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benicebefunny · 1 year

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Ted Lasso, "Pilot" Rewatch

My key takeaway: Ted Lasso is not some country bumpkin too pure to understand (or participate in) social hierarchies.

There's an old feel-good comedy staple where a simple, salt-of-the-earth Hick goes to The City and meets Fancy Cityfolk. Not familiar with their fancy city ways, the Hick doesn't treat people according to this foreign hierarchy. He does things for himself rather than ordering around the butler. (He may even assume the butler is the Master of the House!) He innocently insults the Fancy Cityfolk by violating their social rules. He shakes the men's hands too hard. He invites the stuffiest matron around to go possum huntin'.

The Hick acts without respect to the Cityfolk's social hierarchies, because he doesn't understand them.

In the Pilot, it's clear that Ted is Not That Hick.*

Ted is a keen observer of power dynamics. Unlike the Hick who runs roughshod over social hierarchy out of ignorance, Ted is constantly negotiating social hierarchies. The Hick upends hierarchy. Ted is an active participant and often a beneficiary of hierarchy.

Ted has a brain that won't turn off and a fuckton of social privilege. And, by god, if he doesn't use both in the Pilot.

Example 1: Ollie, the Erstwhile Tour Guide Ted's first interaction on British soil with a British person is a bit of a fake-out. When Ollie (the cab driver presumably sent by Richmond) goes to take Ted and Beard's luggage, they refuse. Ted says no several times in a row, followed by, "We packed 'em, we'll carry 'em." Perhaps, for the briefest moment, we think Ted is That Hick. He doesn't want to be waited on; he doesn't want to watch someone labor on his behalf. He's opting out.

But then Ted immediately says, "Love to make a little pit stop though." After Ollie agrees, it's cut to: Ollie showing Ted and Beard the Tower Bridge. A thing that is very much not Ollie's job. A thing that Richmond is not paying him for. A thing that neither Ted nor Beard tip him for on-screen.

Ted seems uncomfortable with Ollie, a dark-skinned Black man, carrying his bags. He's wary of such a visible marker of class and racial hierarchy. The historical weight cannot be ignored.

However, Ted's fine with asking Ollie to play tour guide--something that literally is not Ollie's job and that he isn't dressed for (Ollie's removed his suit jacket in the sunshine of the water front). Moreover, Ted feels comfortable requesting a delay in their itinerary that could potentially lose Ollie further business with Richmond.

There's a connection between the refusal to let Ollie carry their bags and the request for a tour. It feels like a negotiation. We'll carry our bags; you give us a tour. The fact that Ollie is expected to carry his fares' bags becomes a bargaining chip. It buys Ted the good will necessary to get something he wants. (Which is so fucking Midwestern.)

In this interaction, Ted doesn't opt out of the racial and class hierarchy. He just alters the terms.

Example 2: Nathan and Nate Like Ted, I am also a Midwestern transplant. I understand the impulse for nicknames. Where I grew up, if you didn't have a nickname (preferably something ending with an -y sound), it meant people hated you. Or you were rich. Or both.

It was quite shocking to move to California and meet some Okie who introduced himself as "James."

Among family and friends, coining a nickname can signal affection, warmth, familiarity.

Among people who've just met, a white person inventing a nickname for a person of color is... bad, it's bad. Don't do it. It's wrong. No. I don't get to decide what their name is. Stop.

Nathan introduces himself as Nathan. Ted calls him Nathan a few times. But in their third scene together, Ted has started calling him by the diminutive, "Nate." By the time Nathan is driving out of the Richmond car park, Ted is calling him, "my man, Nate."

If I were in Ted's place, the moment Nathan dropped me off, I would call a cab, board a flight home, and change my own fucking name. I'd enter the Whiteness Protection Program so goddamn fast.

My point is: Ted is overly-familiar with Nathan. He takes liberties with Nathan. He redefines Nathan, shrinking him down into Nate. He exercises authority over Nathan's very identity.

Compare this with how George Cartrick calls Higgins, "Higgy Boy."

Contrast it with how Ted addresses Rebecca. He calls her Ms. Welton. When she corrects him, he believes her.

He doesn't call her Becca or Becky or Bex. He calls her Rebecca.

Because she's his boss.

Which is to say: he knows how power works at work.

Example 3: Tea Time? As a new employee, Ted is deferential to Rebecca. He is careful about staying in her good graces.

Ted initially calls Rupert a "good time" for being surrounded by champagne and groupies (a moment of casual sexism that Nathan would have criticized himself over). When Ted learns that's Rebecca's ex-husband, he immediately backpedals. He tries to save face and avoid offending his new boss.

Famously, Ted hates tea. He's never tried tea, but he hates it. When he receives tea by mistake at a restaurant, he returns it. When Rebecca gives him tea, he at least tries it. He views his rich boss Rebecca differently than the barista at Starbucks.

That last sentence may seem obvious, but it's a concrete example of Ted understanding and negotiating power.

The Hick would reject the tea from Rebecca, the same as at Starbucks. Ted doesn't.

Conclusion Ted is neither above nor oblivious to the flow of power. Ted is not pure in a world of filth. He's in the muck with the rest of us. He's not an innocent; he just has an accent.

In the episodes to come, Ted will use his understanding of power dynamics to create a more cohesive team. In doing so, he becomes complicit in those power dynamics and the harm they cause.

You can't win the game without playing the game.

*A deeper engagement with the Hick Goes to the City trope in other media may reveal that some (many or even most) Hicks are far more agile navigators of hierarchy than we are initially led to believe.

#ted lasso #ted lasso rewatch #meta #my feathers get a little ruffled when it's implied that being from the midwest makes ted #innocent wholesome guileless or un-sophisticated #because you know who else was born and raised in the midwest?#my dad #and he knowingly negotiates power within a variety of contexts #not well perhaps but he exists in a matrix of social relations just like anyone else #and that's an entirely separate thing from him not knowing what pesto is #and ordering it anyway #and being shocked and dismayed when his lasagna comes out green

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