PREMISE
With their season in a tailspin, Richmond tries to right the ship against mighty Manchester City. Off the pitch, everyone faces their own setbacks.
EPISODE MVP
HANNAH WADDINGHAM- In my humble opinion, this was Rebecca’s episode, particularly to shine. Waddingham has slowly been stealing this season. Whether it be her response to Ted’s self-deprecating press conference at the end of the first episode, her blitzing into the men’s bathroom to confront Zava at the urinal, her response to seeing her ex-husband cheating yet again, and her response to the psychic’s predictions for her immediate future that seem to be playing out on a week to week basis, Waddingham might seem to be a shoe-in to win back the Emmy she lost this past year.
Her understandable freakout at John Wingsnight’s fiance inexplicably coming up with the phrase “Shite in nining armor,” just as the psychic predicted, was very well executed. I think she’s supposed to be upside down in the next episode, according to the psychic’s predictions. Let’s just see how that happens. She’s been the best part of a lot of episodes this season so far.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
TED’S SPEECH- Almost everybody I know who doesn’t watch this show has the same question: Why is this show so popular? I find that to be a question that’s kind of difficult to answer in a short way. I find that the best way to answer this particular question is to show them particular scenes from the show that define what the message of the show is. For me, those scenes include Ted’s speech to the team at the end of season 1, The Jamie and Roy hug from last season, the dart game that Ted and Rupert had in season 1…and this speech. The power of niceness will always prevail.
Nate’s brazen acts of public disrespect and personal insults would cause even the nicest of individuals to a vitriolic response in some way. And his desecration of the venerated “BELIEVE” sign hanging above the office broke the spirit of the team in the last episode; the Ted Lasso character is designed to handle situations like these with an absolutely ethereal demeanor, and this speech might be the best beach he’s given in the show. This speech is right up there with anything that Coach Taylor from FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS has ever said. One of Jason Sudeikis’s finest moments on the show.
ROY’S MONOLOGUE- Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always wondered why people were always scared of Roy Kent. Sure, he’s intimidating and stoic, he’s a man of few words, and he definitely seems like the type that is hard to approach. But nobody’s really insulted him to his face in an aggressive manner, and he’s always been able to intimidate the team into following orders with the greatest of ease. I see why now, after this last episode.
Roy Kent’s way of dealing with bullying is a………..tad bit psychotic, let’s just say. It’s played for laughs, Roy is not an evil character by any means…….. But yeah, Stephen King might be able to base a future character of his off of this particular Roy Kent speech.
Quote of the week
“Crap like envy, or fear, shame. I don’t wanna mess around with that shit anymore, know what I mean? Do you? You know what I wanna mess around with? The belief that I matter, regardless of what I do or don’t achieve. Or the belief that we all deserve to be loved, whether we’ve been hurt or hurt somebody else. Or what about the belief of hope? That’s what I want to mess with.”
-TED LASSO-
Ted being Ted. Just like he was in the season premiere
TED LASSO is playing on AppleTV NOW.
