#but recent and divisive show finales can be touchy subjects

[theladyragnell]

Hi! Question for you once you've had a chance to finish S3 of Ted Lasso: I'd love to hear your perspective on how S3 could have unfolded in a more fulfilling way. No pressure, of course, but I enjoy reading your insights. :)

Okay! I am rolling up my sleeves.

EXPRESSING-OPINIONS-ON-THE-INTERNET CAVEAT: I am not a media critic, and not everything in this post will be cohesive, well-thought-out, and non-contradictory. I do not for a moment pretend that my opinions are Correct, they are merely my own.

SECOND CAVEAT: At this point, with where they left arcs, I'm about 80% sure that depending on how the WGA strike goes (crossing my fingers for them) and any corporate retaliation for that, there will be a spinoff or continuation sans Ted. More of their choices make sense if that is true, even if I don't love the thought (let shows end!!!), so this is all changes I would make assuming s3 is the final season.

The thing about this season, for me, is that any given episode or moment was largely really enjoyable for me! Sure, a few quibbles, and the whole Roy and Keeley thing we will get to in a moment, but if I ignored the fact that I was watching a season, most things worked for me. Looking at it as a season, though, it was too busy, in a way that meant the show dropped a lot of things I wanted to see more of.

So, when pondering this question, I think that there's no way to keep everything I love while getting rid of only the things that annoyed me or that didn't feel right to me. And in the end, I'd rather miss things that weren't there than be annoyed with things that are present, so my take on s3 would streamline a lot of things to engage with others.

Oh boy, this is already long, time for a cut.

Change #1: Roy and Keeley do not break up. There was simply no reason for this, and especially no reason for it to happen off-screen. They can still fight and have difficulties, and Roy can deal with his mental health, but it's just unnecessary drama and I never understood it. This also prevents Roy and Jamie's weird last-episode regression to fighting over her and forcing her into shitty positions.

Change #2: Most of Keeley's plotlines change. All of the KJPR plots and characters were interesting, but they also busied the season up too much. So I'd have her actually building up a one-woman business without Jack (or, tragically, Barbara), maybe doing the Shandy thing and grappling with that for longer, or her dealing with the Establishment the way Rebecca does so often, trying to make them see her as a businesswoman and not a footballer's girlfriend.

Change #3: Beard and Jane break up. We get to carry over the threads from s2 from the Beard episode and from Higgins expressing his concern, instead of treating the way Jane treats him as comedy. We also get to counteract this show's everyone-deserves-not-just-forgiveness-for-everything-but-also-to-be-in-your-life-again message with one instance of someone setting out a boundary and sticking to it.

Change #4: Many of Nate's plots change. As with Barbara, I would really regret losing Jade, but I think there are better uses of Nate's screentime--he was set up to be a real main character in s2 and I felt like I hardly saw him in s3. What I really wanted was for Nate to learn how to have power over people responsibly, I think? I'd have chosen either for him to grit his teeth and stay at West Ham (perhaps while joining the conspiracy to overthrow Rupert) or, when he left, for him to somehow end up coaching a kids' team, and learn gentleness in authority that way. It would pick up this show's really genuinely cool theme of "once one person makes a point of stepping out of the cycle of abuse and trauma it can ripple out around them" in interesting ways.

And while there are many other tweaks I'd make (more Sam, his last focus plot was SO goddamn miserable; eliminate everything about the psychic; goodbye to Rebecca's boat stranger), I'm going to finish with the last big one, which is

Change #5: Ted gets to do something besides reinvent total football, pine for his son, and make speeches that should have been edited down to a third of their length tops. He just seems so checked out this whole season, just talking about how none of the work he's done is on him, all focused on Henry in the wrong ways, so that going back to Kansas felt more like a horrible sacrifice than a choice that will bring him fulfillment or contentment. He was always going to go back to Kansas and his son, much as I wasn't wild about that, but it doesn't feel like a new beginning for him, just like he's going back to his old life with a little more knowledge of football and more knowledge of how to model good parenting and relationships for his kid (while not, from the way I interpreted that last expression, dealing any further with his own mental health). It felt weirdly dark for this show.

(Also I know this show loves its book theming, and I know it's The Wizard of Oz (see: a song from The Wiz playing over the credits to the penultimate episode), but have they considered that in subsequent Oz books Dorothy and her family move back to Oz? Things to consider.)

[thesportssoundoff]

So About That Tuesday Night Contenders Series

Joey

June 26th

Watch any UFC event recently and you'll notice the constant pushing and dare I say shilling of Dana White's Tuesday Night Contenders Series.  The UFC's attempt to push its own content on its own digital platform (a novel concept!) is slowly creeping towards its air date on July 11th. The concept is a simple enough one even if some aspects of it seem to be ever so slightly and ever so gingerly getting modified before the start. Five fights every week with the winners and losers competing for the opportunity to get into the UFC. It'll be held in front of Dana White and what I'm assuming are an audience of his friends and peers given how there is no live attendance. While the original concept suggested UFC fighters would get the opportunity to rebuild their careers, it seems like the UFC has walked that back somewhat given how not a single current UFC fighter is assigned to a spot on the show.

The concept is a fresh enough approach, essentially taking out Dana White's LFAF antics and bringing us what fight fans really want to see; less of Dana hanging with the BOOOOOOYZ and more of the prospects and overlooked guys with potential getting the opportunity to get a UFC gig. As of this point, much of the format is hidden although the general onus seems to be similar to Looking For A Fight's "Win impressively and depending on how the wind is blowing and the whims of one man are at that time, you might get a deal!" That's all fine and good I guess although leaving the future of athletes up to such a vague concept as an impressive win is always going to lead to some problems. At the very least, a lot of good regional talents are going to get the opportunity they all dream of chasing when they sign up for this wacky gig. The chance to fight in front of Dana White and his friends in Vegas for more than you've ever made up until that point with the allure of a potential UFC gig is all good for the sport I'd argue.  Unfortunately quite a few questions remain on how this is all going to work out BUT before we get into that, I just want to poke around a bit on some numbers I've scrounged up.

30.5- The average age of the HWs confirmed for Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender's Series.

The age at light heavyweight and heavyweight will always be a somewhat touchy subject. As has probably been discussed time and time again, MMA's ability to chase elite athletes above 205 lbs is never going to be up there with the bigger sports even though it could/would stand to do a better job at attempting to recruit them. Outside of Stipe Miocic, the UFC's HW division in its current form is a collection of aging but well known guys from the Pride/2008 to 2011 era of the UFC and a small group of guys who rose from the ashes of a broken HW division to carve out niches for themselves. Now to their credit, the UFC HAS been aggressively signing new HWs but the division still lacks depth, prospects and the ability to let guys go on winning streaks before you violently feed them up to somebody at the top. The decision to focus on the HW division is a refreshing approaching and of the six HWs they've roped in thus far, they combine for an average age of about 31 years old (30.5 to be exact). That number is heavily skewed by the 35 year old Greg Rabello. Just for a comparison point, the top 6 in the division (Stipe plus the five contenders under him) come out at about a solid 34.5 years old. So here's my opinion on this one; sign all of them even if they lose. Turn the HW division into the undercard gamblers division and load up FP prelims with big doughy guys. You might luck into one!

10-20- Record for fights either in the UFC or against fighters who have been in the UFC

Yeah, this number isn't too pretty I suppose. Now granted there are guys like Daniel Spohn, Justin Jones and Daniel Jolly who really tip the scales here but as is often the case with TUF seasons, the prospects here haven't faired all too well when they've faced UFC quality competition. People CAN improve of course but going on pure raw data, it's looking rough to start.

0- Women's MMA fights confirmed thus far

This is a concerning number. It's not that I think the UFC is deliberately ignoring the women of mixed martial arts, I just don't know if they're out there to be had. Part of the problem with having an Invicta is that the WMMA community is so small that just about everybody winds up there at some point; most before they're ready. Tuesday Night Contenders becoming ANOTHER Invicta where ladies like Rachel Ostovich are fed to elite talents over and over is probably not good for anybody. What's more with TUF 25 being flyweights, you're not going to send them to Tuesday Night Contenders because you pretty much NEED all of them for that. And of course it's like flyweight or bantamweight TUFs, chances are if you're a good one they're just going to sign you so why bother? The UFC can't keep pilfering talents from Invicta without waiting for the stock to replenish and while a guy like TheAnticool would clearly know more as it pertains to whether it IS being replenished, there needs to be concern about how long it's taking.  Ronda's ascension to the top of the MMA landscape was expected to jolt WMMA and in many ways it did---but it's 2017 and we're still waiting to see the fruits of that labor.

7- flyweights

Be it petty posturing or a genuine warning, Dana White coming out and admitting that the last three years have featured them considering the removal of flyweight has to be concerning for all MMA fans. The UFC removing flyweights from the equation would ultimately be a bad thing for MMA (a hell of a boon to 135 tho!) and would further blur the lines between sport of business and the business of sport. Even if you acknowledge that fighters can always make their money overseas, all of the US orgs (since Bellator has shown no interest in flyweights and I'm not even sure the new chain at WSOF know what flyweights are) abandoning the division would do serious damage to the growth of MMA. As such, it's refreshing to see Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender Series has thus far cornered the market on flyweights not in the organization.

4- Fighters coming off a loss

The idea of DWTCS was the best prospects vs the best prospects and old UFC guys trying to regroup and rebound after a series of losses. When names started getting announced and people started to complete the picture, there was some rankling about signing guys to compete who were coming off losses. That, at least so far, is overstated. Just four of the guys on the show are coming off of a loss.

So those are just some things I wanted to dig through and look over. Despite this, questions STILL remain. Such as....

1- How are they going to make money off of this?

Seriously. There's no TV rights deal (here or abroad) and there's no gate because the show is attended by Dana's friends and fam. One would assume that the UFC is paying for crapola even if the UFC owns the venue and etc etc. Right off the bat, you're talking about 50K going out (5K for 10 guys plus 25K on top for the winners). So how ya paying for this? Fight Pass subs?

2- Is it possible to LOSE and get into the UFC?

We see it all of the time. The "win and get in" style of UFC TUF Finale is bent slightly so that guys who put on an amazing fight and lose can still get a chance. Will the UFC keep with that mentality here? Given that so much of this is the whim of one man, is it win and get in only?

3- What will the outfits look like?

It'd be...awkward if Dana White's side league project featured fighters wearing sponsored swag. Is it going to be like 2013 where dudes had big sponsorship lapses and so they had guys wearing UFC trunks? I know that they're treating Dana White's Tuesday Night Contenders where it's like an alternate organization BUT if I'm a fighter and I make it into the UFC off the show, I want this fight to count for my UFC record.

4- Production? Any ideas?

Again with no real way to make money, what will the production look like? I hate to make the comp here but I don't think this product is going to succeed if it feels like a dark match/house show with no video packages, no commentary and no sizzle with their graphics. I'd really like to see what they do with the commentary spot. One thing I'd really like to see is different guys being given the opportunity to try their hand at live commentary. If they're bad, it's not going to be the end of the world and if they're good, as guys like Cruz proved to be, then you can start grooming your next crop of rotating commentators. I bet the UFC would LOVE a day where they can just sandblast the sports world with a show from Asia that starts at 8 on ESPN/FS1, a show from England that starts at 12 on ESPN 2/FS2 and then a big show at 8 PM that goes back onto the main network. To pull that shit off, you need developed competent commentators and MAYBE this can be an attempt to pull that off.

5- Where are the international guys at?

The current crop are 95% Americans with 5% delegated to some Europeans who live and operate within the US. I'd LOVE to see them move in some guys from Asia to get a chance. There's a lot of PXC guys who aren't good enough in theory for the UFC but could benefit from the opportunity to at least compete there.

6- Ringer Fights

Obviously any REALLY REALLY great prospects are getting UFC calls and not wasting their time on this. But let's say you do so decide to go to the UFC through Tuesday Night Contenders. Let's use Jose "Shorty" Torres for a sec, k? Would you take a Jose Torres and give him an obvious squash match set up so he looks super impressive to get the hype going? If so, can they handle the backlash if we see through it?

In the end, this is somewhere between a regional organization and a UFC lite. It's Dana White attempting to create a Looking For A Fight without having to look for it. It's a chance for prospects, veterans who live under the radar and potential organizational filler to get fights. For fighters on the regional circuit, it represents a substantial jump up in pay. There are just too many questions and concerns for this project to get out of the "cautiously optimistic" stage.