Ted Lasso “Goodbye Earl”

Was Ted Lasso this silly before?  I mean, I don’t mind.  It’s actually a little funnier that way, but despite the fact that the main plot seems to revolve around a dead dog, this episode felt a lot lighter than I am used to.

It’s not that Ted Lasso  wasn’t about this sort of humor before.  If anything, it dials down on the “Ted is a fish out of water” comedy as he is presumably more welcome now than he was before.  Higgins is no longer a target of Rebecca’s abuse.  Instead, it seems like things would be going the team’s way if they could stop playing to ties.

And then Dani “Football is life!” Rojas kicks the ball good and hard in a manner that kills the team’s mascot, a dog,  when it leapt into the path of the ball.

From there, well, it’s apparently nightmare city.  He gets a case of…the yips.

Don’t say that out loud, Jimmy.

That actually requires the team to bring in Sports Psychologist Dr. Sharon Fieldstone, and she helps Dani get past the reoccurring nightmares of how his kicks kill even cartoon dogs.  By the by, of course Dani sleeps with two women at the same time.

I mean, the dog plot is kinda silly, even if it leads to Ted telling a sweet story about a dog of his own, and there’s a nice feeling of comfort here.  Everyone seems to be more or less familiar with their places, to the point where the other sports reporters somewhat mock Trent Crimm when he asks a question.  That “lived in” feeling isn’t too bad.

But there are some long term things coming as not everyone is in a good place.  Keeley and Roy are together, but he’s coaching a kids soccer team for little girls (including his niece that I guess he is raising since I have never seen that girl’s parents), and there seems to be some issue with what Roy will do now that his playing days are over.    But he does give good dating advice to Rebecca, better than either Keeley or Ted could.  Likewise, Keeley sees her ex Jamie is on a sketchy reality romance show.  That’s some stuff for down the road, but for now, Ted Lasso and Ted Lasso seem to be settling into a pleasant place.

You know, if you don’t have the yips.