Ted Lasso (Apple TV) TV Show • Page 70

Saying Zava was a waste doesn’t make sense to me. Him coming in and the leaving was a massive catalyst to the team coming together and learning they’re more than just one star player, pushed Jamie to be better, and also lit a fire with Colin.

 

This is what I was thinking too, even though it seems a little too…easy of a conclusion for his story line

 

The Zava thing was also the catalyst for the single greatest element of this show, the Roy and Jamie pairing.

 

Nate gang rise up

 

Jamie fartt

 

Nate haters looking like absolute fools imo

@EntryLevelDave

 

Meh, I feel good.

 

That’s fair!

 

Came in here to say exactly those first 2 points. I didn’t expect a lot of conversation about the second since that’s more esoteric info, but a team being in the title hunt after Richmond’s awful mid-season run is one of the most outlandish things we’ve seen in the show.

as for the first point. Totally agree. There have been comments here about how we catch glimpses/foreshadowing of his frustration, but it didn’t feel like most of them stuck, and I’m shocked at how little screen time it has gotten amongst all the other storylines. Then having the team, Colin especially, show up at his door in the midst of a great team run, where there’s really no need for the players alone to want Nate to come back, seemed super clunky. The last thought the team had about Nate before he left West Ham was them watching the video of him trashing the sign, no?

most of Colin’s development this season was centered on his coming out though, not his team performance. Zava’s already long gone by the time Colin’s storyline even touches his performance again, at which point way more has happened to him and the team.

Zava helps bring Roy and Jaimie together, but they were already growing closer and Jaime was already on good terms with the team through countless other team-building and leadership-developing stories. his arc at this point is driven almost entirely by motivation from his Man City and home lives. Roy has also been softening up through other means.

Idk, even if that was the writers’ intentions it seems weird to start the season with such a large storyline and then abruptly pull him out solely to provide a catalyst to 2 characters already deeply wrapped (or about to be wrapped) in other parts of their journeys. I’d have expected the show to at least mention his name again if those were the takeaways we were supposed to get. If every character on the show has seemingly forgotten about zava, why should we remember him?


Oof didn’t mean to write that much sorry y’all.

 

I thought the players going to the restaurant was strange. What motivation did they have to bring him back? Wish it was Ted who decided to do so. Beard/Ted origin story was really something though.

Zava, PR Firm, Rebecca Amsterdam storyline, and a few other things really seem to have no impact on the greater storyline. Decreasing then length of the previous episodes would have made this one (and most likely the last) so much more impactful.

 

Don’t get the Zava complaints at all tbh. It gave a semi credible way for them to go from starting the season the worst team on paper (which was important) to playing well early on (also necessary to set up where they are now in the standings) and was the single biggest spark for the Jamie story let alone the Jamie Roy story. And it was funny!

 

They did really bungle the Keeley story though. PR firm was a great idea, but it’s tough to take a character who’s series arc was growing into being a super competent businesswoman then having her start a business, show her do nothing right, and ultimately the happy ending is she gets back with the guy and her best friend pays to keep the lights on. The end of the Jack story felt in character and Barbara is a funny addition, but it’s hard not to feel like they could have done so much more with the KJPR plot. I’ve got minor complaints about other stuff, but Keeley’s the only significant misstep of the season for me.

 

I think the players going to invite Nate back is more powerful. They were all pissed as hell at him and they never would have come around on him without Ted's good influence. This shows that Ted's attitude is rubbing off on his players and truly affecting how they live and interact with the world.

 

While I agree with ^, I would've liked to have seen the actual scene with the entire squad debating it (and, based on what he said later, how Higgins instigated it).

 

I thought it was hilarious and the most well-done subplot we got. The way the show handles the teams’ runs is weird tho. It’s wholly unrealistic for a team to have the kind of long runs (losses, ties, wins, losses again, etc) Richmond have so it feels wonky and forced when the team’s results are a vehicle for the plot rather than the other way around. Feels like sometimes the team is doing well and then next episode abruptly starts with “Richmond have now lost 6 times in a row!!” Ok guys what’s the team gonna do to get on an 8 win run now?

and to top it all off, that plot ends (before being revived) because jack pulls funding, not because of anything actually related to keeley’s competence.

it’s hard to tell though if the show just isn’t showing us those moments (and if not, why does shandy get airtime instead?) or if it’s just another abrupt plot twist because like I said, the only time anyone ever talked about Nate since he left was to shit on him

 

As others have said, the last we saw was that the team was mad at Nate for the sign thing, and now they're on an incredible run with an extremely cohesive squad. I don't think the team had even talked about in Nate in weeks, so for them to have come to the conclusion to invite him back, was out of nowhere. It would have made sense with some scenes of them discussing his quitting west ham, and thinking up reasons why, or hearing he was depressed and then wanting to help him, but it all went from 0-60 like the entirety of Nate's arc this season.

The beard/Nate scene felt like the only earnest and earned moment.

That's probably my biggest problem with this season when I reflect on it as a whole. There are these great stand out moments of character interactions with emotional and vulnerable scenes, but the plotting to get to them has been pretty thin and strange at times.

However, with how it's dropped weekly, I am enjoying spending an hour each week with the team and the only episode I found more to hate than like was the super league episode last week. Every other one has been enjoyable but with issues related to the whole season arc.

 

He quit
Higgs Boson suggested "eh, maybe we bring him back"
Players, feeling pretty good overall since they're on a roll, and with Ted's do gooder nonsense infecting their minds, say heck, why not? Will is with them so they obviously know about the Kit thing.
Assume Ted won't like it so go to Nate first.

It's really not as complicated as ya'll are making it out to be, and frankly it's kinda odd reading a thread filled with "too long, too much fluff, this isn't necessary" only to be mixed in with "prob should have been longer, with more fluff, with someone thing unnecessary" lol

But also, Nate sucks lol

 

They should post his 60 page apology letter to Ted. That might actually get me to come around haha

 

I'm of the personal opinion that not every single thing needs to be intricately detailed and explained but to each their own. Some people want that and it's fine, I'm just glad I'm satisfied with what we got. I watch this show to feel good and it did that for me.

 

I get why Zava was in the show but idk he just wasn't a funny character or someone worth caring about

 

The Keeley storyline should have been stronger this season, I can see what they were trying to do with Shandy and then Jack, but it didn't fully land. Even so, I didn't hate it. The only character whose plot line has seemed all over the place is Rebecca. The psychic stuff, the Dutch guy, the desire for a child, it hasn't come together in any meaningful way. She's had a strong arc of not wanting to just beat Rupert anymore, but I'm not sure how all that other stuff ties in thematically. There's still one episode to go though, so who knows?

Overall, I've really enjoyed this season as a whole though.

 

I think the culmination of a season long redemption arc should probably be one of the things explained and fleshed out. I am satisfied week to week as well, and it's one of the best ensemble cast shows I've seen in a while, and for lack of a better term, just a heart warming show. Still doesn't mean it's flawless.

The conversation and interaction you described would have been more interesting and pivotal than some of the other stuff we've gotten. And yea, Nate does kind of suck because his redemption arc essentially boils down to 'I quit my job because I have a blank slate girlfriend now, and because I'm attached, my boss being a cheater now bothers me and I can't work for him'. And then his parents apologize for how they treated him growing up, and then the team comes to him. Everything came to him, he hasn't really done anything except quit (and it's not like anyone knows that that was a moral stand).

 

Kinda leaving out that Nate did something nice for and apologized to Will, arguably the person he was shittiest to other than Ted.

That’s why the team came to him. They just didn’t spontaneously decide. Nate did take an affirmative step and it was toward a member of the team who wasn’t flashy or high up.

 

Yea... I did kind of omit a big one there... ooops.