Ted Lasso S1E3 - Trent Crimm: The Independent

Brett   

Welcome back to the dog track greyhounds. This is Richmond Til We Die and episode by episode conversation about the Apple TV plus show Ted lasso, where we explored the characters, their relationships to each other, and how they're able to make us laugh until we can hardly breathe one moment and then feel at the deepest parts of our hearts the next for this episode. Our conversation is all about episode Three titled: Trent Crimm: The Independent.

Marisa  

Hi, everybody, I'm Marissa. I'm warming up to podcasts. But I'm here because I love Ted last. Oh, and I absolutely love Trent Crimm's hair from The Independent.

Christian  

I'm Christian. I'm the soccer barbecue guy. And I'm not sure Trent Crimm from the independent actually likes either of those things.

Brett   

I'm Brett and y'all I've been thinking about Trent Crimm from the Independent's glasses a lot lately. His are just so stylish. Maybe I should get some like him. And speaking of stylish Christian what are you wearing today,

Christian  

This fine day, I am wearing a shirt from Norwich City FC, which is one of my probably my most beloved team in England. And this one's from a few years ago when they got promoted from the English championship the Second Division up to the Premier League so no spoilers, and no Jinx sees but people should just know it is possible to go up to the Premier League. Get relegated back down, go back up. hope is not lost. Just because you get relegated.

Brett   

Why would you say Norwich is your most beloved team.

Christian  

The green in yellow is nice. So it goes with all of my timber stuff. And naturally, yeah, it's not like one of the big rich teams that people glom on to and so I just kind of like fighting with the little guy. Also, They're the Canaries, which is a lovely pesky little mascot.

Marisa  

So Norwich, like is there a double of silent w in there?

Brett   

There is.

Marisa  

Alright, are y'all ready to recap this episode?

Christian  

Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. In the opening scene, we see Rebecca wake up and head into the office where she's furiously flipping through a copy of the sun, which does not contain incriminating black male photos of Ted and Keeley.

Marisa  

Keeley has received the photo via a friend. So she and Ted rushed to Rebecca's office to ask her to help resolve the issue. She agrees to kill the photo but informs Ted that he must be interviewed by Trent Crimm of the independent.

Brett   

Meanwhile, Roy is getting frustrated at the fact that Nate is being bullied by Jamie's cronies. So we confronted Jamie in the weight room where Jamie agrees to ask Colin and Isaac to stop mistreating Nate, but instead he encourages them to keep it up.

Christian  

Trent Crimm from the independent arrives to profile Ted and watch a bit of the team training where he gets a glimpse of a new play designed by Nate the great. He then accompanies Ted and Roy to a local primary school for a community outreach event where Roy's niece is and she's just being adorable, super adorable.

Marisa  

Later, Ted and Trent go to an Indian restaurant owned by chauffeur Ali's father in law. We met Ali in the first episode, where they eat food that is much too spicy for their own good and where Ted explains his coaching and leadership philosophy to Trent.

Brett   

In the final scene, Higgins reads Rebecca an advanced copy of the article, which praises Ted's coaching and leadership style. Rebecca falls back onto her bed exasperated and angry that our scheme to turn the supporters against Ted has backfired. And that is all the recap we're going to give you.

Marisa  

So this episode begins and ends with Rebecca. We see her in the morning getting ready for her work. She's ready for the day. She's excited. And then we see her at the end of the day, sort of getting ready and frustrated and falling into bed. And I think one of the really interesting things is how the script also begins and ends with Rebecca saying the first word and the last word of the episode. And it's the same exact word. Did you guys know that?

Christian  

I noticed this one. Yes.

Brett   

I noticed on this rewatch, too. It's not a nice word.

Marisa  

No, it's not a nice word. It's a word that you know, you might hear you know, again, as a Yankees fan. I've heard this at many, many games, you know yelling at the opposing team or you know, especially like the Red Sox or something, or maybe you might hear it in England quite a bit. But for us, you know, Kansans are our children would definitely get in trouble at school for using this word, you know,

Christian  

but not their homes?

Marisa  

Well, I mean, maybe, maybe not. We try, we try not to let our youngest use this word. But she's angrily shouting the word.

Brett   

To the fans at home, we do apologize for the routine language, which is interesting for a couple of reasons. Because if you just look at it from a literary perspective, both the fact that she is getting into and out of bed at the beginning and end of this episode, and the fact that she says the same word sets up kind of this literary device called an inclusive Oh, which is used in a lot of different types of literature, but it's really associated with, with religious texts, like the Bible and other things like that. And Christian people may not know this about you, but you have some formal theological training. Would you like to enlighten us on what the significance of an inclusive Oh is?

Christian  

Yeah. So it is meant to bookend things, but it sounds a lot cooler, because it's a Latin word. And with these bookends, it's kind of a sign for you to pay attention. And to let you know, to signal to you that an idea is being contained between those two images, or those two words. It can be used politically, where like in this episode, similar words are being used or phrase ology is being used to bookend an idea. Or it can also be thematically, which is also how this one is used. So this is like a double inclusio, because you both get the themes, and you get the linguistic inclusio, so they're setting up a really delayed payoff in the writing of this episode.

Marisa  

I love that. And for our listeners who might be you know, people who read the Bible, they're probably not going to find an include zeal, like, you know, the fruity language that we found in this episode. No, there are no curse words in the Bible. But we still love it anyway. That's great.

Brett   

Well, speaking of drawing your attention to certain themes, using that device. What I thought of after watching this episode was how, with Rebecca getting out of bed and into bed in this episode, it took me back to actually the end of the first episode and the beginning of the second episode, because if you recall, at the end of the first episode, we see Ted's struggling to fall asleep after he's talked on the phone to Michelle, and he just kind of has this very lazy energy of like, oh, man, now I can't sleep and resigned and resigned, that's a better way of putting it. And then at the very beginning of Episode Two, we see him wake up. And that's when he gets up and has his bowl of cereal. And he's all chipper coming to talk to beer that morning, where they walk to the coffee shop. And it's the first day of school slash work. And so it immediately made me want to compare them. And then that made me think about the music that's used to underscore when Rebecca is waking up at the beginning of this episode, in Episode Three, it is a song called Connection by an artist called Elastica. This song came out in 1994. And it has a very 90s Brit pop rock sound to it,

Christian  

It has a sound that would make me want to wake up before my alarm clock went off. That's what I would say,

Brett   

right, which is what happens for Rebecca. So there's, there's a couple of lyrics on there that I thought really match up with Rebecca's attitude. And there's these lyrics that are under underscoring it that say, who would have cared at all, not you, and another heart has made the trade, it's just it's very negative, and kind of like, flippant, and just, you know, she's she doesn't care that she's about to, you know, she thinks she's gonna run this picture that's going to sort of mess up Ted and Keeley dynamic and the team's dynamic and she just, she could honestly care less. She's just concerned about looking fly and ruining lives. Well, she

Christian  

doesn't care about the people. But she certainly cares about her plan. And the effect that she hopes the plan has, she just doesn't care about any of the collateral damage that that's going to cause to people.

Marisa  

Yeah, certainly not yet.

Brett   

Yeah. And I thought that was interesting that after she and Ted have their initial discussion in this episode, where he tells her about the clock tower, and we go out to the training pitch, and the song Sunday best buy surfaces is playing and that's a song you've probably heard on a lot of commercials and it has those lyrics, feeling good. Feeling blessed, never stressed and everything falls down sometimes, but it'll be fine, which feels very Ted after you know, the last day suffered. And he just comes in and he says, I had a peach of a Sunday. You know, he's he's, he's bounced right back. And he's feeling good. And so having these two songs, underscoring these characters so early in the episode really shows us what different states of mind they're in at this point in the season. And in this episode,

Christian  

there's just so much subtlety and all these little clues that we're getting kind of multisensory clues, and we do get some of those from beard also. At the beginning of this something I like to call the beard crumbs. Now, we don't know much about the mysterious man behind the facial hair, but we do find out that he is not in his most fully alert state of mind. And perhaps something happened the night before.

Brett   

Yes, he looks very sleepy.

Marisa  

Yes. I also love beards little like thumbs down raspberry moment.

Christian  

Which is technically not a beard crumb. But we will find a theme of beard communicating with his thumbs. Stay on the lookout people.

Brett   

I'm so interested to see that this is

Christian  

in showbiz. So we call the hook

up with these subtleties, people, the cast of characters that lives loud, lives life out in front, and we start to learn a lot about them get to know them a little bit more, such as our good friend Keeley. We start to see just how strong she is.

Marisa  

She is an independent woman whose relationship does not define her.

Brett   

And she can wrap her arms off.

Marisa  

Yes, and she's cute as a button.

Christian  

I do love this part where she and Ted are having that discussion. Because to me, we've seen them kind of become friends a little bit in each episode and their relationship develop. This to me, just strikes me as them almost being the same person on the inside because he or she is like picking up on these rhyming things. And whereas 10 is very much felt outside, I guess, of the English experience, she almost like affirms and like you have no idea how big rhyming is in this country, like, Hey, man, you fit in here a little bit. And she even like gets into some of that kind of hip hop, rap beatbox stuff that she wasn't sure how to deal with when Ted led with it in episode one.

Marisa  

I also think it's interesting. You know, I am married to Brett. And we're the annoying couple who actually likes each other. And we always say like, Oh my gosh, was the same person. And when we took our BuzzFeed quizzes, Brett, do you remember who you got? I got Keeley. And I got Ted. And oh my gosh, we're the same person.

Brett   

We're the same person,

Marisa  

the same person.

Brett   

We love rhyming

Christian  

you people at home would not believe how much of my gagging we have to just edit out of this episode. Because these two are so annoying. It's a

Brett   

solid five minutes of Gag real literal Gabrielle Keeley, not

Christian  

only has that connection with Ted, she also has this deep connection that we start to see with Rebecca. And it's crazy because Keeley's character type you would think of as being a very shallow person. But what she ends up being is a person who really knows like, how to care for people, and specifically, how to care for Rebecca.

Marisa  

Yes, and as I see, you know, sort of their relationship start. You notice one thing that's really big is how she can relate to Rebecca's hurt by sort of just how she's a woman, and she just already can understand way more than, you know, Ted and even Higgins who feels a little bit of guilt, you know, toward Rebecca, like Keeley just can start at a much deeper level with her and their moment on the couch together. And that, to me, is really exciting to watch these two women start to bond.

Brett   

One thing I noticed in that in that scene that we're kind of referencing between Rebecca and Keeley, is that when she that we've seen several times already in this series where someone enters Rebecca's office, and she immediately closes her laptop like she she closes it she's you know, she's either she's googling something about them, or she's trying to find pictures of them on the internet. And she just slams it shut. It's always done in a way that doesn't make her look suspicious to the people who are entering her office. But we as the viewers know, like, Oh, yeah, you definitely wouldn't want someone seeing you googliness about them or whatever. But in this instance, there's like this sweet moment between Rebecca and Keeley. After Keeley is told Rebecca how upset she was about how the press coverage all kind of panned out in the wake of Rebecca, and Rupert's divorce. Rebecca says the press are never awful to men. And then they have this back and forth where eventually Rebecca shows Keeleythese pictures of her sunbathing topless on a yacht in Majorca or whatever that the paparazzi had paid all this money for. And she Keeley says I want to I she says I want to see these photos. And you see Rebecca open up the laptop. It was closed but she opens it and passes it over to Keeley and I just thought that was a really interesting like moment of subtextual openness that Rebecca is sharing like she's actually open this laptop that she keeps slamming closed and hands it to Keeley so that she can share this part of herself with Keeley and you can tell she's she's moved by Keeley's  response even though it's very silly and hilarious, but it's it's a it's a sweet moment.

Marisa  

Yes, and like one woman celebrating another woman's body and like making her feel good about it. And as a woman watching the show, it's like, hell yeah. Like, celebrate that. Rebecca's got a nice rack and Keeley's not afraid to tell her. And I'm really upset too, though as I watched this relationship flourish that, you know, in TV, we've seen some really great bromances like scrubs, you know? You have Yes. And psych another one of my great like, favorite shows, and Brooklyn nine, nine, with Charles and Jake, and I just think where's the word? Where's the term for like, a great female relationship? friendship. I just, where's where's the where's the term?

Christian  

Womance? No.

Christian  

It is nice to see different to see a nice to see that strong relationship outside of a series. That's like a quote unquote, women only series. So you know, this is not Golden Girls. Something of that genre. This is I guess, a broader series that still allows for there to be a strong and intimate relationship between friendship between two women.

Brett   

I think it really speaks to the writing and the performances that this show is such a male dominated space. Not only is the cast mostly men, like you said, but it's about, you know, a men's soccer team. So there's just like a lot of dudes everywhere all the time and they're able to Rebecca and Keeley are able to have these moments throughout the season that don't feel contrived and they don't feel obligatory. They feel very honest, they feel very real and they don't feel like they're being kind of wedged in as an afterthought, like they're able their relationship is able to flourish, even though they're kind of the only two main women on the show, but it isn't a really natural and beautiful way.

Marisa  

Well, I'm especially I see how like Kaylee is really going to start to like be the hero in so many situations on the show. And again, like Christian kind of alluded to like Kaylee could have been someone like really superficial and just kind of a caricature or someone we're able to laugh at or, you know, very shallow but she she to me is like kind of the glue along with Ted that like glues all these people together and is a part of like sort of the big steps in healing a lot of the hurts that we've talked about with these characters.

Christian  

I consider her the R2D2 of the Lasso Universe, which some people might laugh at, but that is the highest compliment that I could give any person the glue that keeps everything together and saves the day pretty much every time.

Brett   

Every time. Yep,

Marisa  

Christians really into Star Wars.

Christian  

That's where we edit out your guys's gagging right.

Marisa  

I think we benefit by seeing Keeley without Jamie a lot. In this episode, we're able to see how that relationship does not define her. But we're able to see more of who she is and how she relates to these other characters. And I know we'll talk about ROI in a minute. But that's one of the things like qilian ROI, we start to see connecting on things that Kaylee and Jamie do not connect on.

Brett   

Keeley, as you mentioned, Keeley and Roy have some great moments in this episode too. But before we talk about their moments together in depth, let's focus on Roy himself for just a minute.

Marisa  

This is kind of the first time that we get a really good glimpse at who Roy is I feel like we've kind of seen his rough and gruff moments. We've had a few times to kind of see there's probably more underneath all that. But here we really get to know him I think during this episode and get to see a different side of him, especially as he goes with Ted to the school and we meet his niece.

Brett   

I think a lot of his interaction with Ted in this episode helps us to understand more about him. A big part of that is that Ted throughout this episode in different ways, is encouraging Roy to step into his leadership role. And we assume at this point, Roy is the captain of the team just based on his experience and his seniority and his attitude in the clubhouse. But he's not really doing a great job of leading this younger group of guys. And I think part of that is because he himself has a complicated relationship to leadership and time because he knows he's getting into the end of his career. Like we don't know how close he is at this point. But we do know that he's an older player. He's lost a step or two as Nate said, and for soccer players like you have a fairly short shelf life because you can only be so old and like running six miles a game.

Marisa  

It's interesting that you bring up time and leadership Because one of the things that Ted does in his mind games with Roy, this episode is giving out gifts of books to his players and one. And the gifts that Roy gets is A Wrinkle in Time.

Brett   

Yes, we obviously focused the most on the book that Roy gets that comes across up in several scenes after that, in this episode. And yeah, I mean, I think as a metaphor, as a subtext, this works really well for Roy, because in LA makes for a great moment of comedy, but it tells us as the viewers a lot about where he's at, I think at that moment, we start to understand what is going on with Roy Kent and kind of where he's at in his career, and in his life and his attitude in this moment,

Christian  

at the end of the day, he at this point, he doesn't want to leave, he wants things to be a certain way. And he is really passionate about that. But he's incredibly coercive, and how he goes about it. into them part of the process, in the vision that Ted has, is to see him instead of being a person that can like force people to do things. He wants Roy to be a person who can lead people to do things, which is different.

Marisa  

And again, we see great leadership from Ted because he's already ready for Roy to kind of step in and to try some of those leadership skills. Which, of course, is just really funny and played brilliantly by Brett Goldstein. In this episode, just sort of his inner frustrations coming out. And as one of my favorite scenes is, as he's reading, Wrinkle in Time with his niece, Phoebe in her bed, and he says, it has to be me, you know, he's reading from the book, it can't be anyone else. And then he drops another one of those, you know, Kansas No, no words, the F bomb, and she's awesome. Uncle Roy, that's a bad word. It's like my Gerald business, like goes about his, you know, leaving, but of course, come back to kiss her very sweetly. But I just think it's brilliant how, how he doesn't want to. And he's really fighting back against all of these tactics that Ted has. But he really does start to buy in. And we see that pretty quickly in this episode.

Christian  

It's understandable how you can be so angry. Because what you see when you look at him closely is he has a deep seated understanding of right and wrong. And he really, he really does like believe in right and wrong. And I think his gauge of right and wrong, would match up with what a lot of people would say, could be defined as like, valor, you know, like he wants people to be treated well, he wants people to be honest. It's just that he doesn't know how to deal with that. He doesn't know how to engage people. And so just kind of creates in him this perpetual cycle of anger that explodes all the time, which is kind of funny. We've listened to a lot of interviews and whatnot with the cast. And Brad Goldstein, the actor and writer is maybe like, as opposite as you could think of this early iteration that we have of Roy Kent, like, he's very eloquent and kind of soft spoken and started out as a writer for the show, and decided as they were working on all of these characters that he wanted to be Roy Kent. And so he just made a audition tape. And he sent it to Jason Sudeikis. And to a couple of other people who were producing and creating the show, and just kind of like told him in the middle of the night, you know, if this stinks, just throw it away, and I don't ever want to talk about it again. But I would really like to give this a shot and they said Alright, man, like let's go do it. And now here's this guy just doing an amazing acting job of embodying this character that's very different I think from who he is.

Brett   

And I think you can you see the actual real life niceness of Brett Goldstein shine through I think when there's that moment where he tells Ted at the school that he only comes to the school because his niece is there and then he waves to her and he does this wave and this like huge like smile that I'm just like, oh, that's Brett like that's just like such a sweet moment with the actress who plays Phoebe led Blumenfeld, who we have gotten word will be in season two so we will get to see more of the adorable Phoebe go kids

Marisa  

awesome. I really like the the scene where Roy and Keeley have their moment outside of the training facility. And Roy is all fired up about Ted and he does a TED impression which is just you know, horrible. And then Keeley gives it right back to him and is trying to push As buttons and and she does an impression of ROI, which is, of course incredible. But then as Christian said, we're tracking Keeley laughs all over the place. It's just like the sweetest and most adorable flirtatious little laugh afterward. But I think it's just a really sweet moment between them and, and it's kind of the first time we really see them kind of connect. And they really get each other. You know, I think they both like, he has a very strong sense of right and wrong. And I believe like he really does too. And what's honest and like, and good. And so we see more of that connection happening where like, they're, they're sort of able to, like call each other out on things that she would never be able to call Jamie out on, you know. And so just their friendship starting is kind of a lot deeper than even her relationship with Jamie.

Brett   

The other moment that we have between Keeley and Roy is briefer. And not a lot of said between them. But this is at the end the very end of the episode, where Roy has been upset several times by the fact that Jamie just will not get for calling and Isaac these two other players who will see a lot more in the series. He has not asked them to actually stop bullying Nate and treating him badly. And so Roy decides he knows that those players are going to a club later because Isaac had invited him earlier in the episode and so Roy shows up and walks through the club right directly toward Jamie headbutts. Colin gives poor Colin a concussion. Roy doesn't even know who he had voted. Because he doesn't see so well at night anymore. And he tells Jamie off and he says stop messing with Nate. There's this moment there's this beat and then he looks at Keeley and he just says Keeley and she answers, Roy. And then he just leaves. And you see this look from Jamie, where he just slowly kind of turns his head like why are you acknowledging him? And I don't know. It's just it's funny that he's incredulous, but doesn't really seem upset by it. He's more just confused, which we've talked about how Jamie gets confused. Often.

Marisa  

He doesn't even understand why they shared a moment because Keeley like you can see in her look toward ROI, that she finds it really attractive, that ROI did something so good and honorable by sticking up for Nate. And so in her, you know, you see that sort of in her look is like, heck yeah, like tell these little boys off. And you know, and he respects her. And Jamie's just kind of like, he doesn't even know what happened. In his mind. There wasn't like a moment he doesn't I don't think even understands

Christian  

does not compute. Yeah, you know, who does know, is terrible. So because he is the puppet master in this whole thing. This is the first signs of an outgrowth of all of this leadership stuff that he's trying to do. And he's trying to press and the positions that he is attempting to get people into like, that's how this whole bar thing happens. Even though Ted isn't even there,

Brett   

you're right Christian. And this moment, we see some of those moves being made, these first moves of a chess match almost where Ted is trying to look at the whole board and make sure that people are getting where they need to go. So that can be most effective. And one of the ways he does that is even at the beginning of this episode, when he is talking when he was talking to beard, we already discussed their conversation a little bit about how beard looks very sleepy, and he hasn't been home that night. But then after that, that's when he says I'm on the hunt for new plays. And Nate shares this play that they decided they're going to use in training, it ends up working really well. And so then later, when Trent is coming to begin his interview process, he sees the same play. And he asked Ted Oh, did you come up with this Ted and Ted has no problem saying no, like this was drawn up by our very own eighth grade. He just he gives him full credit, because that's the kind of guy that Ted is and he doesn't feel threatened by the fact that he didn't come up with this play. He He is the person who decided to implement it. But he doesn't need to take credit for creating it. And he doesn't feel like that diminishes his leadership capability. And he doesn't feel the need to defend that decision.

Marisa  

And I think that's such a great leadership quality and not one that we see a lot especially Sorry, sorry, guys, but from white males. But Ted is not really bothered by people questioning his leadership style or his underlying motives. And, again, as Trent starts to, to kind of search for some dirt or try and dig around, to see see what's really behind this, this facade of who Ted is, he gets to know that there really isn't and maybe a facade, and you know, he thinks, oh, we're going to the school today. Oh, what a coincidence that we're going to go do something that makes you look really nice. And that's that's something that Ted says like, Oh, that's the funny thing about coincidences. You know, sometimes they just happen, but like a feisty Italian woman, like I had that moment round. Like, oh my gosh, like Trent Crimm doesn't believe that like he thinks that he like Ted's lying like, I would have fought so hard to be like, I'll show you my schedule. I had this plan like a month ago, you know, like, but like Chad, he just he's so easy going about, like those moments where you, you know, your ego wants to push back in those situations to prove that you're a good leader. And he's such a good leader because he doesn't he does it. So just genuinely and again, without trying to force whether or not people believe him like he's, he's okay with that. And I just think, Man, I wish I could be more like that, because I struggle.

Brett   

And that is reflected later, as we hear the writing Trent’s article where there's a line, I think that says something like in a business that celebrates ego Ted reigns is in and that moment that you just talked about Marissa is, you know, probably the moment that trend is drawing on us. He's writing that line. I'm just like, oh, he starts to piece together all these things through his interactions with Ted, up until the very end of their interaction in the restaurant, which we need to go back and talk about for sure. But when Ted tells him by and he enjoyed spending time with him, and Trent says, you really mean that, don't you? And he's Ted. So of course he does. And in that restaurant scene, when we see Trent and Ted walk into the restaurant, they're greeted by Ali, the chauffeur, who is also a server, and he's a man of many talents, clearly. And if you'll recall, in Episode One, this is the person who picked up Ted at the airport to dry pick up Ted and beard to drive them to the clubhouse so they can meet Rebecca, and Nate and everyone that they met there on that first day. And when they walk in all these a little bit taken aback that Ted is there. And he said, he says, What are you doing here? and Ted says, Well, you invited me when you invited me, don't you remember, and All he has is a very incredulous look, and then replies, I invite everyone who's in my car. But you can tell by the way he says it that probably very few people have

Christian  

no one's ever come to his restaurant to eat at his restaurant. When he's invited them. He has this look of just pure, like, I can't believe you're here. And it's a good time. lassos lessons for white dudes moment. Because here's Ted wanting to come and to experience something, and to receive in a very healthy way, like the gift of hospitality, but not in a voyeuristic way. So Ted doesn't want to go to this restaurant to experience something new. So that he can say he experienced something new, he doesn't go to this restaurant, and order things that are super hot, so that then he can, you know, complain about to his friends or brag about having eaten something really hot, he's going somewhere, so that somebody else can feel like the most important person in the room. And you see this habit that Ted has this desire that Ted has to develop other people to serve other people. It extends even past his job of developing guys so that they can become better soccer players. And you see that he just wants to develop in a firm and bring out the best in people, period.

Marisa  

I think that's what makes Ted Lasso the show, resonate with so many people and why people who watch the show love it so much. I mean, it's really hard to find someone who watches the show who's like, yeah, that was a good show, you know, like people who watch it are like, Oh, my gosh, Ted lasso. But I think it's because we all desire to have more Ted lassos in our life, or to be more like Tesla. So I want more of that affirmation. And that, like, that camaraderie, and that leadership style, and that desire to make those around you better. Like, wouldn't that just be just a more beautiful world. And I think that's why people latch on to the show. And I think that's why it's so special. And I people want more folks in their life for what you see is what you get. Because while it's very disarming, and people don't know what to do with Ted at first, then there does come a point where they're able to accept it. And if you could just accept people at face value like that more if people could accept, like me at face value more, because that's what I'm giving more of them. It would just make life a lot easier for a lot of people. I also think sorry, this is one other thing that I was thinking about Ted like we often kind of see him as a little bit silly, right? Just kind of maybe this guy who falls into situations but really, we're learning more and more about how Ted how to lead like Ted has to take a ton of planning a ton preparation, a ton of just like time outside thinking of, you know, like getting these books for the guys that he's gonna put in their, their lockers and like, you know, he had to go get them, he had to go wrap them he had to think about what book he wanted to get for every player. You know, he had to plan to go to all these restaurants, you know? And it's like all these things like, you know, it seems like we don't ever see Ted like in his planning or preparation, right? We just sort of see him in these moments. And so it just seems very natural. But if you think about the time he must spend thinking about the individuals in his life, I mean, that's just that's a lot.

Brett   

Yeah, make those into webisodes Apple TV. I would watch Ted last Oh, planning his leadership time as a webisode shopping for books. Yes.

So we've already talked about a couple of the songs in this episode. But the big one for me is this very aggressive Classical Music cue that underscores the reading of the advanced copy of the TED lasso profile that Trent cram has written. And if that piece sounds familiar, it's because if you've watched a lot of TV and film, you've probably heard that movement, specifically before. And if you haven't heard that movement, you've almost certainly heard another one of the pieces from this bigger work written by a famous Baroque era composer named Antonio Vivaldi. And the work is called the four seasons. You know, it sounds familiar to me,

Christian  

Brett. Why is that? Because back in the day, when I had the best job that a high school senior could ever have, at Nike town, Portland, it was a song on a soccer ad that was on this, like our loop of ads that we had running into the store. And so it is burned into my mind forever as a soccer song from the 1998 World Cup. And I tried to find the ad to put in our very comprehensive show notes. But the ads from 1998 are kind of then on YouTube. So people have to help us find it or imagine it much like a lot of the songs in Looney Tunes. Like I knew it was a famous classic song, but I never knew what it was called. So you're teaching me some good things, finishing up my high school education for me. Thank you.

Brett   

Yeah, it's like I said, it's called the Four Seasons or an Italian les quatro stagione How is my pronunciation Marissa?.

Marisa  

That's pretty good.

Brett   

This particular cue is one of my favorite needle drops of the entire series. And if you are unfamiliar with the term needle drop, it is an industry term for when a piece of popular music is used, or well known music as used as the focal point for a sequence. And I think this piece in particular is doing some really interesting work in this scene. It's the perfect soundtrack to capture the drama of this moment. So I think let's go off the beaten path just a little bit and explore. So first, I want to share One really cool thing that I found out about this work, the Four Seasons, and that is that Vivaldi published these concertos with sonnets that go with each movements, poems, right. And so for us today, this sounds pretty normal, but at the time, and the time being the early 18th century. It was really unconventional and unusual, like Ted Lascaux levels of unconventional. So if you'll indulge me I'd like to read the sonnet for the presto movement of the summer concerto from Vivaldi's four seasons,

Marisa  

presto means fast, not like

Brett   

presto change o the magic thing. Nope. Gotcha. Don't worry, this one is not very long. Alas, his fears were justified.

The heavens thunder and roar and the hail cuts the head off the wheat and damages the grain.

Marisa  

Just like you know, Ted lassos coming from WSU the Shockers. This is how Ted lassa was going down. Or so Rebecca thinks, you know, this whole sonnet and all ties together.

Brett   

I think part of what makes this work so well is the way the music starts and stops at key points in the scene. And so I reached out to the show's music editor Sharon Gersh. And she told me that the music was edited extensively to work with the picture in this sequence. And we see that where you know, not only is their dialogue interspersed with the article being read, but the music is kind of weaving between all of that, and it's just it's edited so brilliantly to make all of that work. So I just wanted to give a huge shout out to sharing Gersh, the music editor for this episode in this show and the rest of the music team music supervisors Tony Vaughn purview and Krista Miller, who is Bill Lawrence, his wife

Marisa  

If you're not a classical music lover, you may not know this idea of a concerto where you have an instrument, usually a solo instrument and how it's juxtaposed against either an orchestra or another group of instruments. And so it's kind of interesting how we hear this sort of the virtuosic idea of one instrument against a group.

Brett   

Yeah. And to me, it's kind of like this article is showing off. Trent's virtuosic ability to write these articles that appeal to the fan base of AFC Richmond.

Marisa  

Yeah, or you can see it as like, you know, this is Ted's leadership style. He's, he's he's the virtuoso, but he works best when others join in.

Brett   

Yeah, it's definitely more exciting when you hear that solo line, and then the ensemble comes into a company and you add so many more layers, and it makes it pay off is so much better. I love the use of this piece here. And I hope that we get more classical cues in season two and three. So if you're listening, that's more 90s hip hop, more classical music.

Marisa  

Christian, were there any barbecue sightings during this episode?

Christian  

There were no barbecue sightings during this episode. However, I refuse to yield my time, because I have a rib bone to pick with Trent kram. From the independent, sir, who mentioned in this episode, that there was no good Indian food in Kansas. I will have you know, that in the Kansas City metropolitan area. On the Kansas side there's a restaurant called karma sutra that has an amazing Indian food buffet. And in Wichita, where Ted Lascaux probably would have eaten on his lunch breaks, you have both kebabs and passage to India, which are very highly rated. The conclusion that I can come to is that while Kansas may not have as much good Indian food as England does, Kansas certainly has more good Indian food than England has barbecue and Trent cream from the independent. If you take exception to my claim, I challenge you to send over your best pitmaster and I will smoke them out of the country. And now I yield my time.

Marisa  

Or you could just send us a box. Ted last Oh giftbox

Brett   

share your source Trent. So we talked about Indian food in Kansas. I wish there is some even though Ted has never eaten Indian food, and he tells us

Christian  

I guess.

Brett   

But we still need to talk about the most convincing and least convincing soccer things in this episode. And that's also your wheelhouse Christian.

Christian  

We did we had some nice, subtle ones. The most convincing soccer thing in this episode is when Higgins is talking to Rebecca. And they are dismayed that even though the team is doing poorly, the fans are rallying around them. And I will say that as a Portland soccer fan, there are years where they're good. But then they're also years where they're bad. And I will say during those bad years, soccer fans do rally around a bad team and sometimes against the owner while rallying around a bad team. But you can't just expect to torpedo a team and the fans will go away because fans breathe and are bullied with this stuff. There was also However, a least convincing soccer thing in this episode. Do you know what it is? I do? Okay, well, it's kind of clairvoyant of me. I don't want to brag. But the part at the school where Roy was feeding all of the children in Ted lasso headers for header practice, in 10 years, you're just not going to see that there's a big move in soccer to try to limit the concussions because they're finding that players who play for a long time, because of the headers that they take. And because the header situation is dangerous, it very much raises the chance that you'll like knock heads with somebody and get a concussion. Folks are trying to take hitters out of the game for kids. And in fact, a lot of youth leagues in the United States and some in England are not allowing kids to do headers anymore. And there are people high up in the Soccer World who even think that maybe outside of the penalty box. Pros and adults shouldn't even really be doing headers because it's bad for your brain. So I'm going to say in 10 years, we're going to look back at that and say the least convincing soccer thing was that they were forcing small children to do headers. Time will tell time will tell.

Brett   

And speaking of time we are drawing toward the end of our episode and so it is now time for us to share our favorite quotes from this episode. of the Show Ted lassa Marissa, would you like to start us off?

Marisa  

I'd love to. Mine Of course comes from Keeley where she says, I'm cute as a button and I can run my ass off god, it's no wonder they want to destroy me.

Brett   

Why do you love that quote?

Marisa  

Because it's just it's exactly who Keeley is like, she's cute as a button. You can tell she's super smart. She's sassy. And it's just like, you know, it's just everything about who she is wrapped up in one quote.

Christian  

Brett, what did you have today?

Brett   

One of my favorite quotes from this episode comes from Ted Lasso. And it's a small moment during training when he's encouraging his team. And he tells them that they need to start making smoother transitions from offense to defense. And then he says the easiest way to get that done well, is to do it well. And I don't know that on third or fourth, rewatch that line stuck out to me, because it's one of those things that feels very Ted, because you're not quite sure if it's just him speaking from a place of ignorance, or if it's just his way of sort of projecting his folksiness and his charm onto his players. And so I just I liked that line. And I think that it was encouraging to me just to think about, yeah, if you want to do do something, well, you just have to commit to doing just that.

Marisa  

Christian, what do you got for us?

Christian  

Oh, I have a heart full of consternation, because this episode had so much amazing scatological humor. But I picked an instance of that in the first episode, I don't want it to become my brand. So I had to pass all of those up and go with something else. What I finally settled on was when Ted lassos says, that's when sports and art combined as far as I'm concerned. And I love that quote, because it kind of sums up the whole Ted Lassoethos, like this show has brought in a lot of people who don't like sports, who know nothing about soccer, who probably are late adopters to the show, because they're like, I'm not gonna want to watch a sports show or enjoy it. And then they watch it. And they're just like, Man, this is the only sports thing I like, maybe I should try sports, or maybe I'll just be content with this one thing. And so I just get happy whenever I see that quote, or that gift because it sums up the whole Ted lasso experience.

Okay, that's our show. We'll be back on the dog track in two weeks with our conversation about Episode Four titled for the children. And that's when we'll finally meet Rebecca's ex husband, Rupert. You can check out the show notes for links to all the cool and interesting stuff we mentioned in this episode.

Marisa  

And if you just can't wait until the next episode drops stay in the conversation by following us on Twitter. Our handle is @TedLassoPod. In addition to sending y'all all love and Ted Lasso GIFs, join us and interact with us for all the cool and super fun things that happen on Twitter,

Brett   

and Marissa as a person who is not on Twitter. The things that happen on Twitter. This episode of Richmond till we die is brought to you by gin and kerosine Productions. It was produced by me, Brett,

Marisa  

me, Marissa

Christian  

and me Christian

Brett   

Brett also edited, mixed and composed the music for this episode. If you've enjoyed this conversation, please take a moment to give Richmond till we die a five star rating on whatever app it is you're listening to this episode on. All right, I'm Brett signing off from Marissa and Christian. Thanks for listening. Until next time, cheers y'all.

Marisa  

Nightcourt.