#janie overthinks media

[petersthree]

I totally get why the arc wasn't longer with this shortened season but! Something I really loved about today's storyline with Hen (and most of her storylines tbh) and hope continues with all the characters was showing how multiple things can be true at once.

Chimney did say that he should administer care, and the guy did refuse care. Hen did clock pretty immediately that he was drunk/high, but he also very much was obviously not in his right mind and didn't understand what he was refusing - and yes, he was being a dick, but yes, it's also concerning for first responders to immediately write someone off, and you deserve full and proper care regardless of who you are or if you're in the wrong. Reviews are needed to determine what happened, and the guys should be allowed to be honest, but there is a different level of scrutiny tossed at her as a Black woman in this situation that Bobby wouldn't get, and she's fair in feeling like they were throwing her under the bus. Hen was correct in her assessment of him and she did get defensive very quickly, and she recognizes both.

All of these things can be true at once (and expanding it into fandom even - we can love Hen and be happy she was right but also have critique about what happened and point out issues with care in the same way that we point out incompetent policing in the show!) and I wish it was longer to really delve into it, but I love that we got to see that a bit, and Aisha especially plays those nuances so well.

#911 spoilers #911 abc #hen wilson #janie overthinks media #i so wish this was a season long arc but it feels p concluded and asdjfkl like i get it lolol #but i love stuff like this

[acehotel]

Interview: Michael Arceneaux

Michael Arceneaux is a writer who contains multitudes. A gifted essayist whose work navigates religion, intimacy, doubt, fear and self-actualization, he makes the tightrope walk between levity and vulnerability look easy. His debut essay collection I Can’t Date Jesus landed him on the New York Times Best Sellers list, and his essays — which have been published in Essence, Teen Vogue, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, The New York Times and more — breathe a renewed sense of possibility in prose, dressed by his signature wit and flair. 

In the latest installment Dear Reader, Tin House invited Michael to spend a night at Ace Hotel New York and, while there, pen a letter to an imagined audience. The contents of his letter have been kept secret until today, revealing themselves to the light in each room of the hotel. 

If you could correspond with any fictional character or literary figure via letters, who would it be? And why?

Michael Arceneaux: I would love to write back and forth with Zora Neale Hurston. I tend to read mainly nonfiction, which I know is like "whew chile, the ghetto" to a lot of the more refined writers and what not, but I am a fan of hers, especially a lot of her short fiction as I do enjoy a lot of short story collections. I have always appreciated her use of Black dialect 'cause I'm country. Also, I think the way she used it made for a much better understanding of her characters. The obvious character would be Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God, but it's true of much of her fiction.

However, I know that some were critical of that at the time (along with other matters related to her work), so while I know this may make me sound like the Andy Cohen or Nina Parker of The Real Housewives of The Harlem Renaissance: Reunion, but if I could write, "Sis, Richard Wright needs to have a sip and shut up about this book," I'd be totally into it. I apologize to the ancestors and living elders in advance if I'm already offending y'all. But seriously, I do value her work and I hated that she died poor. It's honestly been one of my fears in trying to have a career as a writer that I would die poor and only be truly appreciated until long after I was gone.

Do you map out your writing, or do you discover your path as you go? How often does your work go in directions you never expected?

As a working writer, particularly one who writes heavily for various outlets across Al Gore's internet, a lot of my writing assignments are time sensitive so generally I have an idea of what I want to say when I pitch or am pitched to. When it comes to my book writing, I have a general outline, too, because one, you already sold your book on proposal so the template is already there, and two, I've just become wired that way after having done largely digital media work for nearly a decade. I apologize to fans of spontaneity and the rush of unforeseen creative inspirations that transforms prose. However, there were instances on I Can't Date Jesus in which two chapters ended up a lot differently than I anticipated. One chapter in particular about my father wasn't trashed per se, but had to be changed after I had a talk with my sister. In learning more about my dad's relationship with my uncle before he died, I didn't have to put aside my feelings and experiences, but she added so much more context. So I had to sit with it. I mean really sit with it; not to just react to new intel, but table it, process it, and then go back and pour myself out all over again. It made everything for the better.

I have more recently been making much better use of the Notes app. I like to hand write a lot of things, but I've come to realize doing it on the phone is better for me because I can jot down some idea, and while traveling—particularly on that awful MTA in NY — I build little by little on it. A lot of my second book ideas came out from toying with the Notes app and handwriting an outline while eating brunch solo and casually talking to a beautiful bartender that isn't into men, but what the hell, he's still cute so I'm going to chat anyway.  

Dear Reader tasks you with writing for an imagined audience of strangers. How much do you think about your audience when you write? Have you ever been surprised by who is drawn to your work?

My main intentions with my work are to make people laugh and to make people think. I try not to think too heavily about anything else because it can become distracting. Like, I'm aware and conscious of the things I say and how I say them, but I try not to overthink because if I do, God, it's just going to take me so much longer to get anything done. I want everyone to read me so I do the best I can and hope it reaches as many as possible.

I still think of myself as a bit under the radar (to the boos and hisses of select friends and colleagues), so I am always pleasantly surprised when anyone reads my work, but I am actually never surprised at having a diverse readership. One of my very good friends and former editors once told me "You write for Black people." What he meant was I don't focus on the white gaze nor do I concern myself with worries that if I sound too uh, colloquial, that I will alienate non-Black readers. I Can't Date Jesus is a book I wish I had growing up as a working class, southern Black gay boy. I wrote it from that perspective and knew people like me would be the first to gravitate towards it. I'm so proud of that, but there are also a lot of white people in their 70s reading it. I know because they email me all the time. Others — namely in publishing — felt I would be "niche," but I write about religion, intimacy, doubt, fear and learning to love myself and enjoy pleasure. Those are universal themes, so while I may be not surprised the book is connecting with a wide readership, I'm glad they are surprising the people in publishing who often fail to give non-white writers the benefit of the doubt.

What's a book that you wish more people knew about?

Bitch Is The New Black by Helena Andrews. She is probably tired of me saying this, but I adore her as a writer, I love her book, I love her voice, and I think she was, in hindsight, somewhat ahead of her time because she definitely paved the way for a new generation of Black memoirists and deserves her flowers. This is also just another good way to publicly push and get more books out of her. If I can get a bonus, Bulletproof Diva by Lisa Jones.

Do you have any rituals, ceremonies or requirements that accompany your writing process?

I shoot up at 6:00 a.m. pretending that I'm going to immediately get to writing, but in reality, I'm just going to turn on Morning Joe because my body literally now wakes up to its schedule. How long I watch depends on how quickly someone on the panel says something that annoys me so then I go freshen up. Next up: my morning jig, a thing I do every morning in which I dance to some song in order to have a little joy before someone tries to ruin it. Eventually, I decide to write a little on my phone because I'm not ready to sit at that desk yet. I'll have some caffeine — ideally something I already have in the fridge or I'll convince myself that paying $5 for an oak milk latte will really get me going when I know this is just me wasting time and I have private student loans — meaning I shouldn't be in that coffee shop anyway. Obviously, hours have passed and then I finally settle down to write after Wendy Williams finishes “Hot Topics,” of course.

I don't really get to writing until I end up using the Freedom app to block me from the internet so I can spend hours writing. I don't recommend this, but in my defense, my discipline has waned because I have yet to take that vacation that's probably seven years overdue now.

Dear Reader is a collaboration of Tin House and Ace Hotel New York.

#dear reader #tin house #michael arceneaux #ace hotel new york #ace hotel #ace hotel nyc #new york #writing #i can't date jesus #interview #yes

[crueltyfreefashionandmakeup]

Qs

Are you close to your mom? Yes. Are you close to your dad? Yes. Where do you live? NYC. Are you married? No. Do you have an accent? I think I have a valley girl accent lmfao. I’ve been told that! Were you mean in high school? I was a goth loner. Like literal goth rebel loner. I was Janis Ian. I was super shy, but if anybody talked to me, I would give them attitude. Were you bullied? oh yes. Beyond. I was (am) so tiny and shy. Like I was so skinny and tiny, I was an easy target. Therefore I became a goth loner. How tall are you? 4”11. Have you ever had a boob job? Nope. Do you have a big booty? lmfao no. I am so thin. I have no curves. Do you have lip filler? No. Do you have Botox? no. Do you have under eye filler? Nope. Do you have a baby? no. Do you talk to any of your exes? Yes. Did you grow up wealthy? I did. I am not rich now lmfao hello I just got a job a year ago, but I make decent money. My parents do quite well and tbh good for them. Have you ever been pregnant? No. Have you ever been kicked out? No. Have you ever had an abortion? no. What color is your hair? Brown. Do you cook and clean? Yes. Do you wear makeup? Yes. Have you been to Canada? Yes. Are you a homeowner? No. Are you close to your family? My immediate family, yes. Favorite season? Autumn. Describe yourself. boujee as fuck with a down to earth personality. Do you have social media? Yes. How do you deal with sad days Writing, reading, watching Netflix, going to therapy, reaching out to friends/family, allowing myself to feel the emotions, meditating, taking a walk, ect. Have you been to college? Yes. Have you been cheated on? Yes. Do you have a salary? Yes. Are you in a relationship? no. Do you overthink? Who doesn’t? Do you like being alone? Yes. Do you have friends? yes? lol. Would you ever get back together with an ex? Nope. Would you ever get filler? I don’t plan on it but hey never say never. Do you curl your hair? Sometimes. V rarely, actually. Did you have braces? yes. Do you want a relationship? Nope. Could not be more single if I tried. I love it. Have you ever ridden a horse? Yes. Favorite movie? Spirited Away and Sleeping Beauty. Star Wars or Lord of the Rings? Star Wars. Huge Star Wars fan and LotR fan, but Star Wars > Have you ever been to therapy? Yup. In therapy ATM.

[petersthree]

There is really...something, in how Connor seems the closest to Logan when it comes to death. He was told about the mausoleum from Logan, that he has this entire story about how Logan bought it and when, and who it came from. Con is the one to plan Logan’s funeral. Our only good-natured Logan & Connor moment came from Connor reminiscing about a moment with Logan and Connor’s dead mother. It’s him, the sibling who was cast out for three years and who accepts Logan’s death so readily with a simple “he never even liked me” and whose mother can’t get a front row seat like Kerry and Marcia and Caroline and Sally Anne can, it’s Connor who buys the house and is open to the siblings all living there and then again with the mausoleum, it’s him who knows this information and gets to share it with his siblings. 

And I want to say it’s about how much he’s accepted death and has faced their reality and maybe he has but it’s still another haunted house situation, but in a different way. It’s when Con buys the house that the siblings actually pay attention to him (so much so that Ken snaps and asks for them to stop ignoring him!). It’s when he explains the mauseloum and gives them the tour that they’re listening to Connor, entranced, because he’s giving them more information about their dad. Ken, Shiv, and Rome are stabbing each other in the back and dragging each other away from the door, claiming all the while that they’re not going to live in a haunted house and that maybe they can do better, maybe. But Connor sees, Connor sees and understands and accepts their reality and holds the door to the haunted house open and says well we can live here together, at least. 

#connor roy #succession #succession spoilers #this makes zero sense i know it's just!!!!!!!!!!!!! yeah #janie overthinks media

[petersthree]

Something I really appreciate for Bill and Frank is how much we see that they both needed each other to survive.

There’s the obvious, in that Frank saved Bill’s life, and likewise. But Bill had kept that entire town protected for him and Frank - and eventually, Joel and Tess whenever they needed it. He had those safeguards in place, he listened to Joel, he had all those reinforcements and it’s important that what Bill did kept him and Frank alive all those years.

And Frank, likewise, gave Bill survival in a different way. He stayed there, he planted the strawberries, he opened up the stores that didn’t need to be restored, he gave Bill friends. Friends who loved Bill and who he loved back, even if they didn’t always want to admit it to each other. It’s just. They both had almost 20 years together, in their horrible world we saw an episode of these two finding love and keeping it, through the good days and the bad, and when it was their time to go, they faced it and went in their own terms in a world that doesn’t allow that for most of their characters. And when they go, it’s not their bodies that we ever see, it’s the open window they kept open. It’s the life they lived, together. It’s the life and materials they left behind for other people to live off of.

It’s so beautiful, also, seeing how Bill kind of passes this on to Joel and Ellie in a way (I even think under keeping Tess safe, there’s a section we didn’t see read about whoever else Joel will see in his life?) even though he didn’t know Joel would be there with Ellie. While their love is different with a father/daughter relationship versus the romantic love of Bill/Frank, Bill and Joel are so similar, men who were just trying to survive and get through each day until they found that person who became their purpose, who they loved with all their heart. And they both need each other, they both need to survive with each other, but in different ways. Because what we’ll see with Joel & Ellie is what we saw with Bill & Frank. Bill helped Frank survive, and Frank helped Bill live.

#janie overthinks media #bill x frank #bill tlou #frank tlou #tlou #the last of us #tlou spoilers #the last of us spoilers #I’m an emo binch 🤪

[petersthree]

Absolutely. Amazing btw that the episode title we made fun of for sounding like a draft was covering up the real plot. It’s about Connor’s wedding and it’s not. Logan could have went to his wedding and he could have gotten to a hospital faster, or died with his family all around him. But Connor’s wedding was so stupid and inconsequential to him that he decided he was going to focus on the kids that mattered to him by messing with them all the more. So he dies, alone, in a plane bathroom.

Roman leaves the voicemail because he’s upset, and scared that his dad is leaving him out to dry again. And because he asks, twice, if Logan is really going to miss Connor’s wedding. Shiv misses those crucial moments of maybe talking to her dad and believing that he can actually hear her, because she was off to tell Connor that Logan wasn’t coming to the wedding.

And Connor? Connor decides that Logan’s death is as inconsequential as Connor’s life was to Logan, and he gets married anyway. It’s all about Connor’s wedding, in that it’s all about how much it isn’t about Connor’s wedding and important that becomes.

#succession #connor roy #logan roy #janie overthinks media #succession spoilers

[petersthree]

ALSO ALSO can we just talk about how the documentary crew has been more actively present this season - esp in the premiere and finale?? We hear the producer’s voice in the premiere. Guillermo mentions pausing for the documentary crew to edit. We see Nandor & Laszlo preparing for their close up with the crew. The Guide gets those pauses for her flashbacks and Colin comments on the editing. Guillermo mentions how the crew followed them. Laszlo asks where they are to pull up footage and even knows the name of the crew member - we know one of them is named Ryan!!!

It’s so interesting to see because we’ve seen them develop and grow to care more about each other. But we’ve also seen that they have to acknowledge people outside their group (to varying degrees of success) - The Guide, Nadja’s Antipaxos family, Sean & Charmaine. And it’s even extended to the crew. Instead of being so background that the vampires forget they’re there, or for throwaway jokes about how one of them died during the process like in s1, they feel more like real people. Our characters know them, they know how they act, they know their names. They’re still faceless characters but the crew feels more real this season than they ever did before and I so think that’s intentional with how the vampires arcs have worked out this season.

#wwdits #wwdits spoilers #what we do in the shadows #janie overthinks media #wwdits documentary crew

[petersthree]

I truly cannot stop thinking about what Roman said about Sophie and Iverson. That Ken was stock still as Roman said that Sophie was a buy-in and jumped when Roman said that Iverson wasn’t his but half Rava and half someone else.It could have been so many things, so many questions I have raised by this. Did they use sperm donation. Did she cheat. Did Logan think she cheated because he just couldn’t handle having an autistic grandchild. Sophie is adopted and they ignore her completely but Iverson is that question mark, Roman says it’s half Rava and half some other guy right? That was Dad’s view at least. That was always Dad’s view. And Dad’s view hangs over everything no matter if it’s the truth or not. The kids are part of the family but they’re not. They’re real but they’re not real. They’re Kendall’s kids but they’re not. They’re the eldest grandchildren but they’re not. The poison drips down but the cycle that repeats for them isn’t Kendall’s. It’s Connor’s. 

#succession #succession spoilers #connor roy #sophie roy #iverson roy #kendall roy #does this make sense because i'm rotating this in my head and i just. cannot. #janie overthinks media

[petersthree]

One of the best little details Succession adds in is showing us that Iverson is probably Rava and Kendall’s biological child without ever saying it, through Logan’s treatment of him.

Logan calls Iverson over at Thanksgiving. He’s reading a book to Iverson after Kendall’s attempt. He has Iverson eat the food. Logan never acknowledges Sophie or refers to her whatsoever, even though she’s often in the same room/scene as him. It’s Iverson, as the biological child (and lbr, as the white kid, because Sophie’s race definitely also comes into play) who gets the attention. It’s not good attention, obviously, but Logan seems him as family while Sophie Roy May as well be an NRPI.

#succession #sophie roy #logan roy #iverson roy #I am always thinking about this I’m ngl sjsjssj it’s just one of those small things in the background that you see #how Sophie is just completely disregarded by Logan because she’s neither white or biologically related #janie rambles #janie overthinks media

[petersthree]

I just cannot stop thinking about “I don’t want to live in a haunted house.” These kids are free from Logan for the first time in their lives and it lasts until they step into his house and get haunted all over again. Shiv says he won’t get mad if we see him and enters the house to get cut out again. Kendall suggests therapy and then the line pulls him back to obsessing over who he was to their father. Roman wants to do everything as a trio but then says that he had the most special, closest bond with Logan. Connor gets married anyway, and then he buys the haunted house.

They joke about living in the house together but they already are, they’re all living in a haunted house and they’re looking at each other and grasping each other’s hands and saying we’re leaving now, it’s over, we’re free as they walk deeper into the haunting.

#it’s making me go!!!!!!!! AHHHH #succession #connor roy #kendall roy #roman roy #shiv roy #janie overthinks media #succession spoilers #succession meta

[petersthree]

cannot stop thinking about how logan is gonna die on a plane. I know it in my heart. He’s 100 feet tall everyone else is so small he’s going to die thousands of feet in the air and anyone who could have possibly helped him is going to be so small and far away 

#succession #logan roy #janie overthinks media

[petersthree]

Something else that shows how much Buck is Chris’s other father - the scenes he has with Chris vs what Chim has with Denny. This was our first real Denny & Chimney interaction, and it’s warm, it’s friendly, and we know how much the firefam love each other so the love is there always, but it’s not domestic. They talk but it’s clear Chim is entering /The Wilson’s/ space, that he’s there to pick up Hen, and happened to see Denny. Denny talks to Chim and is clearly thinking about his dad (something that he very much doesn’t see Chimney as, as much as he must love Chim! He tells his moms that he’s not looking for Eva because he has the mothers he wants and needs, but he wants a dad too). There’s a reason set up for the audience so that we know Why this scene is happening, even though logically we would know that Chim and Denny would definitely know each other!

Buck and Chris’s scenes, though? They’re in the home, in the middle of the scene (them eating together, making cookies for Chris’s class!) without the set up to explain why they’re talking, because of course they would be talking. There’s nothing to explain - it’s the same if Madney were with Jee-Yun, or Bathena with Harry or May, or Henren with Denny. Of course Buck is there with the Diaz guys in this morning. Of course he’s there with them for dinner, of course he’s helping make cookies with Chris! And when we think back on other scenes - him being there to see Chris with Santa, him being there at Christmas. He’s just there, in the middle of these scenes, skipping the set-up, because it would be like trying to make one for Eddie - why would we get that for a character who’s so clearly already Chris’s parent?

#janie overthinks media #911 fox #911 spoilers #911 meta #buddie #evan buckley #christopher diaz #buckley diaz family #they make me!!!!!!!

[petersthree]

I don’t have the exact words on this connection but just. There’s something in the way Ravi and Maddie’s first interaction is her at her worst moment where she leaves Jee-Yun with him, where she deems Ravi a safe person and they - and Chimney by association - forever become bonded by this experience. How Maddie couldn’t hand it off at the time and felt like she had to stay away and feared she would hurt her child even though Jee-Yun is alive, how Ravi doesn’t want to come back because he can’t hand this trauma of the child off, and not the one who died, but the one he saved. How Chimney sets out to find Maddie and doesn’t rest until he brings her home and then Bobby sends Chim out to the academy to bring Ravi home. 

#the parallels are there and they MEAN SOMETHING i just don't have the !!!!!!! idk the exclamation marks are all i have #maddie buckley #chimney han #ravi panikkar #janie overthinks media #janie rambles #911 fox #911 spoilers

[petersthree]

Okay okay okay I was talking with @fallowtail about Jay and I just gotta scream about how Jay’s unconditional love not only is for Sam but extends to all the ghosts. 

It’s one thing to say “Okay. Fine, you see ghosts, that’s weird and cool!” and then just end it there, which Jay could easily do since he can’t directly interact with the ghosts. But he absolutely loves them and it’s just so clear in how he makes every effort possible to interact with them. When Sam says “Pete wishes he could play” Jay doesn’t go “Oh, that’s too bad,” he says that actually yeah they can totally play together. When he sees the maximum capacity has been changed to 69 he rolls his eyes because he immediately knows it’s Trevor’s fault because he knows Trevor’s personality. He remembers that Flower forgot Sam’s name yesterday, when Sam leaves the room he tries to do the handshake with Pete, he runs around the house desperate to see one of them, he does Sas’s flirting for Shiki, he knows exactly when the ghosts would take offense (”I’m guessing they didn’t like the ghosting comment”). Even with the Halloween episode - it could have been a two-parter where they spend the whole episode trying to get Jay to listen, but it’s not. It’s because he knows the ghosts so well that he got their message as quickly as he did when Sam got stuck. 

And we can see why he’s so down with this, beyond his love - Jay’s also so, so lonely and wants friends. He’s already been treated like a ghost with his own friends in DnD, with them not being able to see or hear him for a long period, and had to deal with hearing them talk about replacing him with someone else right in front of him. Jay’s also spoken so much about missing friends and wanting to make new ones - he told Sam there’s an entire group of people in their home that she can see and hear and he’s left out of it, he almost joins a cult because of how starved for friends he is, he’s so desperate to be friends with their new neighbors to the point that even though he’ll sit in the tree for Sas & Sam, he still asks the neighbors to not hold this against them!! Like the dude is so lonely and there’s an entire group of people that he genuinely loves in his own home and I adore that he makes sure that he interacts with them as people and never tries to make them feel left out. Like to an extent he gets how they feel and doesn’t want to exclude them (and also wants to feel included, because in this scenario he’s still kind of the outsider in a friend group since Sam can see them). 

It’s just really cool to me because it provides us an environment where instead of ignoring each other, Jay is as much of their friendship as Sam is, just in a different way. He’s best friends with Pete, he and Trevor have a snarkier relationship, Sas appreciates him, etc. - instead of just ignoring each other and cohabiting, we get varied interactions and dynamics and they actually feel genuine because of how much effort Jay puts in to knowing all the ghosts, and it’s just so incredibly nifty. 

#cbs ghosts #ghosts cbs #jay arondekar #i could go on for aaaaages about jay + the ghosts but they'd all end up going back to this point lmaoooo i just love them <3 #janie overthinks media

[petersthree]

I am a proud clown so I really genuinely do ascribe to each season being a specific sibling’s “season”, and that Connor’s season is this season, as little as he shows up. We see each sibling get promised the crown in each season and have a fuckup that causes it to be taken away. And they fight over this regardless in the final season - it was Kendall first, it was Roman last, here’s a piece of paper, here’s who’s getting the work done. But Connor wasn’t promised that, or at least if he was it was so long ago that it stopped mattering a while back.

But while his siblings argue over a crown that they never get he buys the house. While they point fingers and try to figure out who killed their dad and robbed them of their final moments it’s Connor who gets those last few months and happy home videos. While they ask if any of them knew he did sudoku or that he still was doing his little funny speeches and they shake their heads no that it’s Connor who can recount who Logan bought the mausoleum from and why he got it.

They fight and they kill and they maim for a ghost of a man who never would have told them he loved them but Connor said episodes ago that he learned to live without their love. That Willa was the only one who didn’t think he was a joke and that he’d listen to her. That even if she didn’t love him it would ultimately be all right. And he’s in this perpetual state of limbo in the finale where we don’t know what’ll happen until the election results but Con’s going to be fine either way.

And he WILL be fine and even when he’s absent he’s important. It’s his wedding that Logan misses, that causes Logan to die alone instead of with his family. It’s Connor’s mom’s story that gets leaked as a way to besmirch Logan’s memory. It’s Connor who Mencken’s team tries to sway because he could push an entire election one way or another. It’s Connor being that link to their dad that makes the siblings sit with him and remember their dad and sit there as a family. That makes them remember him so much that when Kendall says that he’s the oldest that this time instead of shaking her head in agreement Shiv says that’s not true. He doesn’t get the company or anything the siblings might consider success, but his story is the opposite of theirs, where they start off high and then fall from grace. Connor always knew he wasn’t going to win, and it’s why he ends up winning.

#connor roy #can we tell I love Connor I have so many thoughts about Connor #succession #succession spoilers #janie overthinks media

[petersthree]

Nate is really one of the most interesting characters to me, because his character begs the question: what happens when your life gets better but you’re still not happy? 

Because we see how Nate is in the beginning. We root for him and we love the attention that he gets and how he gets his time to shine. Ted’s methods clearly work for a lot of the characters, it has its merit, and Nate (at first) is no exception. He’s promoted to being a coach, he’s getting attention, the team is also improving so they’re being kinder and everything is better now, right? 

Except in season 2 (and 3!) we see the cracks - in Nate, but for all the coaches, really, because ironically the coaches who are mentoring the players and telling them to believe are also the ones we see struggling with that mentality the most. Beard’s one of Ted’s strongest supporters, his right-hand man, but we see in Beard’s episode how deep his depression and self-hatred run. Roy isn’t exactly screaming Ted’s methods from the rooftops, but we see how he slowly accepts it and appreciates it, and how it does help him - but he struggles with finding his purpose and feeling wanted and needed, and it shines in quitting things early and never getting proper closure in things he really loved, with him constantly wondering if he ever really made the best choice (his team, his job, his relationship with Keeley). Ted struggles to express these negative emotions and it spirals quickly, especially in season 2. 

And Nate? Nate watches as his life objectively gets better, but struggles because his anger and resentment don’t go away. He gets the attention from Ted but (even though it’s not the intention!) feels as if Ted drops him the second things improve. He gets a better job but his father will never say he’s proud. He tries to exude confidence but Jade (who’s most likely seen him for a while since it’s his favorite restaurant) immediately sees through through his persona and Doesn’t Care and Nate is so thrown off by it. He keeps looking for that validation through other people and we see that clear frustration because everything is better on paper so then why are the bad feelings still there? With every win, with every improvement, he gets angrier and more frustrated and then it spirals into him leaving for West Ham and Rupert. With Rupert, Nate leans in on hey, nobody loved me at my lowest and nobody loved me at my best, so maybe I’ll try being my worst. 

And god, I LOVE that even though fans thought he’d fail and that this would humble him into a redemption, he hasn’t. He tries to go with Rupert and get that validation from him and we see how much he struggles with that, because now he’s leaning in at what Rupert wants and we see how much he hates that, but Nate’s also at a point where Rupert’s attention is clearly conditional, he’s still not getting that fatherly validation, and he knows that and that’s where we see him finally start to come into his true self. Jade finally softens because she sees Nate holding strong to his opinion on Taste of Athens and admitting he’s putting on an act, he’s being honest and himself for the first time in those scenes. He tries to cultivate a relationship with the other employees and even if the Diamond Dogs ripoff didn’t work? They still invited him to drinks this episode! He sees Rupert for who he is and he goes back to Jade, and he wants so, so much to apologize to Ted for everything. 

Nate’s moved from a positive environment to this conditional one and the narrative could have easily went “Nate has crashed and burned and now realizes what he messed up” but instead it allowed Nate to figure out who he is and who he wants to be, by himself. He’s still growing and learning, of course, but he’s well on his way, and I think it’s just such a cool way to show that what’s helpful for some people can be incredibly detrimental for others if it doesn’t target what they need and that there’s so many avenues for a person to grow and improve themselves. 

#this went in a million different directions but!!! anyway!!!!! #janie overthinks media #nate shelley #nathan shelley #not sure which tag people use lol #ted lasso spoilers #tlasso #ted lasso apple tv