Through August 24, get $20 off an annual subscription to What's Alan Watching? !
A review of this week's Ted Lasso, "Richmond's Got Talent" — with spoilers — coming up just as soon as I have to look up your pop culture references...
Alan Sepinwall
For the second week in a row, we get a solid 25-odd minute episode of Ted Lasso, with more emphasis on the team, the introduction of several new players, and a deepening of our understanding of Alice. And for the second week in a row, the good stuff is surrounded by more than 20 minutes of padding that featured a mix of cringe-inducing comedy and questionable writing for some of our returning characters.
Let's start with the good. Despite its lengthy running time, "Curiouser and Curiouser" barely spent any time on the women's players, other than Boots. This week, we get to know more of them. Josie, the team's top striker, injured her ACL in the previous episode, and "Richmond's Got Talent" opens with the team's other striker discovering that she's pregnant, and will also have to take the season off. Again, my professional soccer knowledge mostly comes from a mix of this show and Welcome to Wrexham, so I have no idea what the depth chart for a brand-new women's team would look like, and whether the roster would have more than two strikers on it to begin with. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and Alice's offhand joke about doing open tryouts convinces Ted to do it for real.