2x02 Lavender

[6.0/10] I enjoy the running gags on Ted Lasso. Nate being tough on the new towel boy because he can’t let go of his old job. Higgins setting up shop in any number of silly places because he’s given Dr. Sharon his office. Even Roy doing his usual foul-mouthed pitch shouting to a group of little kids.

What I don’t enjoy is Jamie Tart. Or more accurately, I don’t really care about him. I get what the show’s trying to do with him. The writers commendably attempt to humanize him by showing him being humbled and coming back, hat in hand, to Ted, talking about how he was trying to get away from his crappy dad. The bones of the story are perfectly fine.

He’s just been a cartoon character and a jerk for so long that it’s hard to have any investment in his personal journey at this point. He’s not a human being so much as he is a caricature of an entitled jock. His reality show trials and travails and stalking Keeley and misadventures in the world of agents do nothing for me, and cut against the efforts to make him seem like a real person going through something. It’s not so badly done, but to put it in English terms, I can’t be arsed.

I also don’t care much about Roy Kent at this stage either. HIs story’s basically done. The idea of a vet learning to care again and having one last run is a solid one. And heck, there’s something to be gained from exploring the listlessness of a star athlete post-retirement. But him becoming a pundit who has success because he “tells it like it is” is such a hacky cliche. It fits the character well enough, and you can see how having someone “real” on the polished performances of professional sports yak shows would get some eyeballs, but it’s just too easy and obvious a direction.

Plus god help me, Keeley having a go at herself (or Roy having a go at her) while watching Roy’s retirement speech is one of the weirdest things I’ve seen in a mainstream show. What a bizarre choice. I get the idea of trying to show how Keeley likes Roy when he’s emotional and vulnerable, but that's an insane way to dramatize the idea.

I’m also not especially into Roy and Keeley as a couple. It’s a pretty standard “Grumpy One + Sunshine One” pairing. And while Keeley recognizing Roy’s need to be around the game in some capacity and pushing him outside of his comfort zone is a good note, the whole thing is too neat and, again, too easy. Pairing it with the bizarre retirement speech eroticism does it no favors.

But you know who I do still like and care about? Ted Lasso. I like what they’re trying to do with him here. He still has a latent insecurity about therapists, despite pretending he doesn’t, and working his way through that slowly with Dr. Sharon is a good place to take the character. I’m still not crazy about how they’ve introduced her to the mix. She’s still curt and deconstructs Ted’s friendliness right out of the gate in a way that makes you balk a little, but they’re already softening her, saying Ted can call her doc, and giving him useful advice about how to approach the Jamie question.

I like the meta aspect of that decision. Ted’s afraid that with Dr. Sharon observing his practices and talking to his players, she’s going to come out and say he’s doing something wrong. He’s prepared to feel attacked, like he did when doing marriage counseling. Instead, she tells him he’s succeeded in creating a safe, collegial environment, where people listen and can feel heard, and have their needs met.

I like Sam as an example of that. (He’s in the running for my new favorite character, alongside Dani Rojas, of course.) He’s frustrated when the team thinks Jamie will be returning because Jamie was an asshole. He belittled his teammates. He showboated. He did everything except buy into the team-first, mutually-supportive mentality that Ted fosters. Sam appreciates that Ted didn’t invite Jamie back in order to preserve that environment, and he gives one of the best compliments I’ve ever heard on television: that Sam’s dad feels good watching his games because he knows Sam’s in good hands with Ted. It’s almost unbearably sweet.

So it’s interesting, then, to see Jamie be in good hands with Ted. Ted supports the guy, helps understand why he is where he is and gives him some encouragement and advice, but ultimately says he doesn’t think it’s a good idea for him to rejoin AFC Richmond. It’s the one scene with Jamie that feels real, and the one that comes close to humanizing him. It’s a good moment for both of them -- Jamie being real and honest, and Ted being supportive but firm.

And yet, in the end, Ted does bring Jamie back. I like it because you can read it one of two ways (and probably both at once). On the one hand, he feels a certain fatherly obligation to Jamie, to care more about the person than the player, and to maybe help make-up for someone who didn’t have as good a dad as he did. On the other, it’s a response to Dr. Sharon’s prognosis, that maybe building a conflict-free hugbox of an environment leads you to seven straight ties on the pitch.

There’s a meta element to it. T.V. shows need conflict. Ted Lasso itself has reached a point where most, if not all, of its main characters are friendly or at least copasetic with one another. Dr. Sharon’s arrival introduces some tension, but for the most part, despite the relegation, everyone of note is in a good place. The characters, and the show, can just coast.

Adding Jamie back disrupts that on both fronts. The team is suddenly not just a bunch of buddies with everyone buying into the system. It’s a place where mistrust might rain among players and coaches with a shit-stirrer brought back into the fold despite protestations to the contrary. And the show is no longer just a bunch of mutually supportive people doing their best, but a right screw-up there to cause some trouble and hopefully grow up. I still don’t like or care about Jamie, but I like the impact the prospect of bringing him back has on everyone else, and I like what it says about the value Ted’s starting to see in Dr. Sharon.

Its nice seeing Roy getting back into football as a sports commentator, its clear losing the ability to play football took a drain on him and im glad he gets to enjoy the sport again. Its clear Ted is struggling with something other than Richmond's tie streak that he doesnt want to talk about, Im sure its connected to his shitty experiences with therapy and the new sports therapist, I hope this gets explored more in other episodes. Jamie had a solid arc last season as the all start kid whose dad was putting intense pressure on him to succeed while his mom just wanted him to be happy, causing Jamie to be obsessed with being number 1. Now, because of that overwhelming pressure Jamie's dad put on him, Jamie in rebellion left Manchester and went on a show, and now he has no team to come back to. Its nice of Ted to take back Jamie, but i feel so bad for Sam, Ted directly said to him Jamie isnt coming back, but Ted's convo with Sam is what inspired Ted to bring back Jamie. I cant wait till the next episode where we see what happens when Jamie rejoins the team.