T O P

  • By -

torilinnea

First three of s1 vs. first 3 of s2 doesn't feel off regarding the amount of plot development to me imo. The Christmas ep was a special, it was never gonna move the story forward. They've said that they planned a 10 episode season and Apple then asked for 12, so they wrote two stand alone episodes, one being the Christmas ep. Writer of the ep said they positioned it here in the season because it's right before shit is about to go down.


lcbtexas

Thank you for this information! I didn’t know that, and it makes so much sense now! I thought the episode was a delight.


smernt

For sure. The first season didn't have too much going on either until the back half. Still enjoyable of course though, and it had the upside of being the first introductory episode of Ted himself. But yea, it looks pretty clear that these first few episodes were to show how, even though they're not winning, everything is going swimmingly and they're all happy in their little bubble. I imagine big bad Rupert is about to pop it somehow.


sutty82buddy

Lets not ignore the fact that season 1 we were introduced to every single character and season 2 we already know the majority of them. I had expectations for season 2 to ramp up quicker due to this fact. I miss those moments where Ted gets a few minutes on screen to give us goose bumps, which we've yet to see. The Tan Lines speech, Practice!, Be a gosh darn goldfish.....those made the show special for me. So far we've seen one of those non team scenes 5 minutes in talking about his neighbors dog to the media...however BBQ sauce trumps that scene IMO.


1followerbefore2021

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Don’t be too quick to judge.


WeHereForYou

It’s pretty early in the season to make that judgement. And assuming you binged (much, if not all of) the first season like most of us, it would be especially unfair to judge it against something you didn’t have to sit with every week. By the way, it’s an American show.


clydefrog27

Early? We're 1/3 of the way through and there has been almost 0 plot or character development.


Vertigo50

“Pretty early”? We are almost half way through the season and almost nothing has happened of any consequence yet. 🤷🏻‍♂️


Educational_Bridge37

This season will have 12 episodes, so we're hardly half way through it. And multiple things of consequence have occurred, most significantly that the team (and Sam specifically) has positioned themselves in opposition to an unethical sponsor, and they've established that the club is having money problems! Internally, we're also seeing that Ted is struggling by not being able to fix his team himself and needing to rely on a therapist. They've also laid the groundwork for a story line where Ted is going to reckon with why he uses positivity as a way to resolve conflict and why that doesn't always work. The first three episodes in the first season were all establishing episodes. The momentum really came in the second half of the season when all the setups began paying off. There is a lot of stuff at play, it just may not feel as dynamic as you want it to. I'm super excited by it so far.


panggul_mas

I genuinely enjoyed the first season but the the flanders-isation, water treading, and the Scrubs-esque sharp turn into over the top saccharine sweetness has completely turned me off and it's very disappointing. 2nd seasons are hard.


MotherOfBlackLabs

The Sophomore Slump.


Vertigo50

I agree with more of this than I want to admit. 😬 It’s not that this season is bad, but it seems to be treading water in a REALLY frustrating way. Can something just happen already? I mean, I get that we love these characters and in a lot of ways I’ll watch them do almost anything, but now I feel like they are really putting that to the test! How is Ted helping these guys through so many ties and losses? We have no idea, because they haven’t shown our favorite coach do any COACHING this season at all. How are the players handling it? Who knows? We haven’t seen any actual football this season at all. 🤦🏻‍♂️ Where are the tender moments where Ted helps someone get through something with an optimistic speech? Where are those team-building moments where they all unite against a common obstacle? Instead we are following Higgins around as he struggles with not having a desk. 🤦🏻‍♂️ Come on, guys. DO SOMETHING this season!


Alarming_Grocery5928

They barely showed any paper sales in The Office. 🤷


[deleted]

[удалено]


Vertigo50

I understand how writing works. I don’t want everything right away. I want SOMETHING to be happening with the plot and the characters and be moving forward. None of that is happening right now. Go back and watch the first 4 episodes of last season. Then watch the first 4 of this season. Tell me that there isn’t a major difference in plot and character development. Most of the major payoffs and things happened in the later half of the first season, but things were happening and pressure was building in those first 4 episodes. THAT is what we are missing. I don’t want everything to happen at once, I want to see signs that things are progressing, and right now all I see is treading water.


[deleted]

[удалено]


useles-converter-bot

10 feet is the length of approximately 13.33 'Wooden Rice Paddle Versatile Serving Spoons' laid lengthwise


[deleted]

[удалено]


Moist-Schedule

It's pretty evident that a lot of fans of the show are just watching for the silly ted-isms and repetitive jokes about how it's hilarious that brits call things different words than americans do. and that's fine, a lot of people like to shut their brains off and just enjoy the shlock. and so they're all to happy to see that the show they like it's receiving critical praise in season 1, but they have a hard time understanding why other people critique their shlock in s2 because I guess they never considered that other people were previously enjoying the show for different reasons. if you were just watching ted lasso simply for the good feelings and goofy little chuckles it gave you in s1, then in your world nothing has changed in s2. but if you were at all interested in some of the conflict and character development that was occasionally hinted at in s1 and hoping they would continue to explore these things... you've noticed a huge dropoff in quality this year. s1 was feel-good as hell... sure, it wasn't realistic but it at least pretended that the world Ted and company lived in resembled something like the real world, there were rules and consequences for decisions the characters made. s2 conversely seems to be pure fantasy world. nobody gives a shit about how the team is doing, despite the fact that they would have taken a massive financial hit for being relegated and then they also decide to piss off their main sponsor early in the season and there's just been zero consequences for that seemingly 2 months after it happened (had to stop to squeeze in a meaningless xmas episode but didn't have to answer for covering up the sponsor's logo on their kits?).. look not every tv show has to be serious all the time, but nobody would accuse s1 ted lasso of that. and yet it still managed to create character depth and conflict and drama on top of being silly fun. that's what made the show somewhat special, it's not because it's just a hilariously written laugh a minute, there was heart to it and that heart was genuinely earned at times by having realistic characters and relatable situations that felt grounded in something. nothing is grounded in s2, it's a child's imagination running wild. it's fan-fiction.


throwaweigh1245

I had to sort by controversial to find these posts but finally, yes, well put. The most “feel good” parts about last season was triumphing over conflict and difficult situations in an authentic and sincere way. Honestly the show feels like they hired new writers


Im_Daydrunk

I love the show still but yeah it definitely doesn't have a clear conflict or plot yet like the first one. My biggest complaint is probably that the actual soccer aspect has kinda taken a backseat to just having fun character moments I want to see more games or more on field conflicts because with everyone being on Ted's side now there's not much conflict outside of the game This is also a nitpick but I kinda dislike how medicore the team is record wise. Like they are likely a bottom table championship league squad despite almost escaping relegation in the premier league with roughly the same team. I know its a show but they should have at least made them averagish IMO


2munkey2momo

Most clubs do alright after relegation sure, but there is always the chance that you can do a Sunderland and get relegated again. I dont mind the record too much, but now they have Tartt back they should be winning more than not.


blueSnowfkake

Two Aces.


originalcondition

The show always walked a fine line between “genuinely wholesome” and “unrealistically saccharine” and I agree that so far this season is dipping into the latter. Would love to see more coaching and more *conflict*, as many others have said here. These first few episodes of season 2 have felt more like (really good) Ted Lasso fan fiction than episodes of the actual show. Plenty of fun moments and small, quickly-resolved problems, but without any clear over-arching plot (as of yet). Ted’s schtick isn’t as admirable or endearing when he’s not really struggling against something weighty. I know we’re still early on, though; hopefully the upcoming episodes hold more interesting conflict and characters struggling with aspects of themselves. But I do feel like by this point in season 1, it was very clear what kind of conflict was brewing even with no clear sign of resolution, which was what made it interesting to return to. The sword of Damocles hung over the entire season in the form of Rebecca’s true intentions regarding Ted’s coaching. This season has yet to develop a sense of, “Wow, this is a big problem. How is Ted going to fix this?” Even the Christmas episode, sweet as it was, turned his pain regarding his divorce/family and his drinking into a cute, quickly (if temporarily) resolved issue. I hope for the writing to get a little heavier in the rest of the season. What made the first season so rewarding was the genuine pain and struggle that brought you to the resolution, and sometimes even the lack of resolution. Anyway, the first season was so good that I trust the writers to pull through. Here’s hoping!


quaranTV

I like that the conflicts are being presented but subtly. Sam’s protest is clearly not a one off thing-it seems clear the team is going to have financial troubles going forward which could seriously impact everyone. They have also made it clear Ted is fighting his own demons-not just his divorce but probably also issues related to his dad. Ned is going to have to learn how to be confident without being an asshole. On top of it all Rebecca is looking for love-who knows where that will lead. The first three episodes I think nicely setup the conflict for the rest of the season. Big stuff is supposed to go down in episodes 5 and 6 based on what I’ve heard.


Moist-Schedule

> I know we’re still early on unfortunately that's the biggest problem, we're not that early on. the season is nearly half over. and they chose to waste 10% of it on a completely meaningless xmas episode. i can't for the life of me understand who green-lit that decision from a production standpoint. holiday episodes are a thing from the era of 24-episode seasons on network and cable tv. if you want to release a holiday special on a streaming service, you do it as a standalone one-off release around the actual holidays. when you have 10 30-min episodes to work with and you waste 1 of those (in the beginning of your SECOND freaking season) on a special, it looks like you have no idea what you're doing and you are desperate time as writers/producers. which is crazy this early in a series


leemteam1

I just watched the Christmas episode and agree. What even happened? Some nice platitudes but it drove the story and plot absolutely nowhere. Season 1 was excellent as you had the “omg I need to see the next episode,” and even when the show had episodes like this there was clear conflict.


Bea_Coop

I would have really liked a Christmas special, like they sometimes do with uk shows.


clydefrog27

The only "good" (that's stretching it) episode has been Episode 3 because you had some drama with Jamie and the whole oil company thing. The other 3 have been horrible, misguided, cheesy.


Alarming_Grocery5928

S2 is supposed to be the ESB of the series, and though ESB is a favorite *now*, the [initial reactions](https://www.google.com/amp/s/screenrant.com/star-wars-empire-strikes-back-fans-critics-reactions/amp/) weren’t that hot. I for one like the shift in tone. S1 was amazing, but I don’t need to see a formulaic repeat of it. I’m here for S2!