Tuesday, October 12, 2021

A Thought on the Landing of Nate in the Ted Lasso Finale

WARNING: TED LASSO SPOILER ALERTS!!

I spent most of this season wondering why, for a show that introduced and ended plot lines at the speed of light, they lingered so much on Nate's spiraling into asshole-ness. From the start I assumed there'd be about 10 seconds of "quit being an asshole", and that would be that. 

So for the ending, while I didn't think his anger towards Ted was earned - a mere year earlier he was the lowly kit man, how about putting your head down for a few years as a coach before bitching that you're not getting enough attention from ANYbody, much less Ted? And while I guess you could look back and note some moments, at no point while watching did I think "gee, Coach is really treating Nate shitty" - I'm relieved they went full-on evil Darth Vader Nate, as I was worried the big fix would be Ted rewarding his outburst by promoting him to President of Football Operations and giving him a basket of puppies or some shit. It may have been a little TOO dancing-on-lasers - they didn't have Ted really do anything other than witness Nate self-immolate, therein removing any culpability on his part and keeping him above the fray - but it sets up the final season nicely and gives a real payoff for such a long story arc.

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