Welcome back to the Dog Track Greyhounds. This is Richmond Til We Die,
an episode by episode conversation about the Apple TV Plus show ted Lasso, where
we explore the characters, the relationships to each other, and how they're able
to make us laugh until we can hardly breathe one moment to deal with the
deepest parts of our hearts the next. For this episode, our conversation is
all about season three, episode one, titled Smells Like Mean Spirit. It
was written by Leanne Bowen, directed by m J. Delaney, and edited
by AJ Cataline. I'm Marissa, and I was born in Kansas City.
I'm Christian, and I'm trying to decide what my favorite version of Smells Like
Teen Spirit parody is. Is it the nineteen ninety two weird Al Yankovic version
or is it the twenty eleven Mumpets version where they are forcibly shaving Jack Black?
Yes? Wow, I really like the cover that happens at the beginning
of Marvel's Black Widow. But I don't know who that's by. But that's
not a parody version. So I'm gonna go a shaving Jack Black because I'm
gonna have to go back and watch that and you stole my intro because I'm
Brett and I feel stupid and contagiously excited about our return to form. But
first, Christian, what are you wearing? I look super hot today?
Yeah you do. I am wearing the US men's national team centennial jersey here.
This shirt is from two thirteen, the one hundredth year of the US
Soccer Federation. I like it because it's very plain. It's meant to look
old. It's nice and white and not garish like many of the US national
team kits that Nike releases. Nice thick borders, maybe blue on the sleeves,
and this tight V neck and then it has an old school looking crest
that US Soccer should have kept, nice thirteen stars and then some stripes.
The reason I'm wearing this is because the Conky Calf Nations League just wrapped up.
Yeah, the United States won the Conky Calf Nations League. Yeah,
they did, exerting their dominance over both Mexico and Canada. Boy, and
the Mexico semi final was two hours of the most glorious chaotic soccer I've ever
seen. I was watching it on Univision, so is the Spanish commentary,
which is great, always adds a little extra panash to things. And what
happened was We're getting ready to play this gigantic match and US Soccer uses that
opportunity to announce that they've named a new manager, like as the game is
starting, My god, who was it? Well, the funny thing is
it was their old manager. And there's just been tons of joba. I'm
not gonna go over here, but just google it. There's been blackmail and
espionage and impropriety, and this was probably one of the last people that anybody
thought was going to get the job. And then blamo, Greg border Halter
gets rehired. And so I knew that this had happened because I watched Twitter,
but the commentators don't like watch Twitter always in real time, and so
I'm watching it in the univision. Folks are breaking this news to their audience,
just as then Christian Pulisic gets out on a breakaway and then essentially like
missus a sitter of a goal. So just imagine the Mexican commentators being excited
about breaking the news, the scandalous news that Greg Halter had been rehired,
and then Christian Pulisic missing a sitter and all of the screaming that ensued.
It was fun times four yellow cards in this match. Both teams ended with
nine players. One of the four red cards. Oh yeah, sorry for
red cards. Which is a lot of red cards. It's a lot of
red cards. Weston McKinney had his jersey ripped and his nipple was hanging out.
It was the best bro best soccer nipple since Jamie Tart versus Soup back
in ted Lasso Season one. I thought you were gonna say something about Janet
Jackson. No, no, no, little little something for everyone in this
match. I like that the crest on your shirt. It looks it reminds
me of like vintage era Captain America shield. It's very like, it's very
old school. It's fun. I did wear this shirt a couple of days
ago too, because it was I went to see Hamilton for the first time
the day that we were playing Canada for the title, and so the other
US jerseys I have have white dude's names on the back and that seemed kind
of dumb to wear to Hamilton, and this one has the thirteen star,
so I was like, thirteen colonies. F Yeah, let's go that's it.
How is Hamilton? It was fantastic good another Rave review. That little
known show still doing well, still against all the odds. I thought about
wearing my US Canada split scarf, but decided against it at the last morning.
I will say, there are not many other shows that can come to
Wichita, Kansas and have a two week residency. So good, good for
you Hamilton, good Joblin. Should we remind our listeners what happened in this
episode? It's been a minute We most certainly should. It's been a super
hot minute. Take it away. Christian ted Lasso is returning Henry to his
hometown of Kansas City while staying in London to rescue AFC Richmond from the clutches
of relegation. Ted knows that west Ham has assembled a squad even more powerful
than his plucky club, which might very well spell certain doom for the small
band of Greyhounds struggling to attain freedom in the Premier League. While Ted seems
to be doubting himself at least as much as every pundit and basement blogger doubts
Richmond's chances, he still finds a way to make the most of a poope
situation by getting the team off the training pitch for an informative field trip in
an effort to flush their bad vibes. Rebecca is less than pleased in what
she interprets as a lack of focus and intensity from Ted. Granted, her
judgment is severely clouded as she's letting Rupert live rent free in her head,
which is not only unhealthy but also super dumb because he could totally afford the
rent. Q Nate and well he's on the other side, but is the
grass really greener? Rupert seems fun, but he remains to be seen whether
there's more to life than fancy throne rooms and fast cars. Phoebe is back
and in her old age, is spitting deep wisdom. She's so wise like
a regular sized Yoda. Roy and Keiley would do well to consult her on
their relationship woes, but something tells us they're going to have to work things
out on their own. And that is all the recap we are going to
give you. We're back. Ted's back, the Greyhounds are back. Leading
up to this episode, what feelings did the two of you have? If
you will recall there was a long wait between the end of season two and
the beginning of season three. Yeah, so long that some on this podcast
said they might not continue to watch the show anymore. I won't name names,
but I think the overwhelming feeling that I had coming into season three was
just excitement, like really an anticipation, and not in a negative way,
but really just wanting to see where this journey would take us. I think
that they're even after two relatively short seasons, like I mean, they're average
seasons for TV now, but having twenty two episodes total, I had great
faith in the creative team and the writers and the technical team to really pull
it off and land the plane, kind of knowing that this might be the
third and final act of this story, and so I was just excited to
kind of see how they would start off. What about you, Marissa,
I mean I was looking forward to it, of course. Yeah, it's
hard to wait, and it got increasingly more frustrating waiting for it. But
yeah, no, I agree, I had faith in it. But I
think I was most looking forward to redemption for certain people in certain characters,
and just because not only like the principal characters, but so many of the
supporting characters have like grown in there I feel like their fan base and appreciation
throughout the show, so I feel like they had to do a lot of
work to tie up so many like storylines and characters and really kind of,
I don't know, let us say goodbye to them in like a fun and
healthy way. And so that's, you know, as we were going into
it, that's kind of what I was hoping would happen. What about you,
Christian, I was feeling zen very trust the process. The sad part
was that once the season started, and that meant the season was going to
end, and then also that meant, you know, our podcast was probably
going to end because this is most likely the third in final season of ted
Lasso, and then there's only so much that you can talk about when there's
no new material. So I was a bit conflicted in that the long period
of time in between the two seasons did extend the life of the online ted
Lasso community and this thing that we get to do, and all of that
has been very fun. So there was some sadness and some sentimentality, but
then also the excitement to see what they were going to do with all of
this that they had set up, and there was a long time in between,
but I always chocked that up to, well, one, the world
realizes how cool all the people are that work on the show now, so
they were doing a lot of other jobs and a lot of other projects at
the same time, but also that they were taking the time to get the
result that they wanted, and so I, just like you, knew that
we weren't going to get anything that was rushed, and everything was going to
be thought out and executed to the best of their abilities. In my opinion,
the intentionality paid off. One of the things that I noticed from the
very beginning was we were getting a lot of head fakes in this episode.
They're toying with us a bit, trying to psych us out. And then
the other thing was there were just a lot of deep cut callbacks, and
then we would find later things that they were setting up for later in the
season. And so there was some solace in seeing from the beginning, Oh
good, they're being really smart about this. Now I really can't wait to
see what happens. It's interesting to like sort of get so swept up in
a show, I mean, the way especially we did by starting this podcast
and being involved, like you said, with sort of all of the ted
last, so fandom on the internet. But it's interesting to me, like
doing that when you can interact with other fans but also people who create things
like that was never a thing that we did watching shows growing up, you
know, Like I remember, well there was no Internet. Well yes,
exactly, but I remember Brett's too young. But I remember getting like the
TV guide in like the aisle of the grocery store because like I wanted to
know what the next like episode of whatever I was watching was going to be
about, right, or that I was going to miss it because I had
some rehearsal that night or whatever. But it like the fact that we kind
of get these insights to like what we're about to receive from them creatively is
I don't know, It seems like you kind of get to peel back like
the curtain a little bit and have some sort of idea of like they're doing
this not just for the show or for like their own creative purposes, but
because they want to honor the fans too. As much as this episode did
overall kind of feel very much like a set up episode, Like there's a
lot of table setting. Yeah, and we'll get into that, but it
still felt like good to be back with these characters, and it felt like
we kind of knew where we were going from the first scene. I feel
like at least of course was set. You know, it felt like we
had a direction. So I felt good about like, Okay, I feel
like we have a thesis statement and we can like expound on it. You
know, speaking of table setting, where are you still team captions? When
you watch television always being team captions? Led me to notice something, and
that is that the credits for tedl Lasso, the opening credits have gotten incredibly
long. Yeah, because it shifts the captions. They go to the top
and the side, the top and the sides, and sometimes it covers people's
heads and whatnot. And what I realized is the credits were so long is
because, very kindly and rightfully, everybody who was with the show essentially from
the beginning got promotions. So people who were credited as writers in the first
season are now have producer roles in various roles, which means, you know,
they got more money and a lot of the great things that come with
getting a promotion. But I went back and I timed it when I was
rewatching this, and we do not get to a regular caption position until like
six minutes into this episode, which is a little bonkers when you consider the
first episodes of ted Lasso were only twenty four minutes long, and so it
like it doesn't quite feel as long when with these longer episodes. But hey,
six minutes. I'm glad everybody's getting their shout outs. I'm glad everybody's
getting their paychecks. It's nice to know that the vibe that we pick up
on of these people looking out for each other and loving each other does seem
to also play out in real life. Yeah. You know something else that
I noticed, just speaking of esthetics and things like that, is that in
this episode there is a lot of iPhone dinging ing ing. Yeah. Yeah,
these people need to get a vibrate setting. Yeah for real, like
Apple got to get that money. Girl. It's you know what else happens
in this episode? What's that? And also in this season that I think
we should like make sure that we keep track of for the fans. Tell
me, Rebecca is seen eating a lot in this season, and I just
want to say, go girl, because you know, she's a queen.
But like one of the most famous actors in America is like known for eating
movies. You know who that is, Yeah, Brad Pitt. It's like
in his contracts, isn't it. Yeah, Like did you know that when
heat is amazing jaw line? Yeah, And I mean like Hannah watting him,
Like, let's just say hers is even better. When Brad Pitt eats
two hundred plus calories in a film, the film earns one hundred and forty
three plus million. If he eats less than two hundred calories, his movie
earns only one hundred and ten million, and if he doesn't eat at all,
it's like sixty eight million. So I'm just saying maybe this has to
do with like also like the people making the money for season three years effect,
the Brad pit effect is now we need to follow this for Rebecca this
season. So I think we should be tracking all the yummy things that she
does. Yeah, because we've seen her like consuming biscuits quite a bit simple
seasons child, but like she starts off like eating a nice like gourmet salad
like in this season. So we're gonna We're just gonna put a pin in
that and track it throughout this season because it matters, it does, and
we want to recognize and empower that NTV she eats in Kiley's office, and
I believe the two of you were very excited by other Keile's office developments that
happen this season. Oh my gosh, one of my absolute favorite actresses is
Katie Wicks, and she shows up as Barbara the CFO, which Keily has
no idea. Why does she call her the flying object Corporate Flying objects flying
abjects? Yes, we love Katie Wicks. There will be a Katie Wicks
appreciation moment in every episode that Barbara appears in because she's also in one of
our favorite shows where she was in Ghosts, the BBC version, and we
love her work and was such a pleasant surprise to see her walk in and
be a little bit disrespectful to keilely. But you know, we'll see where
it goes. So season three starts us off with like helping us to remember
what it was like to start the whole series. Right, there's a lot
of things that feel like what we felt at the first episode of season one,
right, Yes, in the sense that a lot of our friends have
regressed to some of their former dysfunctions. So that's neat. Yes, folks,
are being unhealthy in old and familiar ways, some of that falling into
some of those old patterns and reminding us that growth and progress is not always
linear, but there are times of progress and regress, if that's a word
people use. One example is the very first scene where we have Ted with
his son Henry, and kind of how that whole dynamic is playing out with
Ted communicating with Henry and with Michelle as Henry's preparing to board this fictional flight
from London to Kansas City that does not exist. But let's chat a little
bit about like there are other folks I think that fall into this category too,
But what do we think is going on with Ted here in this moment.
Not a lot that's good. He doesn't look good, he doesn't feel
particularly all. They're not bubbly and snappy, like yeah, ready for the
day. And again we're starting at an airport, right, So like we
see Ted and Season one, you know, getting on he's on the plane
and he's he's ready, he's energized, he's looking forward to the season,
to what's new to this experience. And here we're at an airport and Ted
is not looking forward to what's happening next, like he has this question of
like why is he still here? Like I don't want my son to get
on this plane and like leave me right now. Whereas like the beginning we
were he was going to something. Now it feels like, you know,
his son is leaving from somewhere. So, yes, we have those elements
that are kind of that threat is carrying us through. But yeah, Ted
doesn't know why he's still here. And it's a question and a critique that
people who watched the show asked after the first season, who the heck you
know leaves there? Kid? Un of these circumstances, especially for a venture
that seems speculative or frivolous or ridiculous, And those are clearly thoughts that Ted
is now having, and it is having a powerful effect on him. We
talked about Phoebe having some wisdom for Uncle Roy, and then we also see
in this episode that it's not just reserved for young Phoebe, but Henry also
has some wisdom for his dad, And as I don't know as conflicted as
Ted feels, Henry seems to understand why his dad is there, and he's
like, you came here for a reason. You have to try, right
this. He gives them sort of this lego figurine of the Premier League club,
right, but really it's it's supposed to be this like this thing that
we're all wanting to happen for Richmond for the whole series, right, And
so here's Henry like giving it to him and saying, yeah, Dad,
I know you love me, I know you want to be with me,
but you came out here for a reason. You don't quit things, and
like, go do it, Go do the dang thing. And I think
it's a really important thing for Ted to hear as he's in this headspace as
well as we'll learn in just a few moments when he's talking to doctor Sharon,
who yeah, doctor Sharon's back, but like he is clearly struggling with
like I know why I came here, but I don't know why I'm still
here. And this reminder from Henry, I think is really important to him
for thinking about like maybe what he needs to do with the time that he
knows he still has a Richmond, whether that's one season or more or whatever.
This is TBD at this point, but I think it's a good reminder
for him to be like, yeah, you don't just come out like there's
still a job to do, there's still very real people that he cares about
in his life and on this club that you know, depending on what decision
he ends up making, like he wants to leave this place better than he
found it. So to Ted's credit, he is not allowing all of those
feelings and all that's going on inside of him. He's not like dampening that
by allowing himself to get drug into other people's nonsense. Right, Rebecca is
back to a really unhealthy place in terms of the status that she gives Rupert
in her life and the focus that she has on him. And then she
doesn't even she's blind to the focus that she is putting on him, and
she does try to drag Ted into kind of this proxy war against Rupert,
and Ted's like not having anything to do with that. So he's not trying
to drown out his feelings by getting in someone else's drama. He can see
pretty clearly that that's nothing he wants to have anything to do with. Well.
And yes, and even though we see these characters sort of existing in
these unhealthy familiar areas, we do see growth because we see Ted not just
staying in this place where he's unhappy or he's conflicted about something and then just
acting like everything is okay. The first thing he does see him do is
talk to doctor Sharon about it, and so we see him sort of like
taking those steps to deal with these questions rather than just sort of clossing over
it or hiding it or just shoving it down and trying to be the happy,
positive energy in the room all the time. And we see that when
he enters the room and they make the joke about like no witty repperte or
what do they say, no funny illiteration like rhyming reading or something like that.
Yes, it sets up an odd juxtaposition in this season because we came
to fall in love with a version of Ted Lasso that was not a healthy
version of Ted Lasso, And so then how do we as an audience,
like, what do we feel about a healthy her version of Ted? And
maybe that's not exactly what we're experiencing now, but a lot of those things
that we did fall in love with, those have been shipped away because those
were unhealthy. Coping them mechanism, right, and so now, what's what's
our relationship with this guy? Which I just think is an interesting way to
set up this season because just in real life, how many times are there
where you get to know someone and there are parts of their personality that you
actually do enjoy, But then as you get to know them on a deeper
level, a more intimate level, you start to realize, like, oh,
some of the things I love about this person are also some of the
things that you know this is the result of a wound, of a hurt,
of something that is causing them pain or to go to unhealthy places.
It's not always all bad, but there are there are times where you can
you can hold those two things in your mind and be like, I love
this person because they act this way or they're this type of person, but
I also know that's a result of trauma or you know, negative behavior,
or you know negative learned behaviors, I guess I should say. And so
that's I just applaud the show for bringing that to us as viewers, sort
of asking us to reconcile with that, like, oh, the things that
were so charming about this man, some of them were a little bit troubling,
and it's good to see him. Like we said before, it's good
to see him doing the work, and I think it sets up a really
fun journey for season three. Someone we don't see doing any work or has
not changed it at all since season two is Nate. We see him starting
his day at West Ham Right, it's a little bit like when we see
Ted coming into Richmond. But anytime someone tries to shut O, anytime someone
tries to talk to Nate, it's like there's either no response or quick and
like the down doesn't talk to them, or he's rude, and the first
thing he does is open his beautiful Apple computer and check on what people are
saying about him online, which is, of course, as we all know,
really healthy. And it's you're right, Like there are so many of
these like negative parallels because in the first season of episode one, Ted's kili
as sad about Twitter and he's like, oh, I don't really do Twitter,
you know. And then there's also the way they each single out of
player, Like when Ted first singles out Sam, that might be an episode
two, but that's the be a Goldfish quote that we all love, but
we see the first time we see Nate single out of player, he sends
them to the dumb dumb line. So and then the whole the whole parallelism
with the press conferences too, is just really brilliant, like that they handle
those things and totally opposite ways, and yet there's a really interesting similarity,
which is that Nate experiences a form of an anxiety attack that's not dissimilar from
what Ted does and his very first press conference. We obviously see that manifest
in bigger, more significant ways later, but I thought that was really interesting
that they chose to write it that way. Yeah, and we also learned
too, as Nate is texting with his mom at the end of the episode.
Well, I guess we'd all learn, but we just get a reminder
that Nate's relationship with his dad sits very close to the source of his insecurities,
and so he can try to cover him up with whatever he wants,
but even just that text really pierces him, even if for a second.
Yep, and probably the most disheartening for me situation of unhealth is this thing
that we've got going on with Roy and Keeley. I kind of thought we
had moved on and things were getting better at the end of season two.
Clearly that is not the case. They are still on very rocky shores and
trying to figure out what their relationship is. And by the end of this
episode, they have decided to finalize their breakup, and the last thing they
have to do is of course tell Phoebe, who is the arbiter of their
relationship and the you know, this constant between both of them because she looks
up to Keeley and Roy in different ways so much so that's a very cute
but also sad scene that was really well written, I thought, and I
agree with you be a little bit. I think they're both being a little
bit stupid, But we'll see what happens. I do appreciate that it seems
like it's coming from a place of wanting to honor each other's journey and kind
of grow continue to grow in health. But I don't know, Man's it
feels really continuous. Yeah, I don't know. It's hard to be figuring
stuff out alone. So we'll see. We'll see how it works out.
You know what else feels strange, but somehow right is that Jamie tart is
like the most focused and like has just this positive outlook and like, I
don't know, just like a leadership about him in the locker room for people
and he's just like, everyone, get your lives together. We're gonna do
this. Like where did full philosopher Jamie come from? Because I don't know.
I'd read his book, The Philosopher King is what he is, and
I love him. The transformation that Jamie Tart has undergone already in this show
is fascinating and incredible, and even in even in the context of this one
episode, we go from him sort of having his very almost sort of faux
arrogant quoe where he says like, you know, if we're together, we're
not going to get relegated because together we got me, you know, and
it's like, oh, there's there's classic Jamie, like he's still in there
there way. But then by the end of the episode, once we've gone
down into the sewer and come back, you know, Jamie is the first
as the team starts to devolve into this like, okayn't believe what they said
about us. I can't believe this, you know, everyone's talking about us.
He's like it's just boope, you know, and Ted and Beard are
kind of like, okay, j yeah, I got it. He's he's
taking on a little bit more of a leadership role in understanding like as he's
being one of eleven, like how he continued to how he can continue to
be a leader on a team while also being a member of that team.
And that's It's a development that I am very excited to talk about as it
happens this season. I appreciate that they did not make Jamie less stylish,
as they gave him more depth. In fact, I thought that his hair
looked a little extra frosted this season, and some of those visual cues that
just remind you who Jamie has been in the past. It almost seemed like
they cranked the dial up on him just a little bit to put some distance
between his look and his substance. Yes, I mean Phil downstairs just brilliant,
like for real, he could do so many things, and we get
to see that entire range this season, and I'm thrilled. I completely agree
Jamie style game continue the barking tenues to raise in this season. But one
area where we've maybe taken a step back, or at least a sidestep in
style is the style of soccer that Richmond are going to play this season,
which is the old four four two, And man, does this season really
like take us to soccer one on one school and it's glorious. This is
a show that people who have not watched soccer could still enjoy and appreciate.
And since this show's debut, there have been a lot of people who have
learned things about the game come to appreciate the game. We've seen folks especially
enjoy starting to follow Wrexham because their story has been told in a documentary narrative
style that is compelling and I think speaks to people both in tone and in
substance who enjoy ted Lasso And this year it really it's always been a show
with soccer at its core. This year then it really does get pushed even
more to the forefront and there is a lot of teaching of the history and
the philosophy of the game that we get to I personally enjoyed, and we
also get a lot of flexing as they visit a number of their favorite football
stadia throughout Europe, not just England. And you can really tell, even
more so than the first two seasons, that this is a show that was
created by people who love the sport, even just looking at this one episode
where they take the time to do those little explanatory commas or just kind of
write in bits about the game that we'll speak to those folks who like,
like you said, you can enjoy the show knowing zero about soccer. But
I think for those of us who do follow the game and have followed the
game for you know, decades or more, that it feels very it feels
very much like talking to your friends about soccer, you know. It feels
like it feels like you could just be like shooting the breeze about this,
and it's it's a very natural conversation. And I love that they use it
as a device too to kind of show some of Ted's growth in the knowledge
he's a head coach of the sport, so he should absolutely no things.
It's still unacceptable. How little he knows, it's still unacceptable. But I
love that, you know, he very you know, he mentions the four
four two and how he knows what that means is for defenders four midfield two
forwards. And there's also the moment where in his press conference later in the
episode, he says, well, we got thirty eight chances to prove them
wrong. Whereas in the first episode of season one someone asked him how many
games in a season and he's like, I don't know off the top of
my head, you know. So there's little moments sprinkled throughout where Ted is
showing off his very basic, admittedly but still knowledge about the game, and
the way they use that as a plot device to also just sort of speak
to those folks who really do love soccer and love this show is really fun.
If you follow the cast and crew on social media, you would see
their love for the soccer as season three was in production, and maybe one
of the reasons that season three took a little longer to get to us was
because they attended so many soccer matches. Did they even work well, not
on Saturday afternoons at two po best for sure, And I mean I was
happy for him. You know, if you can waltz into stadiums and have
people welcome you and get access to meet players and managers, you should absolutely
strike while the iron is hot. And it was fun from a distance to
watch them having fun in places that before they'd probably just enjoyed on TV and
whatnot. Yeah, So, as we've already mentioned, the title of this
episode is clearly a nod to the Nirvana grunge classic Smells Like Teen Spirit.
We've got that in some other songs, but Christian, I think maybe you
had a little something you wanted to say about Smells Like Teen Spirit. Even
though it's not actually played in this episode. Yeah, we don't get to
hear it, but coming through the lyrics, I did find these four lines
that stood out to me. I'm worst at what I do best, and
for this gift, I feel blessed. Our little group has always been and
always will until the end. There's not a lot in Smells Like Teen Spirit
that has a nice dead lasso vibe to it, but that part of that
verse most certainly that and I think one of the like the best and maybe
a little bit unexpected song placements for me in this episode was when we Here
Follow the Leader by Eric b and Rock Him, which is from the eighty
seven album of the same name, and this of course plays as we are
reintroduced to Nate now as the head coach of west Ham United, and it's
supposed to kind of set the table. You know, he's the top dog
now, Yeah, right, It was surprising. I rewatch. It made
more sense to me when we see Nate for the first time. I was
tam at the end of season two, we get that Run the Jewels track
Yankee and the Brave, and the beat to this particular song sounds a lot
like the beat too or Run the Jewels song. So for Nate to be
back, for us to be reintroduced to him, for him to be out
London Stadium again with the team, it felt like there was some connective tissue.
And it also reminded me that in season one we got some biz marquis
and whereas a lot of the hip hop and hip hop references in the show
tend to be more nineties, because I would have been of Jason Sidekis like
prime hip hop era, this is before that. But if you're gonna pick
someone to shout out and represent rock, him is the person to do it.
When people talk about the greatest lyricists of all time, he often comes
up in conversation, and he's a person that stylistically and philosophically informed so much
of what in hip hop in general, but then kind of that golden age
of East Coast hip hop. He's a big influence on Nas, jay Z,
Biggie Wu Tang. Without him, I don't know that we get all
of that richness. And so it was just as a matter of the historical
record. I was glad to get some Eric b and Rick him in this
episode. And it's still a bomb. Yeah, oh yeah, it still
goes. Yes, you will make you want to run through a wall.
Yes, and I do appreciate Yeah, yeah, you know, um Nate,
maybe he listens to Eric B and Rick him, I don't know,
but he certainly has not adopted their swire. Brett, how did you feel
when you got to hear some Beyonce in this episode? I was so excited
that we got in this episode they have, Brett. I have been waiting
and finally it's here. And I think the song Laid shows it's such an
interesting choice. It plays at the credits. It's like right after we go
to you know, cut to black, or maybe right before that. As
Ted is on the phone with finds out who Henry Jake, who tells him
about Mommy's friend Jake Arma. Unfortunately he is not and so you know,
Ted has this very this look of consternation. I'll call it and and constipation.
And that Beyonce rings the alarm and which is from two thousand and six
is b Day. This is an interesting choice only because the controversy surrounding the
release of this song as a single was that she had recorded it to sort
of be about jay Z's relationship with Rihanna at the time, and there was
this purported love triangle between the three of them, and so I do think
that in the context of this show, I wouldn't call what's happening with Jake,
Michelle and Ted a love triangle, but there is. It's a dramama.
There is a drama lama and maybe this sense of Ted of like,
hmm, you know, like ring that a lot of ring ringing ling ling,
So but it's it's a banger, and I'm excited that it was in
there, So I think would say it just like that too, ring ling,
a ling, ring ling, ling ling, And it was a great
callback to I can't remember which episode off the top of my head, but
when someone approaches Ted and it's like something bad has happening and he's like,
oh, what did jay Z and Beyonce break up or something? No,
it was specifically did Beyonce break up with jay Z or something? Which I
know because I love to gift that whenever I can't. It would have made
me. I got immediately sad just thinking about it, I think, he
says, so, so i' stretging up some feelings for Ted. And in
addition to the wonderful music placements, we have some other musical references in this
episode to this whole season is just chock full of Broadway y'all way to find
them all. Musical theater is abundant here, And we get one from Nate
when he starts to like get all awkward and doesn't know what to say and
he starts going into lyrics from The King and I yeah, yes. And
there's another one too, yeah, yeah, So the one you're mentioning is
when Nate says getting to know you, getting to know them, getting to
know all about them, which is a very well known song from The King,
and I like, I don't know how he thought he was going to
get away with that. But the other one comes early on in the episode
when Ted is talking to Rebecca or Higgins, I think, and he says,
what's the buzz? Tell me what's happening, which is the title of
a song from Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber. And so already we
see Ted kind of branching out in his references because up until now it has
been almost exclusively what would be considered Golden Era, Golden Age musicals. So
moving forward a little bit to Jesus Christ a little bit, and yes,
in that timeline we've you know, that's certainly a more It was a more
controversial show in its time than say, King and I Are Oklahoma, which
now may be considered more controversial shows than Jesus Christ Superstar, but that's for
a different podcast. Another thing that was slightly controversial in this episode was Paddington
Bear heyo giving AFC Richmonds zero out of five marmalade sandwiches. What's up with
that? What is up with that? Like, come on, Paddington,
why would you do them dirty like that? Like not even just like a
sloppy like one marmalade sandwich. We get some crossing of the streams this season
where the writers demonstrate that perhaps they do pay attention to the online discourse,
and there's a lot of comparison between Paddington Bear and ted Lasso on the Twitter,
and there have been a couple of times where the official ted Lasso Twitter
account and the FC Richmond Twitter account have replied to or interacted with the Paddington
Bear Twitter accounts, So those online world flirtations between fictitious characters does now spill
into the television. I'm not sure where we're at here, but we're somewhere.
We're somewhere and the multivers and if you don't already follow the Paddington Bear
Twitter account, if you're still on Twitter, it's it's uplifting, it is,
it's it's good Twitter. Yes, we see something similar when Ted is
roasting himself when he says, I look like Ned Flanders is doing cosplay as
Ned Flanders, which is probably somebody something that somebody said as a put down
to Ted Lasso and Reddit at some point in time or whatever, and so
it's nice that he wears that and owns it. Yes, I feel like
that one has been named and I've maybe even seen it. But the other
put the other roast he does to himself that I thought was hilarious, is
I sound like doctor Phil hadn't gone through puberty yet? And I was like,
if someone if that was a put down from someone, I want to
see it because that was funny. He also talks about Carmen San Diego,
which was like my favorite shows as a kid with do it Rockafella roll,
Yes, So I was wondering if like Henry even knows about who Parma san
Diegoes. However, like Netflix does have that new show, so maybe maybe
Henry's like up into that. But as far as that, I was like,
I don't know if Henry caught that. That seems something that is distinctly
American to a person of ted Lasso's age. And there are a couple of
times in this episode, especially where it just struck me man, I bet
it was really fun to work in the writer's room and for like the the
British people to explain things to the Americans and the Americans to explain things about
why things were funny. This happened when they mentioned um crying during John Lewis
Christmas commercials, Yes, and I was like, oh my gosh, one
of the greatest civil rights leaders of all times does Christmas commercials and I've never
seen them. I just I felt like a failure and that there was something
that I've been missing here. And so I go on the internet and find
out, oh, no, it's like a department store in England. Yes,
and does these really sentimental, creative, quite awesome Christmas commercial they're good.
Yeah, they're super good. I got stuck down a rabbit hole watching
a decade worth of them. But yeah, not John Lewis, the civil
rights leader. I had the same journey, Christian. I'm so glad that
we share this because I was like, I, how have I never seen
this? Like, if there's anything that Twitter should have shown me, it's
John Lewis Christmas commercial. Two of your favorite things. Yeah, there were.
In addition to these wonderful pop culture moments moments that we've mentioned already,
in this episode, there were a couple of good I shouldn't say, very
subtle but very quick casey sports references, one of them being more explicit that
being amos Otis comes in and says something about he does one of his little
rhyming tedisms, and he mentions amos Otis, who is considered one of the
you know, great Kansas City Royals players. George, there's another level below
George Brett names this is definitely in that correct next level of very revered Kansas
City Royals players. So that was like a fun like semi deep cut for
folks who are really into Royals baseball YEP. And then the other one was
when Keeley and Rebecca are talking about Lisa Left Eye Lopez boyfriend's mission. Yeah,
and there was another little English English quirkiness there when it happens fast,
but Rebecca talks about left Eye throwing her boyfriend's trainers into the bathtub, not
people, but shoes because they called sneakers trainers over there. And this is
something that happened in Atlanta when former Kansas City Chiefs player Andre Riisen was dating
Lisa left I Lopez and domestic dispute and she did end up like essentially burning
their house down whoops, because she threw his sneakers in the bathtub and set
them aflame. It happens, sometimes happen, burn it all down. Rounding
out our pop culture. The show went top rope a couple of times on
specific people, and I think that we should have a new segment to our
show, Ted Lasso's hit List, because there are sometimes where the writers just
decide to take shots at people, and I generally agree with the shots that
they take. One of them. We get Keiley with the concise into the
point you Joe Rogan, which was a great call back to the like fuck
you Pierce Morgan from the season two yes, and you know, amazingly,
it's a sentiment that has aged like fine wine. As in the news very
recently, just this week as we're recording, as Joe Rogan has been continuing
to go all anti vacts on people and getting actual legitimate scientists harassed at their
homes like he is literally the worst yikes, yeah, and gets the most
money. So that's how things go. Yeah, and that's that's how you
get That's how you get ted takedowns. Yep ye, speaking of people who
are the worst and get the most money. Rupert's dinner fellows his old friends,
the Sacklers, Yes, that he rides on there. He takes a
ride on their yachts and sambart, but they're not allowed to come within like
fifty miles off the shore or something like that, because they're the Sacklers,
Like they shouldn't be within fifty miles of anywhere. Yeah. So they were
key in perdue pharma and the rise of oxy and now it's become a total
addiction epidemic, especially in the United States. And so they are of Juda's
persona on Grana in these parts, but certainly the ilk that Rupert would hang
out, Yeah, it's a yes. So one of the things that we
get from Sharon that helps to kind of, I don't know, set ted
on this more positive outlook on his journey is a quote that he says he
really likes from Gruta and its doubt can only be removed by action, which
they don't directly attribute it to him. Right, the man, Yeah,
the man he I mean he is one of the man's well he is.
For instance, Ralph Waldo Emerson essentially named him one of the men. He
called Gruta one of six representative men in his work by the same name.
He included him with Plato, Swannenburg, Napoleon, Shakespeare, and mom Tang.
This is a guy who he was just he was a genius, right,
he was a genius level. He was a scientist, He was a
philosopher, He was an artist, poet, playwright, did all the things.
Yeah, he wrote a Faustian play which really dovetails with the themes of
ted Lasso. But I found some really interesting quotes about his religious philosophy that
I felt like set the table for a lot of what we get to see
an experience in this season. I found this quote from him, he said,
I have from childhood, the singular habit of always learning by heart the
beginnings of books and the divisions of a work, first of the five Books
of Moses, and then of Ovid's metamorphosis. If an ever busy imagination of
which the tale may bear witness led me hither and thither, if the metally
of fable and history, mythology, and religion threatened to bewilder me, I
readily fled to those Oriental regions, plunged into the first books of Moses,
and there, amid the scattered shepherd tribes, found myself at once in the
great solitude of the greatest society. But he's a person who who describes his
relationship with the Christian faith as enthusiastic, and he shows enthusiasm for like Jesus
and Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. At one point in time he calls
Christianity the ultimate religion. But then he described himself as not anti Christian,
not Unchristian, but most decidedly non Christian, and at one point in time
listed the symbol of the cross among four things that he most disliked. And
his philosophy was so interesting that it got a breakdown. Not a takedown,
but a breakdown from Nietzsche, who said that Gota had a kind of almost
joyous and trusting fatalism that has faith that only in the totality everything or deems
itself and appears good and justified. And so he was just an interesting dude
that was kind of up with like the violence of the Christian Church and the
corruption of the Christian Church and had almost this like post religious existence during a
very religious time that I think is probably similar to what Diana Butler bast talked
about when we had a conversation with her about belief between these two seasons.
Yeah, being so influential in European arts, you know, during the Romantic
period, he would have encountered and influenced so many other artists, musicians,
you know, poets, deep thinkers, philosophy and so you're he was,
you know, really influential at a time that like esthetics and thinking about what's
beautiful and makes the world better was so important. And so yeah, you
see from this quote here, you know, it's it's a simple quote,
doubt can only be removed by action. That he was calling people to action
to make the world more beautiful, more lovely, and yes, as someone
who teaches music and private voice lessons, it's hard to teach a day without
teaching a German leader. That's not the text has not come from Gruta.
Yeah, so many of them. He wrote some bangers he did. Also,
there was a point in time at which he had the largest private collection
of minerals in all of Europe. He had collected over seventeen thousand, eight
hundred rock samples. Who has time to do that and be a brilliant writer
and reader at the same time. Maybe that's his like hobby, Like you
have barbecue, right, Like that was his thing, and he has the
equally admirable hobby of high level geology. Yes, and speaking of barbecue,
we don't. We don't really have any barbecue right now to speak of.
But we do have some soccer, yes we do. We mentioned London Stadium.
That is an actual stadium that west Ham actually plays in in real life,
and it has a bit of a fraud history. It was built for
the Olympics in London and then there was some back and forth as to which
club was actually going to get to play there, and it turned out that
it did end up being west Ham. And you know, they've kind of
adapted it, but it is a little bit of a funky stadium when you
look at it on TV because it wasn't actually built for football. It was
built to run track meets and whatnot. And we should shout out all of
the different people that contribute to this season looking absolutely like Box Office when it
comes to the soccer scenes, because they did go and shoot a decent amount
of footage at all of these stadiums that they visit this season. But then
at the same time you have people like Paul Cripps design sets for the show.
He would have done like Rupert's office and some of those more interior shots,
and then when we see crowd shots, there would have been some people
in the crowd, but then the CGI folks would come along and do some
three D renderings and add people in and so, which they've done a really
nice job putting that all together, Yes, and they continue to during this
season, so we get to see a lot of soccer. We get to
see iconic stadiums, and they took field trips to those places, but there
were also people doing things off camera to make it all fit together and work
and just look, oh, justus Christian I appreciate you illuminating us to all
the work that's done to make these stadiums and these locations come to life.
I appreciate our friend Jan Moss sharing some really statistically relevant information about clubs that
get promoted into the Premier League getting us demoted usually immediately within one or two
seasons, about it happens quite often. He is absolutely right, it's the
best in Norwich communities. So I think that's a realistic bit. But was
there anything that you noticed that you thought that doesn't pass that doesn't pass the
test? Yeah? They keep showing the west Ham players training in London Stadium.
They don't train there, There is no dump dumbline in their home pitch.
They instead they train at a much smaller facility called Rush Green. So
if you're going looking for a training session, don't go to London Stadium because
you won't get in. But then also because the players won't be there practicing.
An interesting choice because they make a big deal about showing us that Richmond
practice at a different place than they play. Yeah. Yeah, but I
guess if you're going to get on that location, you got to showcase it
as much as you can. So do what you could do man. All
right, y'all, it is it is that time of the show to share
our favorite quotes from this episode, so we're gonna start with you, Christian.
Would you like to share your favorite quote? This episode and in fact,
this season is a treasure trove of scatological humor. Yes, My favorite
one from this episode was I didn't mean to come in here and tinkle on
your toenails, which is what Ted says to Rebecca and Higgins Win. It's
he comes in all bummed and they're trying to talk to him, and he
tries to change the subject. It's initially an unassuming statement, but my is
the image ever vivid when you stop and think about it for a second.
I tried to look that one up and see if that was a common turn
of phrase, and I think it is not, which, thank the Lord,
because that's like so disgusting and I already hate feet, so like the
thought is like so like cringe worthy to me. I hate feet, and
I hate feet that are getting fat on. Okay, well then I'm good
because that was My Other favorite one was the cool where Ted is trying to
make fun of himself in front of the press, and one of the things
he says why he's so stupid. The first time I heard y'all talk about
Yorkshire pudding, I thought it was a fancy word for dog poop, which
is a hilarious quote. Yes, also because I want a Yorkie really badly.
Yeah you do. I don't, Bret, Bret, do you want
to give us a quote? I do want to give you a quote,
but not a Yorkie. Not a Yorkie. Sorry. Like y'all said so
many great choices, I'm gonna go with my boy Higgins when he sees Rebecca
after she's talked to and consoled Keiley, and he says, why are you
dressed like an oomlout because he sees the two black marks on Rebecca's you know,
cream colored or pale yellow dress, whatever color it is or And I
just love that they feel so calm to end their viewershow that they can make
a joke about an umlaut and then it's going to land so good. Would
have been proud. Okay, that's our show. If you'd like to dive
even deeper into the themes of this episode, you can find more Ted Lasso
content in our show notes. You'll find the links to our extensive notes in
the episode description. You can also keep the conversation going on Twitter and Instagram.
Our handle on both is at ted Lasso pod. It's a great way
for us to connect with each other and for y'all to share your insights on
the show. This episode of Richmond Till We Die is brought to you by
Gin and Kerostene Productions. It was produced by Me, Marissa, Me Christian
and Me Brett. If you enjoyed this conversation, please take a moment to
subscribe to Richmond Till We Die on whatever app you're using to listen to this
episode. If you have access to an Apple device, we'd love it if
you'd head over to the Apple Podcasts app and give us a quick five star
review. It'll help more people find and hear the show. I'm Brett signing
off for Marissa and Christian. Thanks for listening. Until next time. Cheers
y'all. It makes me think, you know how people talk about like butts
being like hams. Yeah, every time someone talks about West Ham, I
just think of like the left side of someone's