Last week’s episode of Apple TV‘s Ted Lasso was the shortest of the season, and that paid some real narrative dividends.
asserted
that → pay → dividends
Episode 8, “Follow the Anger,” is the longest, and that inescapable feeling from Seasons 2 and 3 — of storylines taking several scenes to accomplish what could have been done in one or two — is on full display.
uncertain
what → follow → display
It’s downright eerie to watch episodes from Season 1 and compare them with how things get paced out now.
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things → ’ → them
Something better could be lurking around the corner, in contrast to earlier seasons of the show and to things this episode’s references can’t help but invoke.
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references → lurk → things
Take the “epic” conclusion to Roy’s and Keeley’s when-will-they-already will-they-won’t-they folie á deux.
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they → take → Roy
They both venture off to Chelsea so that Roy can be fêted as a Chelsea legend.
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Roy → venture → legend
He decides to drive them there in his flashy new car, tricked out to the nines including a PlayStation 5.
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He → decide → PlayStation
Never mind that the show has spent nearly four seasons of television convincing us that Roy is a salt-of-the-earth bloke who doesn’t care for all of this nonsense, including the very event they’re traveling to.
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they → mind → event
No, the writers need some kind of obstacle to get this couple’s boiling-over tension to erupt.
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tension → need → obstacle
Roy’s and Keeley’s madcap day trying to get to Chelsea on time is served to us as a comedy of remarriage, a classic rom-com structure wherein two former lovers, no longer together and outwardly at each other’s throats, get into some hijinks until they realize that they can’t live without each other.
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they → try → other
It’s Complicated is a recent example.
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’s → ’ → ?
Due to how poorly the show is made, none of the gags meant to elevate the situation (Roy’s new car, Roy’s fear of the Tube, offering a young communist a bunch of money to borrow their scooter) land with any type of humorous force.
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car → make → force
The two almost-lovers spend the whole time either clearing up that whole business with Dr. Erin Beaumont without a wisp of tension, or screaming at each other while the pratfalls, well, fall flat.
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pratfalls → spend → other
It’s the final nail in the coffin of overly manufactured conflict, only to conclude where we always knew it would: Roy making a big declaration of love, and Keeley falling madly into his arms.
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Keeley → ’ → arms
Personally, I’d rather see Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell do it all the way back in 1940.
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Grant → see → 1940
At least those crazy kids had something to run toward, rather than run in circles for no good reason.
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kids → have → reason
A far more blatant reference involves Higgins tracking down Richmond shareholders who have been selling their stakes in the club for more than they’re worth to a mysterious buyer.
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they → involve → buyer
Higgins calls one after the other, as a dissonant piano chord inserts itself into the soundtrack.
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chord → call → soundtrack
A low, escalating French horn figure crescendos at the peak of Higgins’s confusion, since everyone he calls denies the truth or alludes to their fear of discovery.
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he → escalate → discovery
Yes, it’s the main orchestral theme from All the President’s Men, the Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman Watergate classic.
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it → ’ → Men
The references keep coming, until Mae assumes the role of Deep Throat, telling Higgins to “follow the anger”.
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Mae → keep → anger
I must admit I gave a slight chuckle of acknowledgement once I realized what co-showrunners Jason Sudeikis and Jack Burditt were up to.
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Sudeikis → admit → what
That shouldn’t be the only bar for a comedy to clear.
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comedy → clear → ?
Can you imagine if Michael Schur had the chance to do this with the Parks and Recreation cast?
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Schur → imagine → cast
How about Dan Goor and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, a show that loved to spin parodies of old favorites and make them hilarious?
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them → love → favorites
Or maybe Tina Fey and Robert Carlock could have thrown this to Ellie Kemper in The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
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Fey → throw → Schmidt
Though it was all speculative, I couldn’t help thinking about how much crisper, sharper, and funnier those shows would have made this conceit.
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shows → help → conceit
I will give it up to this joke, puncturing the shadow-plunged allure of Deep Throat in the original film.
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I → give → film
Gemma also may be dreaming of something better.
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Gemma → dream → something
The curse of the ACL comes for her too, as Alice leaves her in a game when she was originally planned to come off.
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she → come → game
She immediately injures her knee ligament.
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She → injure → ligament
Though we don’t yet know if it’s a full tear, women’s footballers don’t need much to assume the worst.
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footballers → know → worst
Alice is consumed with guilt, followed by fear and panic when Gemma informs her that she is probably going to quit and focus on law school.
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she → consume → school
She was awarded the prestigious internship she was recommended for in Episode 7, and the promise of professional and financial stability is too large an opportunity to turn down, when the risk of a future in football is so high after an ACL injury.
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risk → award → injury
When Ted finds Alice back in the coach’s office mid-practice, crying her eyes out, it prompts him to essentially re-run his big, inspirational speech to the team (but really to Alice) from Episode 5.
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it → find → Episode
We all need to feel more, and feel more openly.
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We → need → more
Alice knows this means her most of all.
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this → know → all
She goes back to Gemma to tell her that playing football was the only time she ever felt free, and that Gemma is the same way.
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Gemma → go → football
Fear can’t be the reason she walks away from the sport, because if it is, she’ll regret all those moments not spent trying to be on the pitch.
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she → walk → pitch
Gemma naturally tells Alice that she is putting her law degree on hold while she rehabs her knee.
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she → tell → knee
…and 40 more, not listed.
The Aporia
