All art seeks to manipulate your emotional experience as you take it in.
asserted
you → seek → it
You can’t avoid feeling something about a work of art, so it naturally follows that the artwork itself is going to make an active intervention in those feelings.
asserted
artwork → avoid → feelings
That’s practically the first thing you recognize about art when you’re young: you feel without having the tools to articulate what that feeling is, or what it means.
asserted
it → ’ → what
There comes a point when that act becomes too willful and heavy-handed, however.
asserted
act → come → ?
To paraphrase former U.S. Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart, I know craven emotional manipulation when I see it, and this week’s episode of Ted Lasso, “Mae Rides the Bus,” fulfills the brief all too well.
asserted
Mae → paraphrase → brief
The visibility of the grinding gears sharpens when you try to hide them, as well.
asserted
you → grind → them
Ted Lasso as a series might be considered the cuddlier version of the broader Taylor Sheridan project: it wants so badly to deflect criticism of its philosophical point of view that it will pepper in little story elements to provide plausible deniability of its true intentions.
uncertain
it → consider → intentions
Shows like Yellowstone and Lioness want to have it both ways on the liberal-conservative divide, just as Ted Lasso wants to show just enough toughness when it gets accused of being too sweet.
asserted
it → want → toughness
After all, Richmond got relegated at the end of Season 1, and they didn’t win the Premier League in Season 3.
asserted
they → relegate → Season
Ted embodies toxic positivity, but that’s what broke up his marriage.
asserted
what → embody → marriage
Boots learns she has to wear gloves after breaking a finger on a tough save, even if the absence of those gloves were never a problem during Richmond’s winning streak.
asserted
absence → learn → streak
You were out of line to tut-tut our storytelling plans!
asserted
You → tut → plans
All of those chickens come home to roost in this week’s episode, which centers on Richmond’s road trip to Bristol.
asserted
which → come → Bristol
If they win, they earn automatic promotion to the WSL, the top women’s football league in England.
asserted
they → win → England
If they draw or lose, they may have to battle for a promotion playoff spot or worse.
uncertain
they → draw → spot
It’s the biggest game of the year, and while Gemma’s finally healthy, she’s not ready to start.
asserted
she → ’ → year
The team goes down 2-0 by halftime, Boots (Jude Mack) breaking her finger in the process.
asserted
Boots → go → process
Beard tells her that promotion is better than experiencing the full sensation of life, and wouldn’t you know it, she plays the second half with gloves, shocked at their efficacy.
asserted
she → tell → efficacy
“Mae Rides the Bus” doesn’t just stop at Boots’s broken-finger revelation.
asserted
Mae → rid → revelation
From Gemma’s injury recovery to Shannon’s (Shannon Hayes) moment in the sun, co-showrunners Jason Sudeikis and Jack Burditt pull the rug out from under the truly hard and tough moments that no amount of characterological backtracking could ever properly address.
uncertain
amount → pull → backtracking
Players deal with injury scares all the time that don’t materialize into the worst-case scenario.
asserted
that → deal → scenario
What rankles is when that scare is used as a big, weighty bit of emotional payoff for Gemma (Abbie Hern) and Alice (Tanya Reynolds) without Gemma ever risking the possibility of a year away from football.
asserted
Gemma → rankle → football
It turns out that’s exactly what Episode 8 was doing.
asserted
Episode → turn → what
This week, Gemma’s clean bill of health frees her to learn the lesson that she needs to be patient and wait to go full throttle until she is fully healed.
asserted
she → free → lesson
Never mind that the coaches should have never put her in that situation in the first place: we need Gemma’s arc to pay off.
asserted
arc → mind → place
Alice’s journey to becoming a good coach follows the same principle.
asserted
journey → become → principle
The barely articulated source of her anxiety, fear, and anger seems to be the injuries she suffered as a young player, but there are plenty of ex-players whose careers ended too early and who went on to become coaches without ever expressing any of the stunted darkness that Alice has.
asserted
Alice → articulate → that
When she talks to both Gemma and Shannon in a firm but encouraging way, it’s unearned in the extreme.
asserted
it → talk → extreme
The show wants her to become wise after months of being a hard-ass without doing any of the work to demonstrate how a person could start as the latter and end up the former.
uncertain
person → want → former
Shannon represents this both-sidesing in the most blatant and incoherent manner.
asserted
Shannon → represent → manner
Sudeikis and Burditt don’t want to commit to the creaky sports-movie cliché of having the hardest-working, less-talented player be the big hero in the biggest moment, but they can’t let Shannon miss a taste of glory, either.
asserted
Shannon → want → glory
The solution is for Shannon to score a goal at the last minute that doesn’t win them the game, but rather just serves as a cherry on top of the sundae.
asserted
that → score → sundae
Sudeikis and Burditt betray their lack of conviction by giving Shannon a meaningless spotlight, not the game-changing spotlight.
asserted
Sudeikis → betray → spotlight
The capper, and one of the more egregiously cynical examples of this type of emotional manipulation you’ll ever see, comes at episode’s end, when we discover that beloved owner of the Crown and Anchor, Mae (Annette Badland), has quite possibly died.
uncertain
owner → see → Crown
Mae has been afforded more screentime this season than in previous years.
asserted
Mae → afford → years
She is a full-throated supporter of the women’s team, attending every home match.
asserted
She → attend → match
The writers had Ted live in the apartment above the pub as an excuse for Mae to pop up more regularly.
asserted
Mae → have → excuse
She has become a boss/babysitter to Henry (Grant Feely), and even had a fun afternoon as the Deep Throat to Higgins’s Bob Woodward in Episode 8.
asserted
She → become → Episode
This week, she joins the team on their travel bus to witness their possible promotion.
asserted
she → join → promotion
She gets to lead the pregame talk, where we learn that she wanted to be a professional footballer, but came of age at the tail end of England’s 50-year ban on organized women’s football.
asserted
she → get → football
…and 43 more, not listed.
The Aporia
