Noor Malhotra
‘Ted Lasso’ is a sports comedy on Apple TV+ and with Jason Sudeikis in the lead role. The show looks at the journey of Ted Lasso, an American football coach who has been hired as the manager for a soccer team in the UK. He is completely unfamiliar with the sport, but his sheer will power and dedication to his job slowly but steadily start winning people over. However, he still has many more obstacles to face before being triumphant.
Ted Lasso Episode 3 Recap
Rebecca opens ‘The Sun,’ expecting to see the insinuating pictures of Ted and Keeley on the front page. But to her utter dismay, this is not the case. She asks Higgins to find out what happened. In the meantime, Ted walks in for the daily “biscuits with boss” session and recounts the sightseeing he did over the weekend.
After this, Coach Beard and Ted go over the team’s defeat in the game with Crystal Palace and try to come up with a new strategy. This is when the team’s kit boy Nathan (aka Nate) informs them of his idea— Jamie as the decoy for distracting the opponents while the other players actually score. They try it out during their training session, and it works like a charm.
Keeley runs into Ted in the hallway and shows him the photo that the paper was going to publish. Her friend was able to delay the publication by a day. They approach Rebecca, not knowing that it was all her doing in the very first place. To not let the truth escape, she offers to stop the release of the photo altogether. In the locker room, Ted lets the players know that there are gifts in their lockers. Each player is a given book that pertains to their personal development. Also, Jamie and his friends continue to bully Nate, especially because the star player was now the decoy thanks to him.
Roy is concerned that Ted does nothing to help Nate, but the manager simply says that if he tells Jamie to stop, it will only make the situation worse. So, Roy approaches Jamie and tells him to stop the incessant bullying, and Jamie does get intimidated for a moment. Roy shows up to the club and hits the bullies, after which the harrasment stops altogether. Since her initial plan missed the mark, Rebecca decides to annul the huge support the club receives from their loyal fan base. In exchange for the photos not being released, she arranges for an interview between Ted and Trent Crimm, a reporter who already does not like him.
However, when the two spend the day together, first at a local school and then at dinner, Trent realizes that while Ted may is like a fool who knows nothing about the game, it is still very hard to not root for him. Higgins gets a preview of the article, and while it doesn’t necessarily paint him in the best light, it certainly does not malign him either, much to Rebecca’s dismay.
Ted Lasso Episode 3 Review
I must say that Trent was right— it is really hard to not root for Ted Lasso. There is so much that he is unaware of, especially when it comes to Rebecca, that it’s hard to not feel a little sympathy for him. However, this is not to say that Ted would not be able to handle the truth. This narrative of a nice hearted coach who wants nothing but the best for his players has been showcased an unfathomable number of times. However, the episode will not make the audience sigh with familiar exasperation. Yes, they use elements commonly seen in such comedies, but they do make it their own.
While the hilarious comedic quips in the show are enough to keep you hooked, the character development is also a huge bonus. When Ted feels that Roy has the potential to be a great leader, he gives him a copy of ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ so that he can discover his own leadership style. Moreover, it has been made abundantly clear that Rebecca wishes to destroy the club to get back at her ex-husband for cheating on her with multiple women. Yet, she is not portrayed as a typical villain. The audience understands her motivations, especially because she has been written very realistically.
When Keeley visits Rebecca’s office, the pair discuss how the photographs would have hurt Keeley’s career more than Jamie’s. Rebecca full well understands the wrath of the media due to her divorce, and Keeley even sympathizes with her. She says that men, no matter what they do, are never targeted in the same way as women. Rebecca, after some convincing, even shows her a topless photo taken by a photographer from a helicopter while she was sunbathing on vacation. Thus, we see an important and honest conversation between the two.
The show definitely is not afraid to keep it real. The combination of well-casted characters, subtle but effective tweaks to the same old tools of storytelling, and the light-heartedness of the comedy can definitely hold the viewer’s interest for an otherwise prevalent plot.
Read More: Where is Ted Lasso Filmed?
