Ted Lasso 4.2
Stole My Line - A Fireside Film Podcast

Grant:
He's honestly a caricature of himself. Like, you watch season one and he's a little quirky, but at this point he's a character — it's like a cartoon.

Drew:
He gets so weird. When they were in the bar, and it was like a fricking — it was like a romance, and it's played, it played for romance.

Grant:
Oh yeah — which, welcome back to Stole My Line, a fireside film podcast, the smash hit outdoor movie podcast — I don't know, I feel like I just want to escalate it.

Drew:
Are we gonna start saying this every time?

Grant:
Like, "the greatest —"

Drew:
The greatest podcast of all time —

Grant:
"— outdoor movie podcast to ever exist, also the only one." I'm Grant.

Drew:
And I'm Drew.

Grant:
We're talking about Ted Lasso season two — no, season four, episode two, correct. I'm getting my numbers mixed up.

Drew:
Nope.

Grant:
If you're new to the channel, hit that subscribe button — if you're listening on an audio platform, we have a five-star review, do it. Thanks for being here, Drew — what did you think of episode four? Wait, gosh, I did it again — there's so many numbers.

Drew:
You should. Do it. No, you're so wrong here — episode two, season four.

Grant:
We talk about so much on this podcast that names and numbers just get mixed up. What do you think of episode two of season four?

Drew:
That's true. You know what — I liked it way better than episode one.

Grant:
I was kind of a fan of it too, and that's all she wrote — thanks for tuning in to Stole My Line.

Drew:
Yeah.

Grant:
No, no, okay — yeah, I would — I think seasons one and two are perfect to near-perfect in that regard.

Drew:
And — take a break, no.

Grant:
Yes, I think this — two, I think — is a reintroduction, like this is functionally episode one of season one, in season four.

Drew:
Here's the thing — this show, I don't know, this is true and I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. I think Ted Lasso has struggled to find its identity since season one, in the sense of — I kind of said this on this episode — I think season one and two blended seriousness and comedy reasonably well. I would say season three and four so far have struggled with it more.

Grant:
Just with a slightly different setting — like, we are getting introduced to all the characters again, except it's a new cast of characters. We are catching up with some other characters a little bit. I don't know, I like this episode for what it does functionally within the show, and I know we talked a lot on the last episode about how the season is pointless, which it sort of is, and how it shouldn't exist, which it sort of shouldn't. However, now that we're in it, I'm like, I had a good time.

Drew:
But this episode hit — well, I think this episode is actually kind of good. Yeah, yeah, I —

Grant:
Yes, I think we could look back on this and be like, "I'm glad seasons four, five, and six happened." I'm okay, I'm open to that — I think it's hard in the moment, but —

Drew:
Think — and here's the thing — if this season can justify itself, in the sense of, there's a story that needs to be told — maybe not "needs," but there's a compelling story that is told, and it doesn't feel forced, like a cash grab. I'm not gonna say that Ted Lasso season four shouldn't exist.

Grant:
I am too. I think what makes Ted Lasso so strong, especially in the early seasons — I mean specifically in season one — is how Ted changes the people around him for the better. How optimism and kindness and being loving to one's neighbor can really go a long way, relationally and in the workplace and professionally — all the things. So I think we get some setup for what that could look like this season, specifically with this new introduced character —

Drew:
This episode — I'm more in the camp of, I'm interested to see where this goes, as opposed to "this is still a cash grab."

Grant:
— coach. Yes. No — is it Alice? I just thought —

Drew:
Alice. Alice — her name is Alice. Not her.

Grant:
"Coach Chilton" — that's who I refer — oh, okay, then it's both. Sorry, I didn't even catch her first name. I thought you were making a House of the Dragon reference.

Drew:
But Rebecca always calls her Alice. Different Alice.

Grant:
Different Alice — lots of TV going on right now. Yes, Alice Coach Chilton, and you start to get a little bit of that vibe you kind of have with Ted and Rebecca in season one — like, Ted is going to try to change her —

Drew:
Yeah, I liked it — again, this is nothing we haven't seen before, but still fun to watch.

Grant:
— slash figure her out a little bit. So, yep, I would agree. I think we get some of the side characters maybe just going on their own little side quests, with Rebecca's whole feminism arc that happens within this episode, which can be amusing — and then you have the beginning of Roy and Keeley, and we're sort of back where we were in earlier seasons, which is amusing.

Drew:
He's firing on all cylinders here. If you like the show. This episode is a return to form, in my opinion. Yep.

Grant:
There's a lizard on the rock — we need to have like a "wildlife" list, I think. We've had a mouse —

Drew:
Yeah, well, there's a lizard on the rock. I wonder, audience, can you see the lizard on the rock? I don't know.

Grant:
We've had a bird land on the camera. We've had — anything else? We've had a lot of bugs, anyway. By the way, the cicadas are going right now, so if you're listening to the audio and it's like absolutely fried — we do in fact record this outside, so that's just what this is. But I don't know what you think of the small arcs within, or maybe the setup of some of these characters that aren't Ted and Chilton —

Drew:
Yep, okay.

Grant:
— Rebecca?

Drew:
I am interested to see where this whole feminism commentary goes. I think it definitely will —

Grant:
— if it goes further than this episode, yeah, I think it should.

Drew:
— think this is actually a great avenue to tackle the subject, if they tackle it in an interesting way. If it's just lazy commentary, that's fine, but —

Grant:
I'd agree — actually, for surface level, which I don't think it is. No, I think women's sports is actually not talked about a lot in mainstream media.

Drew:
I agree.

Grant:
Which is kind of referenced in this episode. Yeah, and I like that they made an NIL reference to college athletics — I thought that was funny. But I mean, they referenced it a little bit in the first episode of the season, with how women hadn't played football in the UK until like 1971 or something — that's a guesstimate — but it's a relatively important subject in today's modern context, and should continue to be talked about. So with all that being said, I think Ted Lasso was the perfect show to tackle this subject with humor and depth.

Drew:
Yeah, I kind of agree.

Grant:
And you have Keeley as another strong female character, and I think this actually adds something to the show that was explored in earlier seasons, and now we can flesh it out a little bit more. And I think Ted enters that area actually relatively well — like, Rebecca would have this kind of moment of, "Well, I hired a man to run my women's team, is that weird? I don't know." And she did pass over another woman who had been coaching on that team, for a man. And so I think it makes sense that she would deal with some sort of conflict there.

Drew:
Yeah — I'm surprisingly excited to see where her arc goes. I didn't think I would be excited about this.

Grant:
True. Yeah, that's true. And like, there's a lot of episodes left in the season, so who knows — who knows if this will be good, but I liked this episode. And I know we talked a lot on the last episode about how this show shouldn't still be going, but also, every time I hear that theme song, I'm like, I love this show. It's so good. It's like — I don't know, I feel like this show is less harmful with having another season than maybe some other, more dramatic shows.

Drew:
Right. I think that's true. The world would be up in arms — yeah, yeah, yeah.

Grant:
Like, if they came and made a Breaking Bad season six, everybody would be like, "Why are we doing this? It doesn't make any sense" — which they wouldn't do. I feel like it's different for Ted Lasso, and the context around it, a little bit.

Drew:
What are your thoughts on Beard? And this is what I — when I said earlier, like, the "Ted Lasso-isms" — it's usually just Beard's character. It's like he feels like he's in a whole different world, and maybe that's the point.

Grant:
Yeah — he's honestly a caricature of himself. Like, you watch season one and he's a little quirky, but at this point he's a character — it's like a cartoon.

Drew:
He just gets so weird. When they were in the bar, and it was like a fricking — it was like a romance, and it's played, it played for romance.

Grant:
It's like — yeah — which — relatively, it's written that way. Which is kind of a continuation of, in season two, when they had all the beef —

Drew:
Oh yeah, they had the beef, didn't they? Yeah.

Grant:
— and they did this whole thing with Roy and Ted, where it was basically a rom-com played out within the show. So I found it funny — I thought this was amusing, and an amusing way to get Beard back in the show with Ted a little bit.

Drew:
I think it's hilarious. Yeah.

Grant:
So, I mean, I thought it was funny that his beard and hair was growing out to preposterous levels, and everything — I found it amusing.

Drew:
Yeah, I thought it was funny.

Grant:
Again, like — that's the thing with this show — like, something as crazy and weird as that doesn't feel crazy out of context, whereas if it happened in Severance —

Drew:
Oh, yeah, yeah — I feel like it might fit there.

Grant:
— I'd be like, this is a little weird. Actually, honestly, it might fit Severance, I don't even know anymore. But you know what I'm saying — so I don't know, I enjoyed it. There wasn't a lot with this episode that I had issues with, honestly.

Drew:
No, I was honestly kind of surprised by how much I enjoyed watching it.

Grant:
Any — maybe concerns about retreading season one, because — this is a good question — we do have some potential new-player, inner-character conflict —

Drew:
This is a good question.

Grant:
— not to the same level as Roy and Jamie, but —

Drew:
Yeah, I mean — but also I'm like, in the sports genre, there is only so much you can do in the confines of "I am a coach for this team." I mean, name me one sports movie where there are players that don't have —

Grant:
Sure.

Drew:
— I'm like, one of the subplots is, we have to fix the conflict.

Grant:
If I named one of them, it probably would be bad — like, it wouldn't even be a good movie, because most sports movies need to have some inner-character conflict.

Drew:
So I'm like, are we retreading some ground? Probably. I'm not even mad at that. I think what's going to set this apart, and be different enough to be interesting, is: are the character dynamics good and different than Roy and Jamie? And do they have the equal amounts of depth? That's kind of my biggest concern, right?

Grant:
Sure, yeah — yeah, for sure. And I think maybe just — do characters make decisions that make sense for the character? I think that was some of my issues with season three, like — it felt like some of the character writing maybe just came out of left field in some areas, and it just wasn't built upon what occurred in earlier seasons. So I hope that this season has some more just regular agency for its characters, and that the stories make sense. I think so far they do — I mean, even after this episode, I don't even hate the fact that Ted moved back, because his family's on the way.

Drew:
Yep.

Grant:
Like, obviously it's a shoehorn to get him back at Richmond, sure, but — okay, within the context of the show's universe, it doesn't make complete nonsense. So —

Drew:
Yeah, I think it's good. I'm interested to see where we go.

Grant:
— but yeah, I don't know, I'm hoping for more actual football slash soccer — I want to see more of that on screen. So we'll see how that goes, because I think some of season two and three didn't have as much of that as I maybe had hoped for, but —

Drew:
Uh, I thought season two did — I haven't seen it in a long time, but —

Grant:
— thoughts on that, and I can do for a rewatch.

Drew:
But yeah, I agree. What do you mean?

Grant:
Yeah, I don't know, I think that the show can continue actually pretty strongly. I think some people could be really picky with this show, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me — but like, some people are going to hang their hats on "this season shouldn't exist," or it's skewing their reviews, and we might get through the whole season and say, "yeah, the season wasn't as good," whatever — but I've seen a lot of like lower-end reviews on this season so far, and I don't know, I just — maybe it's a little bit of a retread. I feel like some critics have to have seen the whole show, I'm sure they get sent it early.

Drew:
Right, and that's going to be their conclusion. How can you —

Grant:
— season and say, "yeah, the season wasn't as good," whatever.

Drew:
That's weird — I'm like, how can you review a whole season when you've seen an episode? Maybe.

Grant:
We don't — but if you're in the industry, text us, text my personal phone number, which is — no, I'm just kidding — but do reach out to us, I guess. Any other thoughts on Ted Lasso, anything you want to discuss?

Drew:
Yeah. We don't — we are watching it right with you.

Grant:
Are you a feminist? True, I'm just kidding.

Drew:
I'm intrigued — this episode was better. Am I a feminist? Uh —

Grant:
Do we — should comment on women's pay right now on this podcast? Now I'm just — yeah, subscribe, and we'll tell you how much women should be paid compared to men. No, I'm just kidding, that's a complete joke.

Drew:
Yeah, stay tuned to the finale — we'll tell you how much we think women should be paid for football.

Grant:
I think that was a funny moment in this episode, by the way.

Drew:
No — that was funny.

Grant:
No, but if you like Ted Lasso, hit that subscribe button. Drew, what do we have coming up next on Stole My Line?

Drew:
Guys, we got a lot. Yeah, we have Spider-Man Hot Takes two — the long-awaited — so that's going to be lit.

Grant:
With a big thing coming up tomorrow, actually — bang, it's been a week, but you know.

Drew:
We have the random Anne Hathaway, You, and McGregor movie produced by JJ Abrams, this weekend — something about a Road Street, Oak Street, I don't even know.

Grant:
Yep, yes, yes — we'll be watching that.

Drew:
And then, do you know what comes out Sunday, Grant?

Grant:
No —

Drew:
Lanterns.

Grant:
Oh — Lanterns are this upcoming Sunday? It's like, wow, they really —

Drew:
Yeah.

Grant:
— like, put that right up against House of the Dragon. All right, we'll be reviewing Lanterns next week.

Drew:
HBO is — his book, their schedule.

Grant:
Is James Gunn cooking the DCU? Who knows.

Drew:
We don't really know. I don't even know if James Gunn knows, but we'll see. Um, yeah — we — every movie that comes out, we're gonna talk about. We have Tony next week, super excited. Um, Dune, Doomsday — obviously — we got Clayface, we got Social Reckoning, we got Fjord, we got —

Grant:
Yes, it's gonna be fun.

Drew:
— anything and everything?

Grant:
If it's coming out — Resident Evil, like, we got you — we're going to review it, even though I haven't played a single Resident Evil game —

Drew:
Neither have I.

Grant:
— we're still going to watch that movie. So if you're into any of that stuff, hit that subscribe button, and if you think football is life, comment it below.

Drew:
Hey, he's still on the team. Yeah. Jamie is not —

Grant:
He is so on the team, Jamie is not — which makes sense, I guess, for Jamie as a person.

Drew:
It does make sense, but it's kind of sad.

Grant:
Yeah, but we digress — tune back in next week for Ted Lasso. Send in the Spider-Man hot take if you have one, I guess.

Drew:
Yeah.

Grant:
And then, from me, Drew, and the cicadas —

Drew:
And enjoy a film.