Richmond Greyhounds

Well, there is a teevee show on cable that is now celebrated, Ted Lasso. Recently some of the actors were invited by our President to the White House in recognition for discussing mental health. So, i just finished watching the first two seasons (22 episodes); and then the first three episodes of season 3. A recurring theme is the psychic damage a problematic father does to a child.

Now, the locale is an English soccer team, Richmond Greyhounds. At the beginning of the second season, the mascot Earl Greyhound is killed by a penalty kick. In the last episode of the season, there is a new mascot, Macy Greyhound. She has a helmet.

Now, humour is spliced in with history. Edmund Tudor was made Earl of Richmond in 1452. His posthumous son was Henry, who later became King Henry VII. His mother was Margaret Beaufort, whose family's badge was a white greyhound.

John from Warren County Ohio, a participant of jousting teams, was wearing this tunic of Henry Tudor, in Cleveland last summer.

There is a lot of dialogue in the show, many references to music and film. Some the Anglais understand, and some not. Corn in the Field of Dreams was not in their ken. Football (soccer) does not have the magnitude in the US as it has in most of the world. Also, the Britisher lexicon is not the American. So the American in London is comically misplaced. So i read in the Los Angeles Times, and the Athletic that the programme is not popular in Britain. To be honest some terms used in the one country, are known to be used in the other (but in different frequency). I know their are Anglais who object to Americanisms. Some Briticisms are good, but not all. The mandatory use of 'nil', and 'pitch' are not necessary. There are a certain group of East London, Essex, and Estuary English that abuse my ears. Cleveland had a college basketball coach from Boston, he was painful to hear. I do not go back and watch episodes again, but Sudeikis' accent was a little grating. I was surprised, he was from Kansas City. And i never want to hear anyone say "ya'll". The British cast is uniformly excellent, another reason i was surprised of the meager reception in Britain. Waddingham and Goldstein deserve their Emmy statuettes.

It is stated in the series, that it is to be on for three seasons. The team is delegated, the team is promoted, the team wins the championship. Reading the episode summaries, the show reads like a soap opera. 

But noticing, how many times a character is forgiven, hints are offered for further resolutions. There is a lego set, and Henry Lasso asks why is Nate separated from the other characters. Immediately, Ted puts toy Nate next to toy Ted. Nate has gone to the dark side. He is manager of another club, whose owner is the former owner (Rupert Mannion) of the Greyhounds, and former husband to the new owner of the Greyhounds. Nate betrayed Ted, and his team's owners office is like the emperor's in Star Wars. Nate has gone to the dark side, they both wear black. Rupert and Nate enjoy being evil by delighting in causing pain. This is not a religious show, but prodigals (Jamie) have been forgiven.

There is a lot of crying in the show, i'm ok with that, but there is too much soap opera. Rebecca (Waddingham) hires Ted, and sets him up for failure. Slowly she is won over by Ted. They come to care for each other, both are betrayed by their former spouses; although Ted has forgiven his wife a year and an half before he finds out. Will they live happily ever after? About hints again, Rebecca is told by a psychic that she will be a mother.

Getting back to the bad fathers: Jamie, Rebecca, Nate, Phoebe (niece of Roy Kent, who may very well have had a bad father) had bad fathers. Ted had a good father, but we find out his father killed himself when Ted was sixteen, and that was not forgivable. So Ted has mental problems of anxiety, panic, loneliness, and abandonment. Roy is a father to Phoebe. Jamie and Roy hate each other, and then Roy sees Jamie's father, and Roy becomes Jamie's father. I can only remember that Sam the Nigerian ball player having a good relationship with his father.

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postscriptum 7 April 2023: watched the 4th episode of the third season. Nate showed a glimmer of recognition that he was way, way rude to Ted. He did not notice he refused to shake his hand.  Also, checked imdb, only Ted is in all 34 episodes according to imdb. A character named Disco is listed for the final episode, he is Nate's assistant.