Just finished watching the show. I loved it, though I agree that the first season was better. I doubt it would have worked for them to just do the first season over again, though. I even liked the Christmas and Beard episodes, and I usually have an extremely low tolerance for Christmas-related glurge. Besides, it had possibly my favorite line of the entire series:
Higgins: What does Christmas remind you of in your country, Sam?
Sam: Colonialism.
Weren’t the Christmas and Beard episodes late additions because the season got extended? Not surprising they’re a bit different from the rest.
Yes. Apple asked for an extra episode in both cases, because the show was so popular and of course they’d want more of it. The showrunners didn’t want to tear up their episode-by-episode story breakdown to stretch the plot over an additional installment, so they made totally stand-alone episodes instead.
(The Beard After Hours episode is one of my favorites. I acknowledge its divisiveness; it’s obviously not for everybody. But it’s equally obviously a deeply felt tribute to a movie I adore, so I’m a soft mark for it. Nevertheless, if someone doesn’t enjoy it the same way, I’ll never try to change their mind.)
Same. But you’ll get a bunch of people (maybe not here but other places online) jumping on you saying “this isn’t a soccer show, it’s about the people”. Well yeah, but the setting that it’s a soccer show was pretty important to the plot in Season 1. In Season 2, it moved much farther into the background, and I think the show suffered for it. I hope in Season 3, soccer is moved more into the foreground - at the least they’ll have to chart how Richmond and West Ham are doing I’d imagine.
I’m someone that says this. If I listed my top 10 scenes I’m sure none of them would involve game footage at all, and the “lineup like American football players” would be in my bottom list.
I don’t think I could have told you which season concentrated more on the game before now. I liked S1 way more though. Maybe subconsciously that’s why.
Re the Christmas episode: I’d sit through Hee-Haw if Hannah Waddingham sang on it, so I was pleased with the episode for that reason alone. She ended up recording her vocals live, rather than the pre-recorded vocals they’d made.
The show’s writer said:
Look up some of her performances online. She’s amazing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czFYaEk91NA
Not sure if anyone linked to this YouTube video of several cast members at the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium. The person interviewing them doesn’t seem to realize who they are and I think he even believes one of them is an actual football player.
I loved the Christmas episode if only because it meant more Roy/Phoebe story. The two of them need a spinoff. Whether they are solving crimes, running a vegan bakery, or traveling through time putting right what once went wrong, I will watch every episode.
Serious question- does it bother you (or anyone else in the more-soccer camp) that we haven’t seen Ted make much of an effort to understand soccer? Even after 2 seasons, his ignorance of both its mechanics and its history are played up as jokes. If this was a business-as-usual type sitcom, there would have been a “Ted finally gets soccer” episode at some point but obviously there hasn’t. I just thought it was interesting from a thematic point of view that they haven’t found it necessary and I wonder if that’s the show runners sending the message that the soccer aspect isn’t as important as the people aspect, so they aren’t going to bother taking time to show the details. So if you’re watching as a more-soccer person, is seeing how Ted actually learned the game important to you?
There are strange incidents of where it seems like he’s getting the game and then makes a rookie boneheaded statement. Like when they are playing in the FA Cup and seems surprised that fields can be different sizes. Like… he would have known that from managing for a year and a half already.
On a certain level, they have been showing that Ted is the motivational guy and Beard is the real tactician. And then, of course, they got Nate and Roy (how are they hiring that much additional staff, after going down, and then losing their main sponsor for an obviously lower paying one is beyond me). But at a real level, moving away from the soccer aspects make the show seem far less grounded to me.
Yeah, Ted has done a good enough job hiring people who know their shit to excuse the lack of soccer knowledge. As a soccer person the only thing that bothers me is the commentating during games is a lot more “explain what’s going on to the Americans” than actual football commentating.
What movie?
After Hours. I love that movie too. Didn’t like the episode since it felt out of place in the Ted universe. It’s like saying fairy tales are real but only for the next hour.
I think they shoved Thierry Henry in that episode just because its a fun name to say.
S3 Trailer:
Lots of soccer in the trailer, that should please some.
Prediction: West Ham knocks Richmond out of the FA cup and the shot of Ted and his kid in the West Ham jersey are them showing up to the next round and cheering Nate.
I bet you’re right. The whole thing looks good!
I’m not one to be invested in fictional relationships but if Keeley and Roy don’t stay together I’ll be pissed. It didn’t look good at the end of the last season but they look together in the trailer. Guess we will find out.
Glad to see Trent Crimm in the trailer after he lost his job. That’s someone who managed to be compelling despite having limited screen time.
I’m hoping after this season they do the reverse fish out of water and have Roy coach in MLS, ideally in LA, where Keeley’s career is taking off.
Nah.Roy eventually is going to live happily ever after with his niece’s teacher.