Written on: May 20 2023
8/30/23 edit: I didn’t know if I would publish this post because I’m super self-critical and perfectionistic and so I thought, Am I going to publish this? I should probably edit it because it doesn’t sound good, so I kept it in my drafts because I just thought, I need to make it sound perfect before publishing this, but I’m working on being kinder to myself and developing more confidence as a writer and realizing that I’m still trying to practice and improve myself as a writer, and that part of the process of writing is writing bad drafts. So after that long winded disclaimer, here goes nothing:
This week I started season 2 of the comedy series Ted Lasso. Honestly I love this season so far; I really love the writing of the show. There are some pretty heartfelt moments, too, and some parts where they address serious issues. In episode 1, they hire a no-nonsense sports psychologist to watch the team’s rehearsals and help them recover from their tie streak. But the psychologist ends up helping them with their emotional problems, especially one of the players named Dani, who cannot forgive himself after he accidentally kicks the ball and it kills the AFC Richmond team mascot, Earl, when Earl chases a bird and accidentally gets in the way of the goal that Dani is trying to score for the team. Coach Lasso, Nate, and Coach Beard find Dani in the shower, crossing himself with the Catholic cross symbol and crying for a good hour because he killed Earl. (The episode titled reminded me of a song by The Chicks called “Goodbye Earl,” and I’m pretty sure the episode was named for that song. Side note: the first time I heard about this song was from my P.E. coach, who had a foot attached to the bumper of her car, and she explained that it was inspired by the song “Goodbye Earl” by The Chicks.) They try to get Dani to move on from Earl’s death, but he can’t and when he tries to kick the ball toward the goalie he imagines a cartoon version of Earl and freaks out. Dr. Sharon Fieldstone, the sports psychologist they hire, doesn’t have time for Ted’s fun and games, but she ends up being a valuable person at AFC Richmond because she gives therapy sessions to the team members. Poor Higgins, though, decides to give her his office but ends up struggling to find his own office space, so he pretty much finds any open space where he can do his work since his old space is now occupied by the psychologist. The psychologist is a really good bullshit detector and when Ted offers her biscuits and tries to be his chatty self, she is suspicious and thinks that she can help him with any underlying issues he is dealing with. When Coach Beard meets with Ted at their usual pub place, Beard asks him why he won’t seek therapy, and Ted tells him that it brings back bad memories of when him and his ex-wife visited couples therapy and it didn’t help. However, I’m wondering if Ted is going to end up seeing Dr. Fieldstone to address any underlying emotional issues he has. This show really addresses mental health and I appreciate that it does because I haven’t seen a lot of sports movies that do that. Dr. Fieldstone ends up helping Dani get back to himself, because Dani’s original motto when we first meet him is that “football is life,” but after accidentally killing Earl during the game he begins to think that “football is death,” and Dr. Fieldstone helps him accept that football is both life and death.
There is another really good episode where Sam, whose family is from Nigeria, protests against the airline Dubai Air because of its involvement in environmental injustice in the country. Sam tells Rebecca that he doesn’t support the airline and needs to sit the game out, and Rebecca understands but when she asks her ex-husband, Rupert, for help he tells her to kick Sam off of the team. Before this episode, Jamie came back on the team and everyone was really upset that Ted let Jamie back on the team because he was mean to everyone, but Ted let him back on because he doesn’t really have a lot of career opportunities left and figures he can redeem himself if he rejoins the football team. Sam is really angry with Ted and feels he betrayed him since some guys at the pub saw Jamie and Ted talking over drinks and rumored he was going to let Jamie back on the team, even though Ted assured him that wasn’t the case. But Jamie has a change of heart before one of the games, when Sam and the other Black football players decide to put black tape over the Dubai Air logo on their jerseys, and Jamie decides to put black tape over his logo, too. At first Sam is wondering why someone like Jamie would care about the protest, but Jamie says that they’re a team and so everyone in solidarity with Sam decides to put black tape over the Dubai Air logo on their jerseys. Then afterwards, Ted is at another press conference and everyone asks him about the Dubai Air protest at the game and Ted, who is a white guy, explains that Sam did what was right and has Sam answer the reporters’ inquiries. When Sam and Ted get back to the locker room, they think he will be in trouble, but instead all of Sam’s teammates celebrate his protest on the field and Nora’s daughter (and Rebecca’s goddaughter) Flo is a huge fan of Sam, and so they all take a picture with Nora at the end (thankfully Keeley tells them to put their beers away in the photo since she is the social media/ publicity person).
There is another episode where the Richmond team celebrates Christmas. It is really sweet that Rebecca checked in on Ted because after Ted Facetimes his son and ex-wife he drinks whiskey alone while everyone else is out celebrating. Rebecca and Ted end up going to people’s houses to give their children presents, and they enjoy musicians busking on the street. Meanwhile, Higgins and his wife and five kids enjoy company when many members of the AFC Richmond team come to their house to celebrate Christmas. At first Higgins says only a couple of players usually come to his house to stay over since they cannot go to their families over the holidays, but many of the players end up coming to Higgins’ house and end up having a wonderful time. Keeley and Roy have to find a dentist for Roy’s niece, Phoebe. Phoebe is upset because a boy at school says she has bad breath and gave her toothpaste and a toothbrush as a Christmas present, and Roy threatens to beat this kid up but instead Keeley asks Phoebe if she can smell her breath since it can’t be that bad, but Keeley and Roy smell Phoebe’s breath and they find out that yes, Phoebe’s breath really does stink. So they go everywhere to find a dentist but have no luck. They finally find a woman who is a dentist and she tells Keeley and Roy that the histamines that Phoebe takes for her cat allergies are drying up her mouth and led to Phoebe having bad breath. They go to the mean boy’s house and in Love Actually style Phoebe holds up poster boards telling the boy that he was mean to her and wasn’t nice.
In another episode, Ted meets Roy at his favorite kebab place to convince Roy to rejoin the AFC Richmond team after he suffers a knee injury and ends up working as a commentator for a sports channel. On the show he is very gruff, and swears and the other newscasters are put off by his honest no nonsense demeanor. Roy helps Isaac regain his love of football by showing him the old field in his neighborhood where he used to play soccer.
Discover more from The Arts Are Life
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
The Arts Are Life 