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ceruleanwhore · 11 months

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In my soul, I feel disgusted and betrayed by this finale and I am shocked that the same writers who were able to give us such a truly wonderful show somehow came up with such a terrible ending for it. This episode directly opposes the very nature of the show more than any other episode in such a way that then calls into question the rest of the series. This episode feels every bit as hollow and sad as Ted himself seems to be throughout the finale and makes me wonder if we ever were actually supposed to believe and to hope at all in the first place, even though I thought that was the point of the series.

The first of many issues I have with the episode is how they handled Rupert. The whole show is about belief, but specifically believing in others’ capacity for good and ability to change for the better. It’s about believing in redemption and reconciliation, which they actually could have done for Rupert even this late in the show. The scene in episode 10 where we get a glimpse of the inner child that’s still tucked away somewhere inside him showed us that even he still had this potential, up until they did what they did for the finale. While I, personally, tend to be more like Sassy was in that scene — gleefully cheering for the downfall of an odious scoundrel — it felt completely wrong for this show in particular to include that kind of public humiliation, which we the audience are all supposed to be cheering for, and in the middle of Ted’s last game ever with Richmond.

Where we actually could have used a side bit about a scoundrel getting his comeuppance is with Ted’s ex wife and their ex therapist. I think it’s absolutely terrible that they went and set up Rupert’s downfall the way they did while Jake apparently gets off scot free and never gets his license revoked or anything. There also is never really any acknowledgement of just how wrong what he did was, how he should have his license revoked, and how his actions call into question every bit of therapy Ted and Michelle got from him. No one ever questions ‘Oklahoma,’ never mind the entire divorce, relative to this man’s breach of ethics and it bothers me to no end that the most we get is his absence at the end from scenes with Ted, Michelle, and their son. We didn’t need Rupert dressing up like Darth Vader and physically assaulting someone, we needed Michelle realizing how completely wrong her whole relationship with Jake is, dumping him, and reporting him.

The next issue is Ted himself. Obviously, he was in a gloomy sort of mood throughout the whole episode, but I think it’s really important to point out how that didn’t actually clear up once he got home. I do believe he was happy to see his son but, from the plane ride onward, it’s like he’s just hollow. We see him coaching little league soccer for his kid and yet there isn’t any of the heart and soul in it that we’ve seen him put into his other coaching. It’s like he’s depressed, which is understandable because he just left a whole incredible, supportive community to come to Kansas where, like Odysseus at the end of the Oddyssey, he’s a stranger in his own home. He goes from having a whole city around him to support him to seemingly having nothing and not even being a welcome member of his own family since he’s still divorced. Also, as others have pointed out, that montage that seems to be a dream sequence when he’s on the plane ride home is all about him writing himself out of the lives of everyone he just left behind. He’s decided that it’s better for everyone there to just forget about him and move on with their lives as though he was never there and he’s literally dreaming about how happy they’ll be to do that.

This is a major thematic issue for this series because one of the main points of the series is the idea that everyone can change for the better and, more importantly, just about every character does. Ted spends all that time in England working on his own shit like everyone else, and even gets over his aversion to therapy in order to seek help for the first time ever, just to throw all of that away at the very end because apparently he’s just back on his bs and that’s it. This is where it would maybe be alright if there were another season after this one to address and fix this, but there isn’t. In the very last episode of the whole thing he’s throwing away his entire community, dreaming about how happy they’ll be without him, and there’s nothing and no one there correcting that. To me, this is like if right at the end of the last episode with no room left to fix it, they just had Beard go steal another car and then act like the audience is supposed to be okay with it.

The other thing, going off of that, is how they handled some of the relationships, and I specifically want to start off by talking about Ted and Rebecca. They have the distinction of being the only ship to truly be baited, more than once, and very unnecessarily so. The bait scene at the start of the final episode contributes nothing to the plot, the characters, or their relationship with each other — all it does is mock the members of the audience who were foolish enough to believe they ever could have been together. This, to me, also goes against the core values and themes of the show, because ship baiting like that is inherently mean-spirited and Ted Lasso at its core is meant to be kind. There is nothing kind about essentially dangling something over someone’s head, playing keep away with it, until you finally just chuck it in the river and laugh at the person for being so foolish as to think they were ever going to get it. It’s mean for the sake of being mean and again, for the umpteenth time, it contributes nothing.

So then let’s get to Roy, Jamie, and Keeley. Jamie and Roy are another example of a strong relationship that’s developed beautifully over the course of three seasons regressing at the very end because oh no, people ship it and we can’t have that. I do think that Keeley turning both of them down was necessary but Roy and Jamie literally getting into a fistfight over her was completely unnecessary and detrimental to their individual characters. By this point, they both are mature enough and respect Keeley enough that it’s genuinely ooc for them to be fighting each other about who gets to date her while she’s not even there. Season 3 Jamie and Roy would’ve been leaving the decision to her without reverting back to macho Neanderthal crap.

To me, this is also about the creators recognizing that people in the fandom have ships and, for whatever reason, feeling the need to try and shut that down rather than just leaving well alone. If, instead of getting in a fight like they did, Roy and Jamie had a conversation about their shared experiences of wanting to be with Keeley but not knowing where they stand with her and recognizing how hard it is for each other, then it could end up contributing to the further growth of their relationship and, along with it, shipping and oh no, we can’t have that. Just like with Avatar: the Last Airbender, the presence or lack of romantic relationships is not the issue here, the problem is with writers accidentally setting up an incredibly compelling ship and then being like “oops, we didn’t mean to do that,” and trying to ctrl z it in the finale, at the detriment of the whole story. Why oh why do writers keep feeling the need to sacrifice the quality of their whole story for the sake of trying to get people to stop having opinions?

So then last up is Ted and Trent. As many others have pointed out, that bit where Ted’s reading the book and makes that comment about the ‘laugh police’ in response to Trent’s excitement and anxiety is extremely out of character. Ted “but he’s our dork” Lasso would never say that and I was horrified to hear those words come out of his mouth. However, this goes in with the destruction of his entire character arc and every bit of growth he’s done throughout the past three seasons all in this one episode, because that was him actively pushing Trent away because, as previously acknowledged, he’s back on his bs.

One issue with this is that Ted then never has a proper goodbye with Trent and the closest thing to that is the note he left asking Trent to change the title of the book. It’s not that I necessarily think he needed individual goodbyes on screen with every other character but Trent in particular was hugely important for Ted, like how Rebecca was. Do you really mean to tell me that Ted wouldn’t actually say goodbye to the journalist who wrote what, coming from him at the time, was essentially a glowing review when he was actually hired with the intention of destroying Ted’s career? Do you mean to say he wouldn’t get a proper goodbye with the man who threw away his whole career over him? The man who then decided the first thing he wanted to do after leaving said career was to write a book about him and his team? Seriously?

The other thing with Trent is that, where Ted’s ex wife and even Rebecca have felt the need to use ‘Oklahoma’ with him to get him to tell the truth, Trent has a talent for discerning the exact truth from Ted regardless of what he does or does not say. It would have been perfectly in character for him to go talk to Ted like Rebecca tried to but then actually succeed where she failed because he would be able to clearly read Ted’s signals and throw that all back at him. Unlike Rebecca, he could directly call out how much Ted didn’t actually want to leave.

That is actually the biggest issue this episode had — cowardice. The only reason I can think of why they wouldn’t even consider doing something like what I just described is because, like with Roy and Jamie, they are perfectly aware of the chemistry between those characters and how they have set them up so it reads like they’re in love with each other, and a scene like this would be just about impossible to do without coming across as romantic. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Ted and Trent would’ve already been snogging by the start of the season if one of them were a woman. This show did the thing where they’ve decided that they can have a couple gay characters, but those characters can only get with specifically devised side characters because God forbid you just have your two existing characters of the same gender kiss a bit. Between the pairings of Ted and Trent, and Roy and Jamie, there is enough textual evidence of mutual attraction and the potential for real, romantic relationships that one could write over a hundred pages about it, and that is not an exaggeration. When I look at this finale, one of the things I see is the titular character being destroyed because they decided that was better than letting people think that he could maybe not be straight.

The last issue I have here is that there really were no goodbyes. Rebecca showed up at the airport and that’s it and I thought that was very weird and, again, very much not in accordance with the entire rest of the show. Even if they didn’t have the entire team show up at the airport to say goodbye, it didn’t make sense to not even have just the Diamond Dogs show up for that. Where tf was everyone? Because just from watching the whole rest of the show, I think it would be impossible not to expect the team, the dogs, the folks from the pub and maybe also Shannon from town. It was a cold, empty departure far from fitting for the show at all and it left me coming out of that finale feeling cold and empty from the crippling disappointment. They had a whole show centered around interpersonal relationships and support and then had the coldest, loneliest ending anyone there could have devised.

My final thought here is that this is not an ending and the only way to salvage this wreckage is with another season. This feels like something they’re doing to drum up attention and interaction so that it’ll be successful when they do come in and announce that they’ve changed their minds and there will be another season, like an encore at a concert. However, if this really is the end, then I am absolutely disgusted and feel very betrayed right now because this show told me to believe and taught me that maybe hope isn’t actually a bad thing that’s out to get me, just to turn around and crap all over that. This show didn’t just apparently waste hours of my time, it was actually helping to get me to move on from past pain and start to accept hope as a good thing, until it shattered mine. They desecrated the very art they created and then expected the audience to applaud such disrespectful destruction, and I am disgusted by it.

#ted lasso #ted lasso finale #ted lasso meta #ted lasso review #ted lasso s3 #ted lasso season 3 #ted lasso season three #ted lasso spoilers #tedbecca #royjamie #tedtrent #tedependent #ted lasso critical #ted lasso criticism #anti ted lasso

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lunar-years · 12 days

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okay. at risk of being too harsh on Ted...

I genuinely do not think he's a very good coach. And I do not mean that just in the obvious "well he doesn't even know anything about the sport he's head coach for" way, even though like, yeah, duh that really is a crucial point. I mean it in like, he's genuinely not as good at managing and delegating and working alongside his fellow coaches! The way he acts and the ways he manages the team so rarely feels...collaborative? I've been thinking about it a lot after reading posts from other blogs about how he constantly brushes off/ignores Beard's advice and also sends Jamie mixed messages and stuff and it's like. YEAH. It's all very "Ted makes the final decision" about everything and that's deeply goofy because Ted literally knows the least about the game out of all of them!!

We see him ignoring Beard's advice to bench Roy, and ignoring that Beard is actually trying to help the team win, as it is their job to do, until Beard finally snaps at him in s1. When he decides to reject Jamie he doesn't pause to consider it or discuss it with anyone, and even afterwards when he does have the coaches "take a vote" it feels...very performative? Like no matter what they said, it was always going to be Ted's decision in the end, and if they disagreed with what he'd already decided he wanted to do, he was just going to do it anyway.

Then he gets in Jamie's head about being a team player and passing the ball a to the point where it's actually hindering Jamie's role on the team and the strength of his performance. And even though Roy recognizes that, rather than going to Ted about it and making different suggestions, he comes up with the whole signal thing which in hindsight sort of feels...very much like Roy trying to package his complaint in a way that will be digestible to Ted's approval? Like, "oh we'll give him the signal so he doesn't feel bad about playing the way we need him to play. but ONLY when we give him the sign don't worry we'll still control it!" Instead of just being like Ted, look, I don't think your strategy for Jamie works at all and here's what we need to do instead.

It almost feels like none of the assistant coaches really feel comfortable questioning Ted's judgement...because he doesn't foster a space for them that welcomes that kind of feedback from them. Even with the Zava thing, he doesn't listen to Jamie, and Roy and Beard don't question it, BUT Roy offers to individually coach Jamie. Because Roy knows what's happening with Zava is bullshit, and he'd rather pull Jamie aside and deal with the problem himself in the way that he can, rather than talk to the head coach about how it's bullshit. And the ONE time Beard and Roy go off and try something against Ted's wishes (showing the Nate video), it massively backfires and they scramble over themselves to apologize while Ted feels even more vindicated in never valuing their input. It's like a never ending cycle of bad management. and the WORST part is that Ted will TELL them he wants to know their thoughts and hear their strategies, but then he doesn't follow it or he just goes off and does his own thing, so it results in like...a level of unintentional condescension, I think.

At the end of the day, I do not think Ted has bad intentions or is going into this stuff intending to walk over the other coaches, but it happens because his purpose and goal for the team is fundamentally misaligned with what the other coaches value. Ted wants to make the team better by changing the culture at Richmond (at least until he checks out and loses interest in even that) and Beard & Roy (& Nate) want to focus on helping them win matches. I also DO think there's something in all of this that could have been a very compelling major factor in Nate's downward s2 spiral. I've always said that to me the most lackluster part of Nate's arc was not his redemption but his downfall--which had a basis that was severely under-explored onscreen. When he leaked Ted's panic attacks, it felt so severe and sudden a leap because there wasn't enough to back up Nate's headspace throughout the season, even thought the basis is THERE. The foundation for Nate feeling ignored as a coach and having his input constantly undervalued is THERE. They just don't ever let the characters properly explore it, or god forbid allow Ted to reckon with how he's ostracized all of his coaches to some extent.

#ted lasso #roy kent #ch: ted lasso #coach beard #nate shelley #ted lasso critical #i do not consider this a hate post but i'm gonna add the anti tag to be safe #anti ted lasso #basically I don’t want to take up a character tag with criticism

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some-bear-out-there · 10 months

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Can we stop with the whole "subverting expectations" bullshit? Every other writer talks about wanting to "subvert expectations," and they seem to prioritize that over writing a good story. I thought we ended that crap with Game of Thrones.

In ten years, we're going to make fun of this writing fad like we now make fun of twist endings. Just cut that shit out and deal with the fact that a majority of your audience predicting things happening in your story means that you probably wrote a story that makes sense.

#anti ted lasso #anti black mirror #i liked some episodes this season i just hated that the creator wanted to subvert expectations and it shows #anti game of thrones #maybe you should subvert expectations by writing a good story

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itspileofgoodthings · 10 months

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maria i don't watch ted lasso but i need you to tell me everything it's doing wrong, i trust you

Chelsea!!! You sent this so long ago and I’ve just been mulling it over in my head ever since. First of all, thank you for your trust, I am honored lol.

But also, I probably don’t have a great answer as I am out of practice speaking coherently on something’s issues! But I’ll try.

I mean, I think it gets a lot wrong. if I had to break it down! I think there’s two main things wrong. The first one is that there’s a core of rot behind its core principles. And that always leeches through eventually in a tv show, and in this one I think the specific way it does that is its refusal to question any of its moral principles or even just engage with them honestly. And this makes for really boring television. In a certain sense, you always know exactly where a storyline is going to go or the thesis statement that a set-up is going to land on before it goes there. It never surprises you. Too many examples to name but one of their basic moral principles is that a one-night stand/casual sex is not only fine but good and healthy. So every time that happens on the show you know that the characters are going to be praised/reassured for it and/or if any complications do arise it’s made VERY clear that it’s not the casual sex’s fault. And it’s not like I’m going to agree with most shows about this (it’s so evil!!!!!! It destroys people!!!!!!! It is damaging and devastating the romantic landscape!!!!!!!!!!!!!) but there are ways of engaging with it as a storyline that are so much more honest than anything Ted Lasso will ever dare to do. (Friday night lights, which is the show’s antithesis in every way, frequently has casual sex and without preaching and probably even without meaning to honestly traces the consequences of it in exciting and real ways.) and basically that’s the problem with the show over and over. It professes to want to say something profound about morals and culture and life but you know beforehand exactly what you will see and learn. You can see the moral “punchline” so to speak coming from the second they open their mouths. And there are better and worse ways that that can play out. The show’s belief that taking care of your mental health/talking about it and the importance of men specifically sharing their emotions is a) valid and b) can play out in some cute and funny ways. But even then the show is still not going to surprise you. Ted will call up the diamond dogs, they’ll talk about what’s wrong, there will be some quips and they’ll end on one of them saying some therapist-speak (mostly) truth and everything will be resolved. So even when I enjoy it (and I do! I like pretty much all of the mental health conversations) it is never as brave as it thinks it’s being.

The second thing is that the show just hates romance! Or, the problem is that the show is so committed to surprising its audience (derogatory) when it comes to the romantic relationships that it will torpedo perfectly good ones and give you no resolution or closure. And tv couples are NOT the place to put your “surprises.” Like. They broke up Roy and Keeley. Which. Why? Put it back! This is so dumb! And they’re clearly not going to let Ted and Rebecca get together because they want to avoid doing that. Which is okay! But it’s like—then give us something else instead. Give us some kind of resolution/satisfaction. Just? It’s so tired and again not nearly as exciting or unpredictable as it thinks it is. They’re not actually interested in the romances themselves, just what they can say about them to the audience. Which seems to just be a vague lecturing about wanting the leads to get together romantically. It’s annoying!

There are some things I like. A lot actually! I love the cast pretty much entirely. Jaimie is so fun and funny. The team dynamics are so fun and sweet. Rebecca is wonderful. (The show’s best storyline was the first season—her trying to sabotage her husband’s team and then realizing she’s sort of accidentally found a family instead.) And there are some good friendship dynamics—particularly Rebecca and Keeley and Roy and Jaimie (sp?). But even those dynamics are held back by the show’s repetitive storytelling. They will never have a conversation (specifically the girls) where they’re not saying some girlboss mantra you could read on Twitter. But anyway back to the positives. It can be funny and have some great one-liners. I love Ted’s similes and references and metaphors. The team is great and they’re fun to watch. I actually really like how they handle the sports side of it and the balance of wins and losses and how that isn’t really the point. (They should focus on it more.) And Ted and Dr. Sharon are a really wonderful pairing where a lot is unpacked. But they drop it and don’t take it as far as they could. So the whole affect is just meandering? Even when it’s fun.

TLDR: I think it’s more surface-level than it thinks it is (something I hate) and it hates romance and clear storytelling and will mess with both for no clear discernible reason. It also has an agenda. Which, good or bad, is not a substitute for complexity and honesty and they often try to use it as one!

#joons #anti ted lasso #>> I don’t want to be annoying with my tags but just in case/for reference #wrote this out fast. will edit later #thank you for asking! <3

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regardstosoulandromance · 1 year

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so are the ted lasso fans who are anti sam/rebecca and keeley/jack because they’re boss/employee ALSO against tedbecca since they’re also boss employee? or is it fine because tedbecca are a straight white couple?

#idk just wondering #regards screams into the void #anti ted lasso

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bibliolatress · 11 months

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have truly never seen a show piss away the good will it’s generated like ted lasso has. genuinely happy for the people who are happy with this season, but i personally cannot fathom how they thought some of these choices would be received well

#ted lasso #anti ted lasso #i have a more coherent post brewing in me but for now i just want to vent that a havent been this disappointed in a show since musketeers #like just from a narrative - structural point of view this season is a MESS #WHY DO YOU KEEP TELLING AND NOT SHOWING US?!?

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cherish--these--times · 10 months

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“They would've shipped your ass back to Kansas, where you belong. With your... With your son. 'Cause you... you sure as hell don't belong here.”

Good morning! It’s around 7am my time and I can’t help but think about the short-lived villain of the story spitting this in Ted’s face and that’s how the show about overcoming adversity ended bye.

#ted lasso spoilers #I can’t with this show #it hurts #why on earth did they think this would be satisfying #why does everything has to be so fucking bleak all the time #this is not the romcom ending we were promised #tedbecca #ted x rebecca #tagging tedbecca too because somehow this is relevant #anti ted lasso

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countessklair · 1 year

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you know what, no, i'm not done talking about this. jamie isn't 'dealing with the fact hes not number one anymore/hes not the star'. he literally already dealt with that in SEASON TWO!!!! sure he was still his arrogant prick self but it was in a fun, teasing way meant to make the team and the audience laugh, that was the whole point of The Signal, so Jamie would know he could turn up being a prick!! because he already KNEW he wasn't the star on the team, Roy's whole problem with Jamie when he became a coach was that JAMIE WAS TOO MUCH OF A TEAM PLAYER.

i swear i'm so sick of seeing people act like jamie is just throwing a fit over nothing, he's not worried from a selfish concern (although he has every right to be pissed about Zava stealing his goal, i saw someone else say that Roy would have headbutted the FUCK out of someone for that and they're right and they should say it), but the point is that jamie's biggest concern is that the team, HIS team, the goofy touchy feely himbo team that's anti-toxic masculinity THAT TEAM is regressing. they're not listening to Ted or Beard or Roy, they're just getting on the field and giving Zava the ball and that's not what team sports are about. especially not with a self-centered borderline narcissist like Zava.

also jamie's looking at this from the other side now. he used to be a bully/asshole star player. he was sent back to man city, did some soul searching and growing as a person and as a player and PROVED himself to have changed for the better. he didn't just apologize and go back to acting like a dick, no, he woke up and realized it wasn't ok for him to act like that. so now he's fucking BAFFLED why it's ok for Zava to act like this. Zava isn't an aggressive bully the way Jamie was, but Zava's tell is in his body language. he shakes off Dani and the teams congratulations, stepping infront of and above all of the rest of the team to take all of the crowds cheering for himself and to block the view of the team, he steps in front of ted to block the teams view of their fucking coach, because to Zava, *he* is the only thing that matters. to zava, he is nothing short of the sun and/or god, and jamie is the only one wearing sunglasses and not being blinded by it, and is the only one looking around like 'wtf why is everyone drinking this dickheads kool-aid please get a grip'

#ted lasso #jamie tartt #zava ted lasso #dearly missing the days bz (before zava)#anti zava

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tedtrentconspiracy · 11 months

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turns out the secret third option was worse than anyone expected

#at least we had an inkling so had time to prepare but hope you guys are doing okay that opener was cruel #tedbecca #tedtrent #tedchelle anti sorry #ted lasso spoilers #ted lasso #does anyone like tedchelle undivorce?? guess im about to find out

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elloras · 5 months

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+ Bonus Heartbreak -- His hands here:

#i'm breaking #ted lasso #tedlassoedit #roy kent #keeley jones #roy x keeley #or #anti roykeeley #who knows #*#again no Discourse about roy doing this to himself etc on this gifset please it's not the place for it

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ceruleanwhore · 11 months

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I’ve been thinking a lot about the end of Ted Lasso ever since the finale dropped and part of that is that I’m starting to really stop and think about season 3, which I didn’t have a chance to do before the finale because basically I was way behind and watched the entire last two seasons in like a week before the finale dropped to catch up just in time for the end. Because of my viewing experience and how I did rush through everything like that in order to be able to watch the finale when it aired, I didn’t really have a chance to analyse those seasons in any real capacity before that last episode dropped, which I now think contributed to my shock at how bad I felt the ending was. In retrospect, I actually think that the show was starting to go downhill even before season 3 first started and that this finale is the end result of that shift rather than it being this cheap shot out of left field that it first felt like it was.

First, there’s the matter of how they handle Nate’s fall from grace and his bit of a villain arc. While it’s not unrealistic for a guy to be unpopular and have no friends and then, when someone chooses to give him a chance because they think he’s just misunderstood, he turns out to be shitty, this doesn’t actually fit for Nate’s character or for the story in general. Nate is a kind of awkward guy who reads as neurodivergent and blossoms with the help and encouragement and validation that he first gets from Ted and then from the others and at the time they start this shift to the dark side with him, he’s actually in the middle of positive growth and is doing really well. There are other characters that they could have done this sort of arc with and had it make sense but, in the context of the story and Nate’s own character arc, it frankly just doesn’t really make sense. Combine that with some other aspects of how his character and this arc are written and it comes across like there’s maybe some bits of racism or perhaps also ableism floating around in the background there, especially when it comes to fucking Jade.

When Jade interacts with him, it definitely comes across as racist and potentially also ableist and classist, and yet her actions are never criticized and she’s actually rewarded by the narrative for some of this shit. Refusing to let Nate book that one table for no discernible reason is treated like a good thing for giving him an opportunity to learn and grow or whatever and when they’re actually dating and she goes behind his back to get him fired in order to force him into a life decision he doesn’t want to make, he never criticizes her for it and I think he even ends up thanking her. This is all coming from a show that, in the first season or two, showed us very solid, healthy relationships such as Roy and Keeley (regardless of if you ship it) and took the time to pick apart the makings of a healthy relationship and how it’s built on solid communication and mutual respect. For them to turn around and have Nate revert into this crude stereotype of a weird loser and then put him in a relationship built on disrespect and, dare I say, bigotry against him while having the audacity to present it like it’s good and healthy makes it feel like this is a different show entirely.

Going along with the idea of race, I also want to talk about Akufo. There are definitely more truly wealthy people in the show than just him and Jack, and yet I do take issue with how the only two people who are acknowledged to be billionaires, with a b, are a sapphic woman and a black man, since both are villains and both of their villainy is wholly rooted not just in money but in them being billionaires. I’ll talk more about Jack in a minute but I want to start with Akufo, because it makes me uncomfortable that they didn’t just create a villainous billionaire who happens to be a black African man but that his character is so… crude and gross and does stuff like have his assistant throw food at people who disagree with him. I mean, for fuck’s sake, throwback to when Sam turns him down and he is literally out here pantomiming taking a shit on him or whatever that was. It feels really racist and I just don’t understand for the life of me why they wouldn’t put in a white African billionaire based kind of on Elon Musk who’s out here with his fortune he built on Daddy’s blood money and then have that kind of character be doing all this crude, childish shit. It would’ve also added another layer to the conflict between him and Sam by introducing an element of racism and I just feel like it both would have actually made more sense and would have fixed the issues with the presentation of Akufo’s character.

As for Jack, the biggest issue is that we apparently can’t let a main character like Keeley be in a healthy, happy relationship that isn’t straight. It’s not that I think every lgbtq relationship in media needs to be nice and happy and healthy, but it just sits wrong with me that the only relationship that happens in the course of the show that is presented as being this unhealthy is the one sapphic romance featuring a main character. Don’t get me wrong — I love Colin and his bf, but Colin’s a side character and his bf is just a hair above being a nameless extra. Also, it bothers me to no end how they choose this relationship to point out issues with power imbalance but when Rebecca does it with Sam, she’s a girlboss who ✨slays✨

My other issue with the Jack situation is that, as someone else pointed out, the writers are willing to put in gay characters, but only in certain ways, and they aren’t willing to *go there* and allow existing characters to just happen to end up in lgbtq relationships with each other. Instead, it’s that we have our set, token lgbtq rep characters and they are exclusively allowed to do gay stuff with designated side characters that are invented solely for that purpose. They can invent a whole new person so Keeley can snog a girl, but they couldn’t possibly let her just do that with Rebecca, or even Sassy. Also, I was talking to my mom about Keeley and Jack’s relationship and she pointed out that while I had previously talked about how Roy and Keeley’s relationship really did a great job of showcasing the female gaze, Keeley and Jack really came across like they were written and filmed through the male gaze. In particular, she pointed out the scene when they’re in Keeley’s office and Keeley first kisses Jack and how, to my mom, that felt like the ‘girl on girl’ stuff that skeezy straight guys like to watch, and she’s right. Again, to my original point of this show going downhill, how tf did we go from a straight relationship that was the epitome of the female gaze in season 1 to a sapphic relationship that’s just more male gaze, homophobic, objectifying bullshit in season 3?

So as I start to consider all this kind of shit, suddenly that ending isn’t so shocking anymore. All it really was was a clearer demonstration of how this show has changed for the worse and it hit harder just because it was the finale and that was their chance to fix a bunch of stuff, but they didn’t. Ted Lasso is a show about hope and believing in everyone’s potential for good, so I think what happened is that, by virtue of the original messaging of the show itself, we all ended up hoping and believing in the show and the writers to become aware of their mistakes and fix them in time, just as their characters do, but they didn’t.

#ted lasso #ted lasso meta #ted lasso critical #ted lasso criticism #anti ted lasso #ted lasso s3 #ted lasso season 3 #ted lasso finale

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