Ted Lasso – Riches of Embarrassment Review

I’m starting to get a bit worried about the direction of this season of Ted Lasso. Perhaps it’s a coincidence that this is also the first episode of the season that wasn’t provided for critics for our pre-season reviews, but we’ve hit the halfway point in the season and are rapidly running out of runway for diving into the reasoning behind Alice’s harsh outbursts as well as for solving the Keeley and Roy situation – the two major arcs of the season thus far*. In each case, whenever the characters take one step forward, the next episode they’re taking three steps back. Which is all well in good in the first few episodes of the season, but we’re approaching the point in the season arc where we need to start getting answers and moving closer to a resolution – assuming that the show is planning to provide one in season four.

*Rebecca’s love life is far less compelling, largely because her entire arc this season has felt strangely unmoored. From her continued fear at being seen as not supporting women’s sports – her and Higgins continually stressing how important this game was felt disingenuous – I have to say I don’t think her and Mattijs are a good match. They clearly aren’t communicating, the addition of his daughter is complication they haven’t addressed in any depth, and he’s – dare I say it – boring? I suspect I’d feel less annoyed by the continued focus on Rebecca’s love life over her work if the show was showing us any sign that she’s fully invested in the Lady Greyhounds, but it’s still phoning it in there as well. There’s a good arc to be had in exploring how a woman running a complex business tries to juggle work – the sacrifices she needs to make and how her partner needs to be more understanding of the pull on her time – but we haven’t really seen that in any depth this season. Just hints and then a quick resolution before the same issues appear again.

Let’s tackle the Alice arc first, since it’s the most robust of the two – and Alice is, by far, the show’s most interesting character. I love that the writers aren’t afraid to make Alice prickly and that they aren’t afraid to show us that, despite Ted’s influence, she’s a demanding coach who isn’t easily charmed by Ted’s folksy humor. A key piece of the show that the writers often forget is that despite how many people warm to Ted, he’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. Sometimes, he won’t be able to reach people with his kindness and he’ll need to dial it back down to make his point. I like that the pair of them are butting heads. What I don’t love is that we’re five episodes into the show and we can only guess at the root of Alice’s continued push for perfection – as well as her dislike for Gemma (a feeling that remains very much returned).

Now, if I had to guess based solely on what we know about Alice, I’m guessing this attitude – a desire to win, frustration that the team isn’t taking playing as seriously as a team like Chelsea would – stems from her own stunted career. Based on what Gemma told us, she was a battle axe back when they first knew one another as teammates, pushing even the best players to be better – and alienating them in the process. Alice insists her attitude is meant to make the team better – after all, she knows how fast a career can come to an end. You don’t necessarily get a second chance to take down a giant like Chelsea and prove yourself. We know Alice still has a chip on her shoulder from not achieving what she dreamed of as a player – and that she thinks she deserved at least a shot at the head coach job (which she proved this episode she wasn’t ready for).

But we also saw that Alice wants the team to care about her at least a bit as much as they care about Ted – she was very clear that the team never asked to learn anything about her (although she was totally right – the interest in Ted’s personal life was borderline inappropriate). So, what exactly is the show setting up here? The simple answer is an arc where Alice hits bottom and then learns to become more like Ted and open herself up – an arc I firmly hope isn’t where the season is heading, since it would take a complex and interesting character and sand down all her edges, proving that you can’t be prickly and succeed in the world of Ted Lasso (unless you’re Roy Kent, and we’re going to get to him in a minute). It’s clear Alice’s current mental state and treatment of the team isn’t sustainable. She’s alienating her players, treating them poorly, and isn’t listening to her head coach. It’s unprofessional – which is something we haven’t seen her be until now. So, something is eating away at her and no one is taking the time to dig deeper. Yes, she’s an adult who needs to regulate her choices, but Ted also needs to take steps to get to the bottom of this. That’s part of his job. The suspension was the right choice, but leaving her to stew for several weeks doesn’t change anything. Hopefully she comes back a bit less hot headed, but again, we don’t know what is happening with her – and we only have five episodes to find out and resolve this arc.

And then there’s Keeley and Roy, continuing the world’s dumbest romantic comedy arc of all time. I mentioned last week how much I hate the “Go on X dates and then we can be together” trope and this is precisely why I hate it. Roy has met someone, he’s dating her, and now he either needs to dump her for Keeley (which doesn’t show growth – it shows he’s a jerk who was willing to lead someone else on only to leave her when Keeley comes calling) or he won’t get back together with Keeley. There’s no winners here. And for someone who is as much of a girl’s girl as Keeley, I can’t imagine she would be happy to hear Roy dumped someone just because Keeley asked him to. That’s just a shitty thing to do, and not something someone she should want to be with would do. Even if the show wants us to believe that Keeley and Roy are made for each other and this is just a roadblock to their happiness, it’s callous and really makes me wish they never get back together. Keeley got what she deserved – her ultimatum was idiotic. Roy has found someone he cares enough about to see five times in a row – that’s something impressive. He owes it to himself and her to see where it goes without Keeley around. But this is a comedy and that’s not something the show wants, so now he’s second guessing himself and Keeley is a mess. This is why this arc is dumb.

And don’t get me started on the Jane piece of things – I love Beard, I love how weird he can be, but I really don’t love the toxic relationship with Jane being played for laughs. Nothing about that play was funny (the Macbeth jokes were, however). Beard can be weird without being part of an abusive relationship. I love that he’s there to push Ted to do the hard but right thing with Alice. I hate that Ted just lets the whole Jane situation play out without stopping any of it. Like I said – a lot of this episode has begun to make me worried about just where this season is headed. I had pretty high hopes out of the gate, but now that we’re at the halfway point, the show doesn’t seem all that concerned with fleshing out the team, letting us understand Alice more, or letting the legacy characters grow beyond who they used to be. And that worries me.