the NBA Finals to have a little like vacation. He would allow him like little times to peace out, he was able to sort of manage Michael Jordan and manage these egos and then bring along guys and help them to be role players. But he was only really able to do that with the bowls. And then some with the Lakers. He had other times where you like tried to do like with the Knicks and just couldn't and so it's almost like, lasso and beard are are taken like those two parts of phil jackson that like tactical excellence, and the man management and combine them are separated them out out of one person.

Marissa  

Yeah, we also seem to the short little montage of beard and lasso, putting their desks together and decorating their office, right, can we call it decorating, I guess putting their office together, we see that pyramid of success. That leads us back to another great coach, john wooden, and he's known for his little tiny inspirational messages to his players, too. So we kind of see that this is this is maybe the type of coach that Ted is. We're looking, we're looking more for a Coach Wooden then. Oh, who's the angry Indiana guy,

Christian  

bobby knight?

Marissa  

Yes.

Christian  

One fact about that pyramid. Jason Sudeikis, played a lot of basketball, but did not really start utilizing the pyramid of success until he started incorporating that into how he worked with his fellow teammates on the improv scene. 

Brett  

And speakingof Sudeikis, and improv and jokes, I like the way that Ted throws these jokes out to folks as he meets them. Even in his even in the beginning of his conversations with folks. I'm thinking of one scene in particular, where he's talking to Rebecca, right when he first meets her and she says, Would you like a tour and she's obviously meaning of the clubhouse and of the club and the stadium space. And he says, Oh, I'd love to see Abbey Road. When you first hear that you kind of think oh, like that's a silly comment that is supposed to sort of expose his ineptitude or his kind of yeehaw demeanor. But I think the more we get to know Ted, the more I think that that's maybe him kind of putting these jokes out there and kind of trying to warn people to see how they're responding to him and to kind of see how much work there is to do or sort of how they're going to relate to one another. Because he says that to Rebecca, and she's completely unfazed by that. Just a few minutes later, she tells him the story about how the stadium is maybe haunted. And she says, Do you believe in ghosts Ted? And he says, Yeah, but I think mainly, they just need to believe in themselves, which is kind of the whole ethos of the show, Rachel. So I don't know what y'all think about that.

Christian  

As someone who tells a lot of dad jokes, I like the idea that they could be used as an evaluative tool. So I'm going to try to employ that. But as much as like that, if that's the case, I find it interesting that the dad joke isn't the thing that gets to her. Like the thing that gets to her is when he simply just says like she explains who Rupert is. And he says all Yeah, like I heard about that. How are you holding up? That's I think when it's the one time in the whole entire thing where her anger and everything that she's putting out front drops away for a second

Brett  

yet she's put back on her heels just that simple question really throws her for a loop. And she it takes her a second but she kind of re composes herself and then she says Oh, it's time for your press conference now.

Christian  

Yeah, throws them to the wolves.

Brett  

Yeah. Which is not very nice Rebecca

Christian  

everybody hurts everybody cries sometime and we've gone through pretty much how everybody's hurting except for Ted lasso cuz that dude is is hurting and they kind of get you with a setup because I noticed on rewatch that. One of the things I sort of highlight is Ted having his like family's picture on his phone, so from the very beginning, they put this like seed in your mind that he really loves his family. And then when you get to the end, you realize that that like that is tearing him up and pushing them away and like he doesn't know what to do, aside from fly across the ocean.

Brett  

Yeah, I was really heartbroken during the office decorating slash rearranging scene, when he's pulling, they're pulling out all of these like legendary mythological American sports things. But then in the midst of that he has this picture that his son has drawn him of his son being on his shoulders after a game has been after a game is over, or something. And he you know, he's places it up on his desk. And that's at once you get to the end of the episode and realize what's happening in that family unit. It's, it's sad.

Christian  

Yeah. And we can talk about how folksy and how funny Sudeikis is to take on this whole persona. But I think we also need to highlight like that dude acts his butt off in that last scene, because one of the things that they do that just makes it kill is he carries the entire load. He's having a conversation with his wife, but you never hear her. You never see her. There's never a split screen. all you hear is his thoughts. And now he is trying to react to whatever it is that she's saying. And it's almost as though the way that they set that up, leaves him incredibly exposed in the same way or I guess even more than he was exposing everybody else's hurts through his folksiness.

Marissa  

Yeah, and then just also makes me think like, what the hell is wrong with Michelle?

Christian  

There is a point where we meet her later. And she seems like she's been dropped in from another planet, like everybody else is sort of in, you know, like, slightly alternate, funny cartoon world. And she, she's very serious.

Marissa  

Who wouldn't want to be married to Ted laughs Oh,

Brett  

hold on one second.

Marissa  

And that must

Christian  

say, I couldn't see, I could understand how that face could become very punchable. If you had to live with it.

Brett  

We sort of find that Ted is his optimism and his encouragement can also easily become a mask for his, his feelings deep down. And he's so busy kind of making folks realize their issues that they don't have time to realize how he's covering up his own stuff. And so no one is ever able to kind of excavate his hurts because he's constantly putting people on the defensive, but in a good way.

Marissa  

Yeah, I think too, we get this first little peek at moments where he isn't comfortable or using in control. And he kind of, you know, he has, there's almost this like, foreshadowing this audio cue where he's in with the press, and he just kind of can't take it on at that moment. And we really think, you know, oh, there's this funny moment. Oh, and then then he spits out the water and it just kind of this release of all that tension. But clearly, that's not, you know, that's not a real release. And he's still carrying that in in there somewhere.

Brett  

We can't we must not forget to talk about the belief sign, which kind of becomes an icon, iconic image on the show. It's very Friday Night Lights, like clear eyes, full hearts. I think that that's as much a reminder to Ted as it is to his players and to the other people in the clubhouse and in the locker room.

Marissa  

I also think it's very, it was very like American right to like, put up a sign that just says like, believe, like kind of fairy tale esque and, and we learn that these fans in this town in this, this club, like they're not taught to like just believe in something will happen. That's like a very American idea. So I feel like he's also bringing in this American feeling touchy feely type of thing into maybe a colder British environment.

Christian  

I think in season two, he actually paints believe on repurposed wood, and adds two more words to it. So like, believe, feel,

Marissa  

pray, pray.

Live, laugh, love. Believe.

Christian  

I will say I did not leave unscathed fom the witticism of Ted Lasso When he is on the airplane and talking to coach beard and he says, "Hey, taking on a challenge is a lot like riding a horse. If you're comfortable while you're doing it, you're probably doing it wrong." I gotta say as somebody who usually tries to avoid things that I'm not good at, it was a reminder for me that, like, yeah, you have to do try hard things sometimes, like try things that you're not good at. And just because you're not good at it, like, it doesn't mean that people will necessarily come to a worst like value judgment of you like in sometimes you just have to be able to get in there and do something different and do something new, even if you're horrible at it. And you might just become like a better person or even make other people better through that process.

Brett  

Well, since we're sharing our favorite quotes, here's one that I found really encouraging and valuable. It's kind of a throwaway line. But there's this point where Ted and coach beard are walking out to the pitch for training. And Ted is trying to learn all these words right after he says he doesn't know what gaffer or pitch means to coach beard was just kind of schooling him on all of these terms. And Ted says, All this vernacular, it's going to be tough. I'm going to get it though. And I just really appreciated his commitment to not just saying, Well, I'm just going to call it the field and practice and coach. He is he's in this space that is unfamiliar to him. But he is humble enough and aware enough to understand that. Not only does he need to learn this vernacular, but I think he wants to because I think that he knows it's going to help them connect with these folks that he's around just that much better. And so for me, it was a reminder to not let sort of pride or arrogance about thinking the way that you do something is best rule, rule all of your decisions are really your life but to to be able to take a step back and exercise a little bit of humility in in certain spaces and in certain situations.

Marisa  

That was really deep Brett, my one of my favorite quote, quotes. Well, I like a lot of quotes, this very quotable show, I think we talked about the ghost quote already, though, that was a good one. The need to believe in themselves and I just I really like Kelly Jones played by Juno Temple and I just like her delivery of things. And so this this isn't even like a quote, but I just like when she's talking about Jamie getting waxed. And she says he's surprisingly free. But the other the other one I love of hers is when she and Ted are are having their discussion and she says I never know how to react when a grown man beatboxes in front of me. And yeah, he just lets her ruminate on that for a while.

Brett  

which feels like she is verbally expressing how everyone has felt about their interactions with Ted so far. Like I never know how to react when someone just asked me how I'm doing. I never know how to react when someone asked me what my name is. She's kind of putting words to that, like that feeling of being struck by something you're not expecting.

Christian  

Did you guys know that there was a barbecue sighting in this episode? 

Marisa  

I saw it!

Brett  

Yeah, the t shirt. Does it happen during the Super depressing scene where Jason Sudeikis is acting his butt off. 

Christian  

It does. However, as a consumer and producer of fine smoked meats, I can say that barbecue doesn't make the sad go away. But it can help dampen the blow. And that particular shirt that he has on. It says Joe Arthur gate stack, KC barbecue. And for all of the folks outside of the Kansas City area. It's a reference to four different iconic barbecue restaurants. Kansas City Joe's are the rights gates barbecue and jack stack. All of which I have been to and three of those things have a favorite menu item of mine on their menu.

Marisa  

Let me guess. Burnt ends.

Christian  

Yes, Gates BBQ burnt and on bun.

Marisa  

Correct. Wow. Ding ding ding for me.

Christian  

Bonus. Hey, guys, I had a lot of fun. having a conversation with you that we're going to post on the internet.

Marisa  

Oh, that's so sweet. I did too.

Christian  

Can we watch another episode and do this again? In a couple weeks? Yeah. What

Brett  

do you think about watching Episode Two?

Christian  

Okay, that is a good idea. Before we go, can I share the non serious quote that I had highlighted from this episode? Yes. Okay. And I quote, Roy Kent. "If I don't hear silence, I'm gonna start punching dicks." Which is funny because you can't hear silence.

Marisa  

That's the funny part.

Brett  

That's our show. We'll be back on the dog track in two weeks with our conversation of Episode Two, titled biscuits. Check out the show notes for links to the articles, videos and resources we mentioned in this episode. This episode of Richmond till we die was brought to you by gin and kerosine Productions. It was produced by Christian Dashiell and Brett Callen. Fred also edited mixed composed music for this episode. It's been till we die is available on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, virtually every other podcast platform. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave a rating for a write a review for Richmond till we die on your podcast app of choice. We'd really appreciate your support greyhounds Okay, I'm Brett signing off for Marissa and Christian. Til next time, cheers, y'all.