tedlassoconfessions

[tedlassoconfessions]

i hate when ppl act like the only reason to not like a "sad" ending is because you can't take it or whatever. personally as a tragedy enjoyer, i hate a poorly written ending. i hate an ending that is just kind of a bummer. i hate an ending that feels mean-spirited to the audience. i hate an ending that's redundant. i love a sad ending that is thematically consistent, poignant, and bespoke to the rest of its narrative.

[tedlassoconfessions]

Ted Lasso delivered two inspiring and heart-warming first seasons when the world needed it most through the pandemic. However, Ted Lasso Season 3 left some viewers with a sour feeling and the wish that things had turned out differently — or at least had received the closure the characters deserved.

When the news broke that Ted Lasso Season 3 was being written as an ending, fans expected to see a resolution that would make everyone happy and stay in line with the theme of the show.

Instead, the last episode felt rushed and had conclusions that didn’t necessarily sense to the development of the characters.

While Ted Lasso's Season 3 focused heavily on the friendship between Jamie and Roy, the finale seemed to have ruined that. Throughout the season, the two men found common ground and went from enemies to friends.

Roy helped Jamie train and reach his highest potential while Jamie helped Roy process certain things from his childhood, like learning to ride a bike after his grandfather had died. It seemed like the two of them had left their issues in the past and were focusing on being a support system for each other. However, things took a turn in the last episode when the two of them once again start fighting over Keeley.

This precise moment makes fans wonder what was everything for? Why have them fix their issues to ruin it all in the end?

Even though it seems as if they can move past the Keeley issue, it felt like an unnecessary addition to the season finale when they were already on good terms.

The rule of three always seemed to be quite present on Ted Lasso, repeating or paralleling moments from one season to the next. This was something that many viewers came to expect.

In previous seasons, Rebecca had been found in her kitchen with two different men. At the beginning of Ted Lasso Season 3 Episode 12, “So Long, Farewell,” it is Ted who we can see in her kitchen.

For the fans who had been rooting for Ted and Rebecca to end up together, this is a moment of hope. A few seconds in which they can believe that, finally, these two characters have come to terms with their feelings for each other. So, why break this rule of three? Why trick fans into believing one thing and delivering another one completely different?

This particular scene felt like the show was playing tricks on the audience, showing them what could have been but taking it away from them immediately. Ted was always shown to be a sensible man who preached about emotions and encouraged everyone to be present in the moment and appreciate what they were feeling.

That was not the Ted we got as the audience on the series finale. Quite the opposite — he seemed to be unresponsive and never reacted to any of the other characters’ emotions about his departure.

When the entire team delivers a musical number to say goodbye, we don’t get the reaction we imagine Ted would have had. He smiles, he seems grateful, but that isn’t the Ted we know. The same thing happens when he is sitting on the bleachers with Rebecca and she cries asking him to stay. The Ted who promised her a coupon for life told her she wasn’t alone, and baked biscuits for her every day, wouldn’t have stayed quiet.

So, why show a Ted who was in therapy trying to better himself to then leave us with the same Ted who showed up on Ted Lasso Season 1 hiding his feelings? It feels disappointing to see that his goodbye lacked so many emotions.

Relationships on TV shows can be tricky to portray. Shows can do an amazing job, of bringing relationship goals to the screen. However, at other times, it can be taken the opposite way and deliver a toxic relationship.

If you pay close attention to the relationship between Coach Beard and Jane on Ted Lasso, you may notice it is the latter that viewers received throughout the three seasons of the show. It feels disappointing to see them end up together when so much of what happened between them was toxic and harmful. Jane was always controlling, jealous, and demanding — to the point that she shredded his passport so he wouldn’t leave the country.

If a male character had behaved the same way, we would be calling him out for how terrible he was. Why aren’t we doing the same in this situation? Yet instead of giving an ending in which Beard realizes he deserves better, he ends up marrying Jane.

And if that wasn’t disappointing enough, Ted isn’t present at his wedding. It’s hard to believe that these two men, who are clearly platonic soulmates and have been there for each other through it all, end up separated with no communication. The lack of communication from Ted’s end seems to be his new norm after his return to Kansas.

While he was still at Richmond, he was always present. We even see him texting Rebecca multiple times the night she lost her phone, trying to find out if she was okay. He was worried when she didn’t answer. Yet in the end, we’re left with a feeling that Ted stopped communicating with the team, with Rebecca, and with Beard.

If that wasn’t the case, there should have been more of a connection between Ted’s life in Kansas and the team back in Richmond when we were shown glimpses of what life ended up being. Otherwise, we are left thinking that he forgot about them.

This is probably the most disappointing thought considering that AFC Richmond was also his family, and Ted brought so much to their lives.

Meanwhile, Rebecca Welton was one of the most important characters in Ted Lasso. Whether you loved her from the beginning or came to love her as the episodes went by, she was key to the story.

One of her biggest fears was ending up alone and not finding that person who made her feel like she had been struck by lightning. It was the viewers’ fear too, realizing she deserved to find her happy ending. However, to fans, it may seem as if Rebecca’s happy ending was rushed. Instead of ending up with a man that we have come to know and we can see truly loves her, she ends up with a stranger.

The boat guy, the Dutch guy, the Amsterdam stranger has no name. We don’t know who he is beyond the fact that he is a pilot and has a daughter. Viewers can’t tell if he is a good match for this woman who has been through so much pain. All we can hope is that Rebecca is happy and she still feels the lightning. Viewers may never know if that’s the case.

There are different moments throughout the Ted Lasso Season 3 finale that make fans wonder if the ending was appropriate and if it delivered everything they were expecting. Another example of this is the random hug between Rebecca and Jamie at Higgins’s house. These two characters never had a significant interaction on screen, but suddenly we see them hugging as if they were best friends.

Keeley spent every season trying to become an independent woman who wasn’t defined by a relationship. However, in the end, it is her business relationship that defines her. Why has she changed the name of her PR company to add Barbara? The two of them could have been business partners without erasing all the hard work Keeley put into her business and her career.

And the biggest example is Nate’s redemption arch. He caused so much damage, hurt so many people, and in the end came back to Richmond quite fast without repairing everything he had done.

Even though this is what the fans wanted, there was more that could have been explored and explained when it came to his return.

It is sad to watch someone’s favorite show come to an end, and it is even worse when said show does so without a fulfilling ending. Hopefully, the fans who were left feeling disappointed can hold on to the previous episodes to keep the memories of what once was a happy and comforting show.

[tedlassoconfessions]

Ted Lasso | Sesame Street

[tedlassoconfessions]

A month ago I went to Amsterdam and visited all the filming locations for Ted Lasso‘s „Sunflowers“, so I figured I‘ll finally put something together here.

First of all, basically all the scenes involving the majority of the Richmond himbos were not shot on location - their epic discussion followed by pillow fight was filmed in an abandoned hotel in London. (Info per David Elsendoorn). The same would go for Ted & Beard‘s room. Scenes on the bus or outside it were also filmed in Richmond.

The only Greyhound who doesn‘t have his own larger plotline in the episode who was actually in Amsterdam was David Elsendoorn, because they did film the first scenes at Johan Cruijff (you know how to pronounce it now!) ArenA, the home of Ajax Amsterdam (which is also the one place I didn‘t have time to visit, but enjoy one of my favorite bts pictures taken there as a stand-in). They could have easily filmed that in London in a different stadium but I guess they didn‘t want to pass up the opportunity - and give David something to do on his home turf.

So, first up is Roy & Jamie‘s adventure: Jamie takes him sightseeing against his will, and the first place they stop on is Magere Brug (Skinny Bridge). (They run up the street to that before.)

Edit thanks to @warriorhoneybee: Roy grabs Jamie’s wrist at Diamond Factory on Rokin and then tells him he can‘t ride a bike outside Lyppens Jeweler at Langebruugsteg.

They go around the corner to Oude Turfmarkt (which is what I took a picture of) for Jamie to teach him how. For Grandad!!!

The fucking windmill they see before they lovingly gaze into each other’s eyes is De Riekermolen at the Southern end of Amstelpark, where they also cycle. (It‘s actually realistic for them to do that, it would be about half an hour between those locations by bike).

Rebecca doesn‘t see the obvious bike lane (that doesn‘t actually exist there) and falls into the gracht at Raamgracht. Boaty McBoatface‘s houseboat is still there, they just had it dressed up a bit with plants and such when they filmed. (Unclear if anyone currently lives there). The interiors were shot in a studio.

Trent follows Colin to Prik night club (which was absolutely buzzing when I was there, I really want to go back).

And then they sit at the Homomonument, the Pink Triangle memorial at Westerkerk, having that tearjerker of a conversation, before returning to party. (It walked that distance at night, it‘s a beautiful stroll and less than 10 minutes). When I visited someone had left sunflowers. 🌻

Leslie & Will first go to Hotel Prins Hendrik in the Red Light district (and steps away from Amsterdam main station) where Chet Baker died. They then make their way to Jazz Café Alto, which is just down the road from where Boom Chicago used to be on Leidseplein. (It‘s about 30 mins on foot between those two locations so they could have walked or just taken the tram for a few stops. The interiors were done at a studio though).

Ted of course visits the studio-filmed fictional themed restaurant where he has a BBQ sauce induced, Corey Burton-narrated epiphany about triangles, but first he sees Vincent‘s „Sunflowers“ at Van Gogh Museum during Museumnacht (which btw would mean the episode is set first weekend of November). As you can tell they moved some things around, so at least currently the painting isn‘t hung on that beautiful blue wall anymore.

As a bonus, here is a picture of where Boom Chicago used to be when Jason Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt and Joe Kelly performed there - Brendan also used to live above the McDonald‘s on Leidseplein just steps away for a while. And the other picture is the current Boom Chicago on Rozengracht, definitely go enjoy a show there if you can.

Anyway thus concludeth my trip around Ted Lasso‘s Amsterdam. I visited for the Boom Chicago Comedy Festival and fell in love with the city, it was … magical / gezellig. I will never forget it, but then again, some people get Alzheimer’s.

[tedlassoconfessions]

Inside me there are two wolves.

One who thinks that the writers are either stupid or cruel, and that the finale was so incomprehensibly bad that I shouldn't try to make sense of it. And that I should move on.

The other one is a subtext-and-metaphor-hungry beast that is manically obsessed with finding a reason, at least subtextually, for the incomprehensible mess they made out of these characters, especially Ted, in the finale.

Everyone is so right to point out that Ted in previous episodes would not have acted like this. I think the reason for the sudden regression in his character is Dottie.

That morning, full of smiles, in a good mood, Ted starts his walk to work.

He cheerfully strolls through the streets, saying hello to his neighbors, making chit-chat with them. He is (as Trent said it in 1x03) out there in the community. He is, more importantly, part of a community. Until suddenly-

"Mom?"

Dottie's arrival changes everything. Ted gets worse and worse throughout the episode. In the hotel room in Manchester, the football anthem "Blue Moon", with the haunting lyric "You saw me standing alone" plays over Ted's lonesome figure, in the shadows, depressed.

Juxtapose that with his first scene: the lively neighborhood and daylight.

At the end of the episode, his conversation with his (manipulative) mom hits him deep. He feels immense guilt over not being there for Henry. And he's been torn over this for the entire season.

His mom, and the way she acts, and the way she manipulates him, push him in the wrong direction: Kansas.

I think Ted has disassociated for most of the finale. But I also think that he is intentionally pushing people away. Maybe he thinks that this will make it easier for him to leave, maybe he thinks that this will make it easier for them to let him go. Maybe he just hates himself so much that he cannot accept their help. Maybe he feels guilty that they're showing him so much love, when he knows he will abandon them.

Either way, he quits. Something that he would not have done, even in season 1. So his regression goes farther than the first episode, deeper into his past. He goes from:

to having doubts on the plane about leaving without winning the whole fucking thing

but leaving anyway.

And this is one of the most curious things to me. Rebecca offers to bring Henry to him in England by helping relocate Michelle:

And yet, he refuses. So, sure, this is about being there for his son. But given the choice between his son with his beloved community, and his son without his beloved community, he chooses the latter.

I've heard the argument that we don't know for sure that Ted doesn't have a support system in Kansas. But from a narrative perspective, it's important that we haven't been shown that hypothetical support system at all. And given that he actually returns to Kansas without the one person who we know supported him before coming to England, it comes across as a terribly isolating situation.

So why would Ted choose to part from his found family, even though bringing his son into that family would be an option? My theory is that he just really fucking hates himself. I think he wants to punish himself, maybe for being away from Henry for so long, maybe for something else. I don't think he believes that he deserves love or even credit for how he helped the club.

I mean, Rebecca and Trent offer him exactly that this episode: credit for what the did for the club.

And he rejects them both, choosing instead to remove himself from their lives, to erase himself from the narrative.

I think he's lower mentally than we've seen him for a while.

I think he's in his dark forest.

So the plane departs and then lands. And Ted is back in Kansas, driven through the prosaic, picket-fenced, isolating, depressing American suburbs to the house where Henry and the ex-wife who doesn't love him are waiting for him.

And the light might be golden, and he might be reunited with his son. But as we close in on the last shot of the show, you can see his smile try to fight the sadness in his eyes and you know.

He's not happy.

[tedlassoconfessions]

TED LASSO FINALE SPOILERS

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As much as I love this show and I am immensely grateful for all it has taught me, the finale had moments I didn’t love and it felt like it gave me so many reasons why Ted should stay instead of letting me feel content with the fact he didn’t.

The show at its core is about the fact we can all be better, we as people are flawed and imperfect and that is okay, we believe we can be better and have hope in ourselves that we can change.

I felt like they really had done that with these characters but some moments in the finale felt like we’d gone backwards, personally Roy and Jamie making Keeley “choose” one of them felt so wrong after everything all three have been through, especially in episode 11 where it really felt like they were a very united trio, I understand they were both drunk but even at the start of the conversation they were on their first beer and it just felt off. Even more so when you think about the respect Jamie has shown for Keeley now that he’s grown so much it just feels wrong that he and Roy would ask that of her.

Not getting to see Ted and Rebecca’s conversation about him leaving was another moment that had me slightly confused, I understand to an extent why but also the tradition of the truth bomb has become a scene so sought after and usually brilliantly acted so it was a shame not to see it.

I’m also not someone who gets incredibly annoyed at Jane and Beard like I’ve seen with others (which is totally fine, each to their own) because I understand they’re supposed to be incredibly unpredictable and in this wild relationship that works for both of them so the wedding didn’t bother me, but Ted not being at the wedding did feel wrong though after everything they’d been through together.

I understand Ted is supposed to mirror the wizard of oz, be sort of a Nanny McPhee figure to the club and help everyone believe they can be greater and that they deserve a chance to show that, so him going back to Kansas (and I’m saying this as someone who’s dad worked away for 16 years of my life) felt wrong because of the way they did it. I very much understand him going back to Henry but going back to the life he had before Richmond felt off to me. We forget that it wasn’t just Ted teaching the team about themselves it was him learning about himself and his relationships and mental health and so on, I’m a Liverpool supporter and I think Klopp and Ted can be very similar so I think in my heart it’s like If he’d left us without anyone expecting it and without us winning a single trophy, and I know that’s not the point and it’s not about winning but god I would have loved an open top bus parade scene. I guess at the end there was a sense of ambiguity on whether he would actually stay in Kansas but who knows. + I think there’s something to be said about how when Roy left Richmond he went and coached phoebes school team like Ted has for Henry and then Roy did eventually make his way back to Richmond but that could just be me making that connection cause I know they did say a while ago season 3 would be the last even if they are now not really cementing that.

And I can’t go into Rebecca and the Dutch guy right now because I have too much to say but I will say that even though Ted and Rebecca did not end up together, they are soulmates in every way and they knew that, the writers knew that, and it would have been lovely to see them together but I get it.

I saw someone say it feels like HIMYM, with the ending planned out so when you finally get to it it doesn’t match up the way you’d hope and that feels like a very good way to put it.

At the end of the day I did still enjoy the finale and I’m forever going to be so so so grateful for everything the show has taught me about myself, my relationships in life, and the world around me.

(These are just some personal thoughts and opinions which are not meant to be negative it’s literally just what I’d have liked to be different which is okay!! and I’d love to talk about different opinions or thoughts !!!)

[tedlassoconfessions]

Tom Hendryk asks Hannah Waddingham about World Domination during Eurovision

[tedlassoconfessions]

Youtube Reactors Blind-Waves are planning to see/react to these comedy series, however, they can only watch them when they win the polls. Many people refuse to watch these shows because they have never heard of them so there's a possibility they won't vote for the shows.

Please VOTE for these two shows so everyone can watch the series. They deserved the mainstream audience's attention.

[tedlassoconfessions]

"Tan lines really aren’t sexy IMHO."

BELIEVE

[tedlassoconfessions]

Honestly, the worst part about spambots is looking at each profile icon and thinking, "That is a picture of a real life woman. I wonder how badly she would consider this a misuse of her appearance and violation of her privacy?" And the answer is likely different for every picture.

It's thoughts like that that keep me motivated to report and block the bots whenever they appear. Kill them all.

[tedlassoconfessions]

Ted Lasso Season 2 + out of context [part ½]

[tedlassoconfessions]

“The Diamond Dogs never actually helped anyone.”

BELIEVE

[tedlassoconfessions]

“I really enjoyed the show especially when it focused on the interactions of the players. It was well-written, well-directed, and well-acted.”

BELIEVE

[tedlassoconfessions]

“Ted's positivity can sometimes be toxic, and I wish someone told him that.”

BELIEVE

[tedlassoconfessions]

“The second season is not funny as the first one. Some episodes are a little cringey.”

BELIEVE

[tedlassoconfessions]

“Ted was hardly being in the same room with other characters in season 2. Maybe in one or two episodes, he'd be with a bunch of characters, but other than that, his appearances were reduced for some reason. Maybe it had something to do with the actor's personal life.“

BELIEVE