I would not argue that at all. Jamie was heading towards Team Lasso when Rebecca interfered. What Nate did was a much more severe betrayal, in my opinion.
Though you could argue that what Rebecca did was worse than Nate; and Ted Lasso forgave her basically instantly.
No doubt. I think a lot of the fanbase wants a scorched Earth approach to Nate… not realizing that that just isn’t this show.
After two seasons of this show I cannot for the life of me understand how Ted failed Nate in any way.
He didn’t. Maybe Ted failed himself in not recognizing Nate’s toxicity.
Ted saw that they both did ridiculous things as a reaction to being hurt over a divorce so he empathized with her. There isn’t much of a parallel with Nate.
Well, the parallel with Nate is that they’ve both got daddy issues.
I’m going to start watching this at the weekend because it feels like I’ve been missing out on a rare new show that is getting universal acclaim.
I am actually a big football fan and have been for many years. My knowledge of Ted Lasso is when those promo ads this character did for NBC Sports getting the rights to broadcast the EPL. This must have been seven or eight years ago.
Agree, there are quite a few quizzical looks between Beard and Ted or occasional puzzled looks when Nate is acting up, but they didnt stop to ask what’s wrong or talk through things, so I can see Ted blaming himself for not doing something about a situation , that in retrospect, was brewing up rapidly .
To a certain extent they didnt notice his rapidly graying hair, increasing hostility and snark , but kind of ignored it as if it wasn’t a problem or Nate wasn’t someone to worry about. Sometimes in management role what defines you is not what you do but the behaviors you tolerate.
Yeah I cant imagine someone could have sat through two seasons and is thinking “I hope the show gives that guy what’s his due” about Nate .
Forgiveness, trying to understand yourself and give yourself a break, treat others with kindness just because and not out of reciprocity seem to be big themes of the show.
I still hope Rupert gets a hefty punt to the happy sack though.
Along with Jamie’s father, who is also a piece of shit.
We just finished S2. Loved the whole series, but I agree that season 2 was a little bit of a letdown from season 1, while still being above average.
I didn’t really have a problem with there being more drama, but it was, in my opinion, poorly done in some ways. Ted’s big revelation was SO predictable. Even early in season one I told my wife that I hoped we weren’t going to find out that Ted’s optimism and sunny disposition were a shield to prevent him from facing some horrible trauma - and that’s exactly what we got. Repressed feelings leading to panic attacks. That might as well be a TV Trope.
Nate’s evolution was a little better in that they showed how he was constantly evaluating situations to make himself the victim. But again, ‘bad father’ is the excuse. You know, some people become like Nate not because they lacked love or attention as children, but because thry got entirely too much praise for too little, and the real world let them down. Sometimes people become who they are for reasons totally disconnected from their upbringing.
And the fathers themselves were stereotypes. Complete rat-bastards, or completely indifferent to their children. Relationships are more complex than that.
I’m also a little tired of the ‘enlightened psychologist’ character type, who sometimes acts as an explainer for the audience (“Did it ever occur to you that your feelings are the result of X?”) and are almost always portrayed as superior, enlightened people. I know quite a few psychologists, and if anything they are more screwed up than average.
So when the show veers into these areas it just becomes average. Not bad, but nothing you haven’t seen a million times. I preferred the story of how an American football coach winds up coaching soccer, and how he deals with everything from the rules to the crazy fans and prima donna players. And how the team finds an unconventional way to success.
If you want more serious stuff out of that, you could look at how harsh coaching works on players in the short term but undermines their confidence in the long term.
Using Ted as an example, you could show how important team dynamics are and how a sunny, winning disposition could carry over onto the team and make them over-perform.
You could show how an abusive coach creates abusive players who in turn create dysfunctional teams. Or even how a supportive coach makes the player’s lives better but causes the team to lose through lack of drive.
They hinted at a few of these issues during the show, but spent more time on the ‘father’ angle.
I don’t know how many panic attacks I’ve ever seen portrayed on TV before, but there isn’t a sports movie in existence that doesn’t pore over everything you’ve mentioned about coaching, and in excruciating detail. I’m very happy with them leaving that all out.
Except that we saw the therapist being screwed up and needing a therapist of her own (and being just as difficult with her therapist as Ted was to her). Dr Fieldstone was good at what she did, but I would argue that she’s not portrayed as being without significant issues herself.
In particular, we saw the suggestion that Dr Fieldstone was drinking excessively.
I think that will be a significant story arc in Season 3. Nate v Ted.
While true, in her conversations with her patients she’s a miracle worker. They talk to her, cry, problem solved. Along with Jamie’s instant conversion from asshat to perfect teammate, it just… I dunno, it seems very pat.
That’s true with the minor characters, but that’s part of the joke. The actual sessions we see, with Ted, don’t go quite that smoothly, and she has to alter her approach to get Ted to really open up and confront his issues, and that takes the better part of the season. And Ted seemed to me to pretty clearly indicate in his press conference after his “breakthrough” that he’s still struggling. He’s doing better, but I thought it was pretty clear that his problems weren’t “solved”.
I think some of why people think Jamie made the conversion too quickly is that they might be forgetting the progress he already made toward being a better teammate in the first season. He opens up to the team during the group sacrifice in the treatment room, he maturely thanks Keely for teaching him to not get in his own way so much, and the fact that he makes the extra pass at the end proves that, no matter how angry he might be at Ted for being sent back to Manchester, he didn’t forget what Ted taught him.
Halfway thru S2 right now. Whatever its shortcomings (and I think S2 more glib than S1), this is likely the best show I’ve watched in a LONG time. Can’t remember when I laughed so much.
But I think I can recall shows in the past where I felt the same (Brooklyn 911, Modern Family…) where I ended up thinking, “Wait, didn’t I LIKE this show as some point?”
I just finished season 2, and this is what I wanted to come here and read about. The increasing amount of grey in Nate’s hair during each episode really stood out for me. Obviously this was on purpose, and the final scene of the season opens framing on his grey speckled hair.
During the first season I assumed Nate was supposed to be in his early 20s, so the greying was a way to accelerate his age from 22 to 45 over one season.
I do think the (downward) character arc for Nate does hold up back to the first season. As people have mentioned, lots of signs of his inner arsehole. He’s somebody who has always been bullied, and now that he has a bit of power and deserved praise, he doesn’t know any way to act other than as a bully himself. He can’t tell the difference between confidence and being a bully.
I did like the Coach Beard episode, because all shows need to have that one WTF episode.