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rewatched it and it's better than i remember

Wait, do you mean Amazon's blurb says that unironically/unknowingly?

I know, right? I don't see struggle, I see "filmmakers" that hilariously think their show is awesome

I think Amazon's blurb says that knowingly ... it got my teenagers interested

And, yes, the "filmmakers" do think their show is all kinds of awesome

then again I'm prolly just a crank cuz I watched the first two episodes of Ted Lasso and have no idea what the fuss is about...it just seems....bad?

― early-Woolf semantic prosody (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, December 31, 2020

Yeah I'm 4 episodes into the first season and I really dislike it. I was genuinely interested because many people I follow on Twitter think it's so charming, but I find it unfunny and a bit creepy. I don't know if I'm just a grouch or what.

It’s trying so hard to be fucking adorable all the time but the writing isn’t witty enough. Parks & Rec was better at this approach.

There are some parallels, but Parks & Rec is imo a lot more cartoony, which makes it easier to be funny. We really enjoyed season one of Ted Lasso and are really enjoying season two right now. There's actually been some great, subtle character development, which a more traditional sitcom (like Parks) generally lacks. Not a bad thing, necessarily, Parks is really good, but no one is watching a show like that for character development. At the same time, anyone tuning in to Ted Lasso thinking it's strictly a comedy, yeah, I think they're bound for at least some disappointment. It's more of a ... silly drama?

Fair! But in that case it's a silly drama that's less about conflicts and more about characters saying sweet things to each other as often as possible. Relentless feel-good moments. I get cynical that the goal of jamming episodes full of these is to maximize opportunities for shareable content on social with captions like "this is everything" or whatever.

How much have you watched? "Not about conflicts" doesn't quite track imo. But my angle into the show was as a spin on US-UK cultural divide comedy, plus appreciating Sudeikis's line deliveries. Not exactly groundbreaking stuff of course, and I don't think this show deserves to be lauded as an amazing achievement.

More broadly, I can see hating the kindness comedy mini-trend going on right now as someone who mostly hated all the cringe comedy stuff in the 00s (and someone who finds some of ILX's fave comedy stuff utterly terrible)

I think there's more going on with the show than simply people being nice. In a lot of ways it's about the roles people play. Ted Lasso, the character, is also in essence playing a character, as we've gotten hints of a couple of times. Nate, we've seen in season 2 that he himself has changed to conform to the character people expect him to play, or that he thinks people expect him to pay. A lot of the other characters as well, Roy, Jaime, Sam, it seems to be about who they are vs. who they think they need to be. Perhaps not a coincidence that season 2 hinges around the arrival of a staff psychologist.

I've watched all of it so far. And I said "less" (not "not") btw.

Look I find the show enjoyable enough ...however honestly I've not laughed yet this season. I'm still firmly of the opinion (again, cynically) that this show prioritizes broad social media approval over all else, but that doesn't mean it can't also be legitimately charming along the way.

I honestly don't know what "prioritizes broad social media approval" means. How is that any different from, well, anything? I guess I've not seen the show memed out any more than (its polar opposite?) "Rick & Morty" or pretty much any show. For sure the first season of "Ted Lasso" was conceived, written and created before it had an audience, and even said audience took a while to materialize (and I assume is still pretty small, all things considered). The second season seems to me very similar in tone and execution to season one, so it doesn't seem to me that it's trying to specifically please or suit anyone in particular. Vs. a show like "The Office" (US) that clearly changed tonally and thematically after the first season or two. Maybe "Lasso" will do that, too.

We switched over to pure hate-watching this season. It’s trying so hard, and none of it feels true to me. Ted’s dialogue feels strained - reminded us of Spacey’s character from House of Cards.

Why watch anything you don't like or enjoy? I'm all about the cut and run.

It’s part of the discourse, so… 😛

That's me mixing in some of my conspiratorial ideas about the writer's intentions with that description building off my earlier post, but it's just their Very Special emphasis on the feel-good gooeyness and/or triumphant moments that make me suspicious.

xposts

I dunno, it's telling that the meanest, grouchiest character on the show is also seemingly the one most comfortable in his own skin. Roy Kent is like the show's Ron Swanson, minus the OTT "I eat meat-flavored breakfast cereal and have a bunker filled with charcoal and BBQ sauce" schtick.

Also, I guess to your point, the show does seem very self aware of its sunny vibe. I was actually sort of struck by the second episode of S2, where the psychologist tells Ted, yeah, you seem like a great guy and the team is happy but ... you're not winning. Your job is not to make everyone happy, your job to win. The "triumph" of Ted Lasso (character) is making people happy, but the show reminded him (and me) that it's still ultimately about a team sport, with winners and losers. Hence the triumph (in a sense) of the most recent episode was ... losing.

Yeah so I'd say that even with the Roy vs. Ron comparison- their tough-exterior-heart-of-gold schtick, like their names, are nearly the exact same thing! Parks & Rec is joke heavy show that got very gooey in the later seasons especially (which is why I made that comparison earlier in the first place, thinking that they could very well be an influence on the Lasso writing). But Lasso to me feels like they're rushing that by trying so hard to make the audience fall in love with every character scene after scene. I want the show to be funnier and to earn those moments more often instead of forcing it constantly.

In my book, Ted Lasso doesn't have to be as good as Parks and Recreation for me to enjoy it. I also think that the sunny kindness is intentionally hiding a LOT of upcoming pain and strife, between the club not being able to afford to pay the players and Sam's stance pissing off their primary sponsor, Ted's rather obvious demons around therapy and his refusal to acknowledge that there could be a downside to his behavior even in light of his divorce, the team's disconnect from their fans (I'm sure the fans weren't busting out the champagne for a loss), the ticking time bomb that is Jamie, etc etc etc. A large portion of the feel-good is fueled by denial of reality and I don't think it's going to feel particularly good once the characters are forced to acknowledge and accept the circumstances they're currently ignoring; honestly, the only characters who are in a good place overall are Roy and even there I suspect that club stress is going to fuck up his relationship with Keeley in some way, and Sharon, who is quietly viewing the shenanigans around her as the antics of a bunch of self-deluded Pollyannas.

I fully admit that I am cutting this show a lot of slack as a recent divorcee but Ted's journey in S1 earned a lot of good will from me, particularly episode 5.

djp otm

I hope you’re right, DJP.

For whatever reason I never liked the characters on P&R, but I do on TL, although I didn't find either of the shows particularly funny. That said, TL is kind of a fantasy, especially with recent episodes where Sam starts a boycott of the team's sponsor and everybody on the team, including the owner, fully supports him. It's completely unrealistic of course but it's the kind of world that I want to live in, and so I've felt invested in how that's going to play out.

Just watched the first episode of Reservation Dogs on Hulu, a comedy about four Native American teenagers in Oklahoma. It's low key, well enough written, and funny, and apparently all the writers are Native as well so there's some slang that you just have to contextualize for yourself and stuff like that. Taika Waititi is one of the executive producers, if that matters. There are two episodes up now.

looking forward to this!

We've got Reservation Dogs queued up next.

How much have you watched? "Not about conflicts" doesn't quite track imo. But my angle into the show was as a spin on US-UK cultural divide comedy, plus appreciating Sudeikis's line deliveries. Not exactly groundbreaking stuff of course, and I don't think this show deserves to be lauded as an amazing achievement.

More broadly, I can see hating the kindness comedy mini-trend going on right now as someone who mostly hated all the cringe comedy stuff in the 00s (and someone who finds some of ILX's fave comedy stuff utterly terrible)

― rob, Monday, August 9, 2021

One of my problems is that I don't find the US-UK culture-shock material very clever. I guess I was hoping for more than 'they called him a wanker again!' and 'he doesn't like tea!'. There was potential there, and I wish it were more well observed since it's the whole premise of the show.

The UK largely a coffee drinking nation at this point anyway.

I agree the actual content of the cultural material is familiar. For me it was more a pleasant surprise that the Americans were depicted as curious/open about UK culture, because I'm used to depictions of Americans in the UK as smugly superior and proudly ignorant (however accurate that may be irl). I'll admit depicting Brits as miserable pessimists is much more standard, but you know that's the premise right?

I haven't got this show memorized, but isn't the tea thing in reaction to a single character's preference? Hardly matters if tastes have changed more broadly, and fwiw going by my family tea being drunk as often as water is still normal

you know that's the premise right?

sorry, I meant this bit to sound jocular not condescending!

Btw, is this show easy to watch in the UK? Or do we all have Apple TV+? In which case: is there anything else worth watching?

I'm in the middle of season 2 of For All Mankind (quite good, though this season feels a little aimless), watched the 1971 series (frankly terrible, though I liked the all-vintage-footage approach), and started The Morning Show (wannabe Sorkin with an expensive cast; somewhat compelling).

I really liked Mythic Quest

The show is fine -- I'll persevere because I think it has potential, it just hasn't hit for me yet. I guess as someone who moved from the US to the UK and lived for a decade I went into it with high hopes for the culture-shock aspect and found it a bit stale. (Though speaking of which I did appreciate when Ted describes a scone as a 'muffin that will suck all the spit out of your mouth'.)

xpost

I really liked Mythic Quest

― a gentle push against my Wonder Bread face (DJP), Tuesday, August 10, 2021 9:01 AM (two minutes ago)

lol so did I, I forgot that was Apple

I think "fine" is fine! Much like Schitt's Creek, this isn't a show that really stands up to this level of scrutiny imo. It's getting the thinkpiece treatment because of timing, but I'd categorize it alongside, idk, Brooklyn 99 (not in tone, just in the sense of: would I want to read a thinkpiece about how Andy Samberg's character teaches us how to live? no)

That reminds me, I need to finish S2 of "Mythic Quest," a show that began kind of boilerplate in my mind, but the fact that all these weeks since I last put it on I still can remember the characters and their traits, even their names, indicates it's pretty well put together.

S2 is disjointed because of Covid filming restrictions, but I think I liked it more than S1 ultimately, which yeah was sort of dull for the few eps (and then the singularity of ep 5 kind of upset the balance of the season)

I gave up on Mythic Quest about 3 or 4 episodes in. Found the quirky characters more annoying than funny. Though I agree that the show has some memorable plot lines - particularly liked the solution to the rampaging assholes who were ruining the game.

There’s one great Mythic Quest episode that has almost nothing to do with the rest of the series. It’s like they filmed a pilot for a much better show and then made the quirkfest instead.

I don't think this will praise anyone to watch S2 of Mythic Quest if you didn't like S1, but S2 has another largely standalone tonally-different episode that is great

*will persuade anyone

Mythic Quest is so unfunny. I did like the flashback episode from S1, but that one was more a 30-minute drama.

Theres another flashback ep in S2 around CW's backstory. I loved it, though a lot of people were all "wehhhhh this isnt the game studio, less old man, more Ian and lady!".

But I liked the backstory. And the followup with Abraham and William Hurt having old man cranky arguments was great.

Sorry lol I see Vinnie already said the same thing.

I liked Mythic Quest but Milo otm, that off-model episode is the best thing about it so far.

The 1971 documentary on Apple+ is brilliant.

It's ok Trayce, I think rob alluded to it before I even did!

The standalone ep of Mythic Quest's first season is indeed great, and the highlight of season two. I've only seen two or three of S2, plus the quarantine episodes, but I was surprised how glad I was to dip back in again. Not that it's hilarious or anything, but the characters are interesting enough that I'm at least modestly invested, which is more than most shows.

It's definitely overall a minor show, but yes both standalone eps (plus as Trayce said the Backstory! follow-up) were impressive, and I'd be excited to watch something different from this team, especially an anthology series, especially if Big Head is in it.

I have been cracking myself up with "I'm a wolf! hooooooooooooowl" due to Connor Smedley flashbacks

i’ve finally started watching Dave on Hulu
am only 3 eps in but i like it a lot!
dave & gata were on desus & mero recently (which got me to check out the show) a commenter said the show was like “Atlanta” but California which feels kinda otm
esp w some of the deeper stuff coming up
not as full-on surreal tho