Ted Lasso on Apple TV+

The show is very cliched. Fish out of water coach who winds up coaching the team to success. Fans hate him and he turns them around, team thinks he's nuts and then turns out to love him. We've seen this a million times. But it's done so well and the characters are fun, and you want to root for them. I know there are so many people out there that just hate cliches, the same old thing and so forth, but if it's really well done, then who cares? I'm enjoying it immensely.

 

What I also find intriguing in this show is that F bombs are dropped everywhere...but Ted never curses.

 

* Spoilers for E09 · All Apologies" from this point. *

What is the answer to the English owl? My guess was 'whom'

 

So any predictions for how the season will turn out? Will they go the cliche tropey route and have Richmond win the match against Man City to avoid relegation, making Ted the hero and saving his job? Or will Richmond lose and be relegated and the season ends on the cliffhanger of whether Ted will be fired? Obviously we know if the show has been renewed he's not going to be fired, but I think this season was in the can before the renewal decision, so it's possible the writers crafted the season finale with the intention that viewers wouldn't know whether the show is coming back. Frankly, I think the loss and relegation would result in the more interesting stories for Season 2, and would avoid the overdone cliche of the scrappy underdogs winning in the end. But I'm not sure if the writers have the courage to take the road less traveled.

Also, I'm really loving this show. The scene where Ted forgave Rebecca and they hugged, that was really well done.

 

I don't see them being relegated. I agree it's much more interesting in some respects, but, I just think for this particular story line, they won't do it. I think they need the big win at the end. I think the season will end with Rebecca and Ted kissing, in bed something like that.

 

From what I understand, that's the concept. I don't think that could work in the major American sports. The disparity in population between AAA cities and MLB for example is pretty big, not to mention the facilities for second level teams is quite a bit smaller.

 

I waited and we binged episodes 1-9 Saturday and Sunday/ Really enjoyed it. I have noticed a lot of shows usually negotiate a 2 season deal up front. I don't know about this one but I believe it's pretty easy to set a finale to go either way. Yes they will most likely win but they could easily have filmed and inserted a final scene based upon renewal that:

• Shows Evil Rebecca Ex buying another team
• Shows Evil Rebecca Ex discovering bad stuff about Ted

It would not surprise me if they delve into why Ted is so positive and optimistic even his now ex-wife said that was too much for her. It's possible he grew up in a family that was evil bad or bipolar bad and he had a change of heart moment. I fully expect them to explore that.

 

Or maybe it's like Ned Flanders's origin story:

 

yuck

 

I have watched a number of British shows that have the very slow burn romance developing. Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries being an example and they just tease you constantly but they actually did not even kiss till the last scene of the last episode.

So I could see this show going this route but they have much more stories and character to develop before that happens.

 

English football league system - Wikipedia

Basically, there are 20 teams in the Premiere League (Level 1). Each season, the bottom three teams are relegated to Level 2 and three teams from Level 2 are promoted. There are a bunch of levels with promotion and relegation between all of them. Theoretically a team could start at a very low club level and win its level multiple years and end up in the Premiere League. 49 different clubs have played at the Premiere League level since 1992.

There’s not really anyway to compare it to American sports, as we don’t have interconnected leagues like they do.

 

Why yuck? It's been obvious they've been building up to that all season. In fact when Ted wound up sleeping with Rebecca's bestie, many thought it was going to Rebecca. Yeah, I guess the reaction is that it's kind of cliche. Nothing wrong with cliche if it works though.

 

Yeah I haven’t seen that either. Not that there were absolutely no hints at all. Just that I don’t think they’ve been building to that.

 

Hints that were pretty clear to me:

1) Attractive older woman who's divorced from rich husband
2) Ted giving her pastries every day which she loves (subtle here at the beginning for sure, but the type of thing in RomComs that's the start of a romance)
3) Ted getting a divorce himself. If he wasn't going to "meet" someone, why write that into the script?
4) The bestie misdirection that we saw a few episodes ago
5) Ted vs. Rebecca's ex is endearing to her. You could see it after the darts game. There's a spark there.

Maybe it's not out and out OBVIOUS, but there's a lot of more than subtle hints. Plus that's a common trope in a show that's really very "tropy".