'Lanterns' Best Yet and 'Ted Lasso' Has Drama

[00:00:01] Hey everyone, it's Taking It Down, the TV podcast from the Alabama Take. Today we got conversations on Lanterns on HBO and Ted Lasso from Apple TV. This is episode 295 of the podcast. That means we're getting closer to episode 300. And whether this is your first time to listen to the podcast or you've been with us since episode one, you should send us a question or comment to use for episode 300. We'll use it on the air unless you specify otherwise.

[00:00:31] But it's always thanks for helping us get this far. Today it's only Adam with me. Let's go ahead and begin. I'll about take projection. Hey, here he is. It's only Adam like I mentioned. This week Donovan's doing fun Labor Day things. That's a lot of pressure on me. That's not to say we don't have fun here.

[00:00:54] Well, I wasn't saying that it's pressure to provide fun for everyone. Just that, you know, usually I feel like you throw to us. Donovan can shoulder most of the load. He's a funny guy. He's funny and he's smart and he gives good takes, but so do you. So we're in good hands. It'll be fine. It's going to be good. Speaking just of you here, if our listeners want to see Adam, you can with his duo Sister Ray Davies this month on the 16th in Chicago at Lincoln Hall.

[00:01:24] And then from September 30th through October 7th, they'll be opening for Luna. If you go, Adam guarantees a free fist bump if you say the name of the podcast. Am I right about this? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Boom. Thanks for coming. And a merch item at retail value. Sure. You guys have to earn your living. It's true. Anything else you want to say? Am I right about that? The 16th is not with Luna. It is with Luna. Okay.

[00:01:52] Yeah. So one in Chicago and then a couple weeks later we rejoined them in Cleveland and it kind of wraps up in the South. In Athens, Georgia. Yeah. Atlanta and Athens are the last two shows. Nashville, Atlanta, Athens are the last three. There's an Asheville and a stop at the Hall River Ballroom, which is like near the Triangle Durham area of North Carolina. Man, you hit some good spots in the South. We are.

[00:02:21] That's going to be cool. I mean, the shows will be good, but I think that your stops are also sounding pretty cool to me. Should be fun. I mean, we have played way more shows in the UK right now than we have here, which is funny to like, like we haven't played in Nashville, you know? Yeah. I live two hours from Nashville, so it'll be, I'm not exactly broken up about not playing Nashville until now, but it'll be good to play closer to home.

[00:02:51] Well, if listeners do come to the Nashville show, I'll also be at that one so they can talk to both of us. Say hello. If we can only get Donovan there. Oh. They got an airport. I mean, he's been South recently. He could do it. It's true. It's true. Let's talk about lanterns. Okay. Let's do. We're both caught up on lanterns. We both have seen all that there is to see at the moment with lanterns. Mm-hmm. But, you know, it's HBO.

[00:03:19] This channel's taking on the story of the DC Comics Green Lanterns, and in this iteration, one Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, is tasked with taking on a newcomer, Jon Stewart. But the odd thing is that Earth only has one lantern at a time, if at all. Hal Jordan's played by Kyle Chandler. Jon Stewart's played by the really excellent Aaron Pierre. I had not seen him in anything that I remembered. So we're talking about episode three. It felt so much better than the previous two for me.

[00:03:47] I'm glad that you said that. I suspected that you would, but we haven't chatted about this at all. Our opinions are fresh to each other, and I thought that this was just like a leaps and bounds improvement on the first two. Yeah. But it needed the first two to be able to fly like it did, I think. Yeah.

[00:04:13] That's quite possible, but I debated internally if this couldn't have been the second episode. I guess we'll see. I think my only pushback on that would be there was a lot of groundwork laid. I felt like we learned a lot about a character this week, which I was pretty desperate for, turns out. Didn't know that going into the episode, but once it started, you know, the information's doling out, the vibe is being established. I thought, oh, this is great. Give me all this you want to share.

[00:04:43] I agree. But there's probably a plot to come that they needed to plant the seeds for early on. That does make sense. Having to focus on one particular element of the story, I thought, boosted it. It was well-written and well-structured as a whole. We'll get into some of that a little later. I don't think it heard that it answered a couple of lingering questions, like you mentioned.

[00:05:06] It's always been my theory with mystery TV or if a show is going to have a mystery, is if you have any sort of whodunit, you need to answer some questions as you create new ones. There needs to be such a good balance of that. Yes. It finally got around to something. I thought, that's why I was wondering about the, could it have fit as a second episode? Because it started to answer some of those, but create new ones or still have some lingering from the first two episodes.

[00:05:31] And I think it did things, you know, there was no way that this show wasn't going to, based on who's involved with it, do some pretty complex engagement with real world problems in society, all of this. And I, we can't get into it in spoilers, but there were some moments that the weight of what was said, I think, relied upon what we'd already seen, maybe. So, regardless, I thought it was really good.

[00:06:01] And I think it asked quite a bit of the actors because there was a lot of dialogue, you know, and quieter scenes, a little less. Not that it was relying on flying through the air or violence and explosions, the first two, like you would think of with a comic book kind of vehicle. But this was a quieter episode in a lot of ways. And I thought everybody was fantastic.

[00:06:28] Yeah, they had the primary character of this episode do things in order to grow throughout the episode, but it also made perfect sense as where he ends up and where he is in episode one and two. I thought the goal of it was to be a singular piece of TV that explored one character and gave answers to pieces of the, or gave pieces of the puzzle. And I thought it was worth the hour. Absolutely. It can be a risk to do the background episode.

[00:06:59] Yeah. And I don't think it hit any of the stumbling blocks that that can entail sometimes. I'm struggling to think of one that was done badly off the top of my head, but yeah, you're right. Well, even if it's not done badly, you're kind of like, all right, let's get back to the main event. Yeah, it could be that I am less engaged with the main event right now, but maybe this will propel me forward.

[00:07:24] Well, think about when we watched Widow's Bay and they put the throwback episode alongside a new one. And we kind of discussed, I think like they knew that we wanted to, to get a little hit of like moving the story forward. In addition to this background information, obviously very different programs, but, and maybe it's because they're already, it's not a spoiler to say that the first two episodes were existing in a couple timelines.

[00:07:53] You know, that there was 2016 and 2026 or 25, whatever happening on screen. So this postmodern delivery of story is already going on. Let's shift gears because we're going to talk a lot more in spoilers. If you've seen the episode, we're going to shift gears though, to talk about Ted Lasso. Theodore. That's the, that's our guy. Fifth episode on Apple TV this week.

[00:08:21] Deeper into the season for both Ted and the series. Five is probably the midpoint. I haven't looked up how many episodes they're going to have, but 10 seems right. So what'd you think about it? I thought it was another good episode. Mm-hmm. It's kind of almost what we've been asking for too on here that let's see more of the team. Let's not put some of these storylines into the back seat, but we learned a lot more about

[00:08:51] the women actually playing on the field this week. Whereas Roy, say, and Keely's relationship got a few nods, but didn't take up that much screen time. And it felt like the right balance to strike at this point in the story. Dan thought it was good too. You know, I felt like the stakes were grounded, but heightened. More heightened than previous episodes. It's kind of funny to say grounded, but heightened stakes. But I hope you guys understand what I mean.

[00:09:19] It just felt real this time around. It did. And unforced. Yeah. I guess we can't really say too much more without spoilers being involved. But, you know, I think last week I kind of joked that there was something set up this week to be like the mini boss, the mid-season mini boss. Like you need a goal. You need for them to try to beat something or achieve something, even though there's a bigger thing coming down the pipeline of the season. And I think they delivered on that pretty well.

[00:09:49] Yeah. And the hero's journey always has the mini boss. Yeah. And then you get the big one a little later on. I don't think it was funny as the previous one, but I'll take this episode. Obviously, we'll get into it. But putting Ted in a new... You know, Ted is going to have to do something that's like positive vibes. Lift people up. The lasso way, all this stuff. But they're kind of finding new ways to challenge him with that. And that's good, I think. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not about that.

[00:10:18] This is an episode about making the wrong moves and paying for those wrong moves or the consequences of them and thought it was pretty, pretty dang good. I've got a couple of things I thought that weren't necessarily great. So I'll mention those in a minute. How about less than a minute? How about 45 seconds? We'll take a break. And on the other side, we'll get into what we're thinking here about lanterns and Ted Lasso. We're sorry to interrupt the show you're listening to, and we're going to prove that by keeping this ad short.

[00:10:47] This is Seth and Michelle, the hosts of Movie Friends, and we're so respectful of your time that we're not going to use the full 60 seconds to promote our show. Has this ever been done in the history of advertising? Never! New episodes release every Monday, and with over 300 episodes and counting, there is sure to be something for everyone. We're a community-driven show that believes film discussion can be friendly and without pretension. We've been called relaxing. Intelligent. Zesty. And fun. There must be a catch, though, right?

[00:11:16] Like we probably blather on for four-hour episodes. That's the best part. We don't blather. Not a lot, at least. Blather is such a good word. A truly underutilized word. Yeah. What were we doing? I don't remember. Movie Friends. Fun conversations from across film history. Visit our website, moviefriendspodcast.com, and listen to our show everywhere you get your podcasts. And we did it with plenty of time to spare.

[00:11:44] And we're back with spoiler thoughts on the third episode of Lanterns, titled Outcast. And yep, spelled like the band. Spelled like it ought be. Yeah, that's right. Man, that was such a good title. It's where we get the details of how Jon Stewart went from baby to boy raised not to have any fears, to military sniper, to artist, and then to Green Lantern recruit. I mean, that's the basis of the episode. It worked. Pretty normal American upbringing.

[00:12:14] Desensitization to guns. Yeah, didn't everyone's dad, father figure come in and do that? Definitely want to get into this third episode titled Outcast, but there's something lingering from the second one with Adam. Is there? You were really wanting to say something about the war on drugs playing in that cafe in episode two. Oh, it bugged me. That's never going to happen. What do you mean? That the war on drugs is being overheard in a cafe.

[00:12:43] You don't think that's ever going to happen, right? I don't think in that small town cafe that they were going to be listening to what I believe was Red Eye. I think that's right. I did tell Donovan and Blaine, since I dipped before they discussed it last week, I asked them how much time was devoted to that, and y'all said none. And then I said I could probably be diagnosed with something based on the speed with which I recognized that music playing very mutedly in the background.

[00:13:10] That's a pretty big band at this point, to just stick in the background. Yeah. Have playing on the radio. You can't even really, I kind of thought that that song was going to explode out. You know, sometimes they'll play very background, and then all of a sudden he's driving, and it's, Adam Granduciel goes, does his little woo thing, and all of a sudden we're off. Yeah. But no. No, yeah, it was just background. It was so weird. Hope they got a check. Oh, I'm sure.

[00:13:41] I bet that was a Lindelof thing. I bet he's a fan. Mm-hmm. So I haven't been big on this show so far. I've liked it, and I've said over and over that I'm so interested in where it's going. So I'm interested, but not necessarily thinking it's great. But they seem to be playing their mysteries a little slower than I would have liked, and not answering some of the questions while bringing up new ones. But I found this episode to be very engaging in that way of storytelling structure, answering

[00:14:10] some questions, keeping some questions hidden until later. It worked, I guess is what I'm saying. Most importantly, I think I was happy to see Kyle Chandler have a reason for playing his part so gruff. It's hinted, it's alluded that he might be pissed that he could have somebody replace him. But here, it was solidified. Best case scenario, they're not actively trying to replace you if you're him.

[00:14:37] They're just acknowledging the fact that, hey, that hair's gone a little gray. You don't move as quick as you used to. The end might be near. So he's either there to replace you or just a constant reminder of your own mortality. So you kind of understand. Yeah, he realizes his job's being questioned. Yeah. Like that's going to piss off anybody. You train your recruit. Wait, I haven't put in my notice. Right. That will never make you too satisfied or happy.

[00:15:08] It was a relatable, universal feeling. It still doesn't explain to me why he's so pissy and short and condescending to everyone in the Nebraska town, though. But I'll take what I can get. You know, I thought that one of the strengths of this episode, and they built it up and there were hints all along. Not hints, but it was not a hint at all, really. They were just very direct about it.

[00:15:33] Speaking specifically of Black experience, but using his behavior as kind of a mirror to go, this guy, he wasn't afraid because what does he have to be afraid of? Yeah. It's just pure privilege. And so even the way that he behaves in the Nebraska town, it's like partially he's superhuman with the ring, but also partially he's just a white dude. Yeah.

[00:16:02] The training wheels always kind of stay on. It said a lot about determination and what can even block how determined you are. And in this case, and in many cases, it's a not as deserving white person for Black people. It's been the case for years and still is in many cases. If you go by this episode, whether they wanted to say it blatantly or not, and I think they

[00:16:30] did, you know, what stands in the way of a well-trained person of color is a less deserving white guy who may not work as hard. Now, that may not be fair to say because we haven't seen how as a young guy, he may have had the best work ethic in the world, but here he kind of doesn't care as much. In the first two episodes, you see him kind of being flippant about the whole idea of being a Green Lantern. He's not too proud of it, I would even say.

[00:16:58] So, the way he's been painted so far, you think, well, John's already a better Green Lantern. Yeah, and even when their paths cross for the first time, kind of the first, it is the first time when he's the sniper outside the street. And, I mean, you see that he's there because he was getting drunk with some defense person,

[00:17:25] right, and away he goes. So, he's not shown to be the picture of discipline and dedication. Although, every time that they show him, you kind of wonder how much his PR is working for him. In the flashback stuff, you know, he's much more, he wears the uniform, speaks very seriously, all that kind of stuff. So, I'm sure that we'll get something about what happened between those two points, but...

[00:17:53] Yeah, because he stopped uploading his consciousness or whatever you want to call it. Did you find the politics, I guess, in place with race? Did it feel natural? Or, I've seen some critics say they liked it, but it felt a little forced. I don't know that it's really for me to say, but... Yeah. I think the... There were a few setups. I think the most powerful one was Bernadette, his mom, saying that line about, like, he's a white man.

[00:18:23] What is... He's never known fear. What does he have to be afraid of? It worked so well. That was great. That was... There was some... You know, in writing, people say, show, don't tell. Mm-hmm. There was telling, I think, that happened in this, but it was built into the narrative function, right? Like, she is explaining to a non-native of Earth what racism is.

[00:18:50] Kind of as a, excuse is the wrong word, but explanation for why her husband, who's this stand-up Marine, you know, why he was afraid that night. And what was a really well-shot, frightening scene, you know, to linger on young John there while the green light is just kind of glowing in the room and his dad is screaming, is like, this is scary and weird. Yeah. Also helps a lot that we didn't know that happened.

[00:19:20] So I thought that was incredibly interesting. Yeah. The... Meaning, like, we didn't know until this episode that his dad was visited like that? Yeah. Like, he was the first choice. Right. Right. Obviously, the clear thing that it clears up is him shooting the apple off his head in the first episode. Yeah. The impression that you get of his dad in that episode is very different than the one that you get in this one. Thankfully, yeah. Yeah.

[00:19:49] You walk in and here's this... The other kids seem to be scared of him. Kind of dude in his military uniform. And you're like, what has he done to these poor kids? And now you put it together. No, he was actually... Aside from going through something profoundly disturbing and then everyone around you thinking that you had a psychotic break and kind of drinking to numb that, aside from that one episode, he was actually seemed to be a pretty amazing dad. Right? Mm-hmm.

[00:20:20] And you get to that it was the mom who was pretty... Right. ...fool on doing some of this as well as the child version of John. He chose to have the apple shot off his head and I thought that was really great. It's something they obviously hadn't planned from probably episode one. But having a cruel dad would have been... That would have been too much. We're conditioned to think, oh, the hard-ass dad created this super soldier, whatever.

[00:20:47] But the framing of it being his mom, who I thought was great in this episode. I thought she was played very, very well. Written well to say, not only is this... If this is an extension of what we've tried to do of breaking cycles and not letting society dictate what is going to happen, we can control these things. And I don't know, by the end of the episode, you're like, this is remarkable that he still wants to talk to his mom.

[00:21:16] You know? I mean, they kind of... The young parents acknowledge that, right? Mm-hmm. They say like he... I think his dad, right, says he's going to hate us. Yeah, when they dump him on the street, I think, is when they're really talking about it. Well, I'm talking when they're holding him, when he's tiny. Oh, right. They make the decision. We're going to... When they're making initial plans. Yeah. We're going to raise this one different. And they know, yeah, this is ripe for resentment. Yeah.

[00:21:45] But she was very loving, kind, forceful at times. And that might not even be the right word. Matter of fact. Mm-hmm. Understanding of what has to be done. Some fans have shit on this episode because of one of the Guardians taking the appearance of a, quote, tiny little blonde woman, end quote. Which, look, I am not as familiar with these comic books as I am others.

[00:22:15] This did not bother me in the least. In fact, I thought Laura Linney, she's the lady who played the Guardian, was great. She was interesting and almost had a menace to her without ever being threatening in the least. She also played curiosity about humans in a fun way. Yeah. In a true way. Yeah. I think it needed that to make you continue to look at...

[00:22:41] Because if you think about it, maybe now with productions, it wouldn't be as big of a deal. But there was a time where budgets would just dictate, oh, just say that they're in human form. You know, that's an alien. Believe us, kind of thing. Yeah. And her moments really sold the fact that this person is different. This being is different. And shout out to Bernadette, John's mom, for being like, why should I believe you? Prove it. You know?

[00:23:10] And the reveal of her just kind of raising up and then coming back down. She's like, okay. It's great. Well, let's his dad off the hook for being so crazy with disappointment. Still pretty pissed a few years later, turns out. Rightfully so. Yeah. I can't imagine how angry you'd be in seeing this nonchalant Hal who got it instead.

[00:23:40] I've wondered, too, if Hal knew, like when he went to talk, he's at the house at the end. Does he know that he got it instead of him? Good question. I don't know. I don't think we can tell from that performance. No. Seeing John, John Jr., as a sniper and soldier, I thought deepened his character in a way that was interesting, made sense.

[00:24:06] Then having him have a love for art and creating works perfectly. It's what I was talking about when I said it was well-written. It's just having him do those two things there. It's a dichotomy of sorts, but it makes great sense on who he becomes. We're right back to the decorated sniper being a vegetarian, wanting tofu instead of steak at the cookout. It doesn't seem as jarring now. No. Aaron Pierre played it well.

[00:24:36] He seemed to have been clenching his jaw in almost every scene of the interview. When it comes to Hal and having to defer to him or show respect toward him, I thought it was great acting. The acting's been a high point for the whole series so far. They've really done a fine job of finding actors with Aaron Pierre as someone I didn't necessarily know. So they've covered their basis with who's playing whom. Right.

[00:25:02] Because he has to play stoic a lot of the time. Even before finding out his conditioning versus upbringing, he wanted a distinction there at the interview. It's not rare to see a very accomplished military type person played as kind of cold and unfeeling and calculated, whatever. Not in a cruel way, but just in a I'm here to do a job kind of way.

[00:25:30] But he still gets these scenes where he's goofing around with his mom when he goes back home. Mm-hmm. And can be kind of funny towards Hal at times. And even is like the more human of the two and smoothing things over in Nebraska. Yeah. Just good acting. It is. It's well-rounded to play someone who is pretty well-rounded too. He still has that military stoicism about him.

[00:26:00] But yeah, those nice touches here and there. You're right. It's good. You know, there's a danger when you watch the first episode that this is just a guy who's like quietly furious inside. Mm-hmm. And that doesn't really seem to be what's happening. That would have been a little too easy. You wondered that in the first few scenes. Yeah. Definitely. They're playing with that. Yeah, it was a good episode. I hope they continue to be like this.

[00:26:28] I've been interested, but not completely impressed until this one. This one was definitely the hook for me. Me too. Well, let's go back to London. Fourth season of Ted Lasso with this week's episode, Riches of Embarrassment. Earlier in this episode, I said it was about making wrong moves and paying for those wrong moves or getting around to the consequences of them. Who's made the biggest error so far, especially with this episode?

[00:26:58] Alice, Keely, or Rebecca? You can also choose Beard. I feel like Beard's storylines exist outside of consequences in a way. That's about right. They're just like a thing that's happening. He seems, at this point in his trajectory of being a weirdo, to still show up on time

[00:27:27] to things and do the work. So Ted is not really going to... He doesn't derail his life too much. Although it seems like it could happen at any moment. I don't know. Alice, her being so tough on the players and Ted having to try to gently correct her. And then kind of what I talked about in the beginning in non-spoilers of like, I mean, have we seen Ted really reprimand someone in this way?

[00:27:56] Not like this. That's tough. You keep away like dad's going to have to get angry eventually. And he did. Keely's mistake has happened previously for me. In that she told Roy to go on 10 dates. Now she's paying the price for that. That one's tough. That was a good little scene in the car park, as they say. I didn't, I've never heard that one. Yeah.

[00:28:26] No parking lots, car parks. But they... What does she expect to happen? Exactly. Cindy, and she was assuming 10 different women. I mean, the odds of him falling for one, it's pretty high. It's just a dude after all, you know? I doubt it's on purpose, but the episode began with a bit of a head fake. I thought at first it was going to be a plot line about Margie and Maddie, since they were walking together to open the episode.

[00:28:54] And then the second thing I thought is that it was going to reveal Ted having dinner with either his ex-wife or another lady, or at least his son. Neither of those happened. Which brings me to my question. Are hot dogs strictly a social food? I've never thought about that. I don't think so. No. I don't think... But I'm also somebody who will go to the movies by myself at the drop of a hat. So I may not be...

[00:29:24] Oh, yeah. The most... I don't know. That didn't strike me as that sad. I also thought I was waiting for the camera to kind of tilt around that wall. You know, you couldn't see half the table. And it'd be... Either they couldn't see and they walked away thinking something sad was happening when he was actually with his ex-wife or... But no, he was just there alone. Still no inclusion of his ex-wife and son much. It's weird. Maybe it's kind of odd.

[00:29:54] Alice was entirely too cruel during practice and during halftime. But I've got to admit, I've come clean here. I've been there in the heat of the moment. When you're getting on to someone and then you get pushback from others, sometimes you just go off on bystanders. Bystanders. I was a little surprised, though, that Ted didn't step in or follow up right then with Alice. After she made the whole team run, I thought he might just step in and go, no, it's okay, y'all don't have to run.

[00:30:22] But I suppose he didn't want to squash her authority. Couldn't undercut her there. Couldn't do that because then it would look like they have to constantly look to Ted for the answer. That was a tough scene to watch. Not in a, this is poorly done way, but just, it's awkward. And you know that she alludes to it a bit when Ted says sports is, the great thing about sports is there's always another game.

[00:30:52] There's always a second chance. Whatever he says, she says, not in my experience. So she's bringing all of that bitterness over her own playing career to how she's dealing with these players. I mean, I know that's very on the nose, but anyone wants the arguments start, that that was not a coach speaking to players. That was two peers yelling at each other, you know, which is a different dynamic.

[00:31:22] When was it two peers? When her and Gemma, Gemma, right? Mm-hmm. When they start arguing because they played together at one point. That's right. Okay. That's right. They did. Until they know each other so well. As for this practice, though, I really, really enjoyed Ted's barbecue metaphor on how to treat people. Because it's great advice beyond the episode and TV characters. Just in praise of patience in general.

[00:31:51] Yeah. But I also will throw this in. I appreciate so, so much that there was a character on TV who made the distinction that any good person should know. Barbecue is a slow-cooked meat. Grilling out is what people often confuse it for. Those two terms aren't interchangeable. This, not to be like, hey, look at me, I'm a vegetarian, but I haven't eaten meat in 15 years, and this still bothers me. Oh, good.

[00:32:22] Quite a bit. I mean, you have to have some sort of opinion on this being from Alabama, I think, but barbecue is a specific thing. When people say, oh, we're going to fire up the barbecue, bring some hamburger buns or whatever, it's like, no, no, no. You're not actually barbecue. You're grilling. You're grilling. Yeah. Which is great. It's just the terminology.

[00:32:45] This was a less funnier episode, I said, but I did find a lot of humor in Jane's play depicting Ted with such loose morals. That got me because you just can't imagine him. Why would anyone even think that about him? His reaction to it was also really funny. Yeah, he didn't get angry or upset, really. Because it's so, not only would other people not believe it, but he's like, recognizes this

[00:33:14] is so far from the truth. They're like, well, that's not right. So ludicrous. I believe I'd forgotten all about Keely's employee, Barbara, I think her name is. Although she's shown up at previous match just in the background, regardless. She had the line of the episode for me, which wasn't really humor. She said there's a big difference between tapping a screen and showing up. Yeah. And I thought, yeah, that's worth the episode.

[00:33:43] I mean, that's like the reality that we're in right now. Yeah, that's a modern day dilemma with everything. Yeah. Everything from, you know, practically in my world of like, you know, say you're a Spotify artist who has however many hundred thousand listens a month and you feel good about yourself and you get booked on a show or a festival and nobody comes because you're really just like on a playlist, right? That people are very passively engaging with. Yeah.

[00:34:11] It's not real human engagement. And I think that the way that we engage with everything is like that. Yeah. Everything from like consuming art to politics in a way, you just become like a little avatar of online opinions. And instead of actually, what's the phrase? Touching grass. Go outside and actually talk to a human and breathe the fresh air. Yeah. I thought that was great.

[00:34:41] I don't know if they were trying to say something because the show itself has like the opposite of that, right? Like it is very strongly supported online, but people, if there were a petition, if there had needed to be a petition for a season four of Ted Lasso and they're like, we need you to all assemble. We're going to go to the White House and demand that they make more. There'd be hundreds of thousands of people there.

[00:35:04] People love this show on a level that moves beyond like that passive support, you know? Yeah. It's even a dilemma contained within the screen itself. You know, we might get a like on a social media app, but then that doesn't translate to listens. Right. And you immediately start thinking of like click through rates. You know, you send out an email that says, this is a really cool thing I want you to check out. It's like how many people actually click on that?

[00:35:33] Not a lot. Not a lot. Especially if it's something you've created or requires a little time with it. If you think about it too much too about a TV show, it becomes a bit meta. Yeah. You know, like they work really, really hard to make this show and all TVs and film, all of that. And then it does, it only exists on a screen. How does that become real world? I don't know. I don't know.

[00:36:02] I love that line though. I don't think we're supposed to think that hard about it. Probably not. They didn't build the episode around that particular line, but I loved it. I would like to see something fictional piece revolving around that. I think I would like that. I think that the spirit of the line though is very much at the heart of Keely's season long arc and the arc of the team. I'm giving Keely ownership of the success or failure here, but... Well, she feels like she is.

[00:36:33] Yeah. Absolutely. The lip service of allyship, you know, like liking something on Instagram versus, no, you actually, you need to engage with this on a deeper level. You need to go out and support whatever is really the same thing as those old men at that luncheon. Mm-hmm. You know? Mm-hmm. It's all the same problem. So, yeah, I'm with you. I thought that was a very, very good line.

[00:37:03] And hey, give it up for Zelda who puts her money where her mouth is with a little vodka. A lot of vodka. A lot of vodka. Just chugging it, not even mixing it. My goodness. I love Ted's ability to spin whatever is a topic at the moment into a coaching lesson. I know this is written. I know it's fiction, but having him do that as a character, I think, is great TV.

[00:37:33] I think it's also a good signal that he's a good coach. You know, whether or not he knows the intricacies of European football is almost meaningless because he is able to take this and translate it into something totally related to on the field. Yeah, absolutely. And there wasn't even really like a direct, you know, say like season one is like, how do you convince Jamie to make the extra pass? Or whatever it is like that.

[00:38:00] This was more just like you have to believe in yourself and try. And it's not like they weren't trying in the first half, but trying to give them the freedom to fail. Like that's a different thing than trying hard. Yeah. For a plot line, I thought that Ted suspending the coach, I gave him some buy. You mentioned this earlier, but I'll dig into it a little here.

[00:38:29] He can't be happy and joyous all the time. And we've seen him down in the dumps briefly here and there. That he used what's happened to him in previous seasons with Nate as a learning point. That's a promising bit. And he decides to suspend Alice for a prolonged break because of the Christmas break that's coming up. And I think it was not only, she didn't just reprimand him.

[00:38:54] She used language that he is like at his core opposed to, you know, like her like saying like this was an embarrassing performance, all that kind of thing. And then he goes on the rant of embarrassment is the most useless emotion. She kind of hit a nerve with Ted. Mm-hmm. And then he rapped back around to that he felt a little embarrassed about the picture. And I'm glad he said that because I don't like people taking pictures of me out in public.

[00:39:23] I felt that. Yeah. That's a little weird. He got some blue jeans out of it though. He got, yeah. He got blue jeans and complimented on the blue jeans. We're going to see more from the theater manager, the stage manager, excuse me. Did you enjoy Ted backstage? Yes, I did. I thought it was good.

[00:39:45] And I liked seeing him have an interaction with somebody that's not his ex-wife or one of his players or Keely or Rebecca. It's somebody he might have an interest in beyond work. Like you said earlier about Ted's words of wisdom, you know that obviously this is a scripted TV show, but still he meets a stranger and he is just the same old curious Ted. Yeah.

[00:40:13] It just makes you think, man, I wish I was cool like that. There's a lot to be learned from him. Yeah. A good solid episode, but I'll harp on my one thing I thought it could have done better. Rebecca's boyfriend and his response to her felt rushed. And I don't know if I'm too interested in it, but I was on board. I gave it a good go.

[00:40:40] And the other part was having Roy Kent in the picture is great, but we've noted this. There's just not a lot of meat on the bones for him and Keely to have another back and forth. At least it was played short here and not a centerpiece. It's about as much of that as I wanted in this particular episode. Mm-hmm. What about Rebecca's boyfriend in that plot line?

[00:41:03] I don't, I think up a little too much screen time through no fault of the actors involved. It's just like I, you know, the episode where she kept standing him up, like how much do we really want to see him sitting in an empty table? And then for him to get so defensive this week was a bit odd, I thought.

[00:41:28] Obviously, you put somebody's kid in the middle of it and you're only seeing the tip of an iceberg, this very complex thing, and we can respect that. But I don't know. It's like you just left your 10-year-old with this woman all day while you went to work. Are you that mad that like a conversation happened that you couldn't control? And if you trusted her enough to watch her, then why, if she says it was like an innocent conversation, why not believe her?

[00:41:58] Mm-hmm. Well, I understand why they wanted it in this episode because it fit thematically, but it felt like it needed more buildup. Yeah, I mean, if the whole point is like she's deciding that she prizes her own independence more than at least being with this guy, then like that's fine. But like, do we really need a season-long arc to do that? Well, I think that's it for us. Just remember, if you whistle in the theater, you're going to get admonished. Have a good week, everyone.

[00:42:28] Have a good week, everyone. Have a good week, everyone.