Yeah, you said it well. And especially considering where they were at the start of the series— discombobulated, Tartt being just a prima donna bully, Sam and Dani and the rest not really having realized their potential— it’s working for me. Even if the show isn’t always about the deeper workings of soccer, the formula…

Right, like, I don’t need the entire show to be about soccer, as in the sense you said it’s more of a backdrop. But since the show is about a soccer team and a soccer coach, the soccer action and locker-room action is often the best way to show the results of how these people are becoming better people and how that…

Also, I don’t understand all these comments that “it’s not about soccer!” One of the big points of the show is that even though Ted doesn’t understand soccer, his methods do slowly and steadily make the people around him better, and make his players better people, which makes them better players, which makes them a…

Heh, this is why grades can be funny. I largely agree with the thrust of the review— the show is best when it’s about football, particularly when we see those moments of all the work Ted and the team have done coming together like this, and the other plots can feel slight by comparison. Keeley’s conflict seemed…

Rip Torn is a man of action.

His wife knows Jim Moss is the last person he went to see before he came back like this, though. She told Gene that.

I was just coming to comment that whatever Moss must’ve done is obviously extremely fucked up and how can there be any way that doesn’t blow back on him somehow? I don’t think you can really get away with torturing a reporter in this scenario.

I mean, the guy broke into a bank drunk and armed, and he hit Norman Mailer with a hammer. Giving a guy a real gun as a gift seems pretty mild by comparison.

I also recall it being a revolver.

Yeah, I couldn’t tell what it was at a glance, but it blowing up in his hand was absolutely a gag on the gadgets never working. That cracked me up.

We've known about the gun for a while. Gene tries to use it on Barry early in season 3. (Which makes me think he knows it's not a prop gun and is just embarrassed by his failure to use it properly.)

Yeah, great comment. I hadn’t really thought in detail of how the character of Keeley was being written worse as time went along, but I think all of your observations are accurate and on point.

Yeah, I thought the same thing, or if not now, at least in the long term. But you may be right. Rebecca may just have to find some other hot single dad on her side of the pond.

I dunno how you mention Galaxy Quest without mentioning that Tony Shalhoub’s character spends the whole movie baked.

I am sad to say R.E.M. is almost certainly my single biggest “never got to see them live” missed opportunity. (Admittedly, I don’t know when I would have; I was 15 when Berry left the band, and they already weren’t a cheap ticket even then.)

Yeah, I don’t remember where I found out about that note on “So Fast, So Numb,” and it might just be speculation.

Not even the first time the show has glossed over power imbalances in workplace relationships (Rebecca-Sam). That one last season really stood out to me because Keeley, the team’s head of PR, showed nothing but complete and total support from it, and not even the slightest concern about the public relations scandal…

I did. 

I picked up on that too. I was surprised that after seeing that that we didn’t hear anything about Mysterious Amsterdam Boat Guy’s daughter, but I guess he did mention he “almost tore apart his family,” so maybe they didn’t want to overplay it.

I cracked up when the waitress walked up while Hank was openly talking about doing organized crime.