He's Here, He's There
He's every-f***ing-where. Roy Kent!
I hope everyone had a great weekend!
Welcome back to The Couch Critic! Once again, thank you for subscribing.
Packed newsletter today - some love for the great Roy Kent in a Zach Lowe-inspired idea, a little pro wrestling nostalgia, and of course, another TV recommendation.
⚽ Everyone Loves Roy Kent ⚽
🚨 Spoiler Alert For Ted Lasso Season 2 🚨
10 Things I Liked About The New Ted Lasso Episode
Thank you, Zach Lowe. I could’ve gone on and on about all the things I loved about the new episode of Ted Lasso titled “Rainbow.” Ted Lasso did it again with this one.
I noticed there’d been a little negative chatter online about this season. This is why it’d be hard for me to be a legitimate “critic” of TV. I’ve already made up my mind. Ted Lasso is fucking hysterical.
If you don’t think so, then you just don’t know what funny is. You can argue it got off to a bit of a slow start, but Brendan Hunt made it clear that the episodes were written with the thinking that the first three would be released at once.
The show began hitting its stride with the Christmas episode. Not many shows could do Christmas in August, but Ted Lasso can do anything at this point, and I’d probably enjoy it. Like I said, being a TV critic is for the birds.
“Rainbow” centered on two polar opposites - Nate and Roy.
The Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones are the greatest rock and roll band of all time. The episode is titled Rainbow for their song, She’s a Rainbow.
The song plays when Higgins’ wife calls in front of Rebecca. He explains it’s her ringtone because it was playing when they met.
The song plays again at the ending of the episode. When Mick Jagger sings, “Have you seen her dressed in blue?” Higgins is shown with his wife, and she’s dressed in blue.
Dude.
Rom-communism - Ted Lasso did it again. In one of their most stunning episodes yet, they went full rom-com, and the stars of the genre were….Roy and Ted. More on that later.
Ted tells his team he loves rom-communism. He loves all the Kates and shamelessly quotes romcoms throughout the episode. I guess it should be no surprise that the unabashedly positive Ted Lasso loves a good romcom.
Whether you appreciate a good romcom or not, this episode is great.
I never thought I’d write romcom this much. Fucking Ted Lasso.
Yes sir, Steve Kerr - Ted is running late to meet Coach Beard, and when Beard asks him about it, Ted responds, “Yes sir Steve Kerr.” You have to think Kerr getting a name drop has something to do with his son working on the show.
This isn’t the first NBA reference on the show. Ted references Allen Iverson’s famous “practice” rant in a season one episode.
Confident Nate - The episode starts with Nate trying to get a good table for his parent’s 35th anniversary. Things don’t go so well the first time he walks in, and he ends up asking Keeley to make him famous.
Rebecca offers to buy the restaurant for Nate. Instead, Keeley and Rebecca struggle to turn Nate into a more confident person. This is a storyline that’s been building up all season.
It’s a really nice moment for Nate when he realizes that Keeley and Rebecca genuinely care about him. This is what pushes him to assert himself at the restaurant, and ultimately get the nice table in the window.
But Nate’s insecurities can’t be fixed overnight and the insertion of Roy to the coaching staff could mean trouble for Nate and Ted’s relationship.
Isaac getting a storyline - I love that they are giving us a peek into the other players on the team. Isaac is a very underrated character, and the scene with him playing outside Roy’s old home was one of the best of the season.
As a sports fan, it was great to see the show explore the very real storyline of the struggling new captain replacing a legend.
Ted talking to the Doc - After watching Isaac get upset, Doctor Sharon offered to help out but Ted declined. He took care of that himself with some much-needed assistance from Roy.
But the Doc once again offered to speak with Ted - who doesn’t trust therapists - and it feels like that’s leading up to something. Maybe Ted will open up to Sharon at some point.
Rebecca on the dating app - Rebecca is talking to a mystery man on a dating app. This man has no idea she’s a billionaire owner of AFC Richmond and he has no idea who she is.
The point is driven home both indirectly by Higgins and directly by Keeley that she should just be herself with this guy.
Oh yeah, I don’t know if you caught this but I’m pretty sure the guy she’s talking to is Ted. Just a guess.
Goof on Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mcelhenney - The show took a swipe at Wrexham AFC. It was great.
Coach Roy - The great Roy Kent messed around on TV for a while, but his true love is soccer. He needs to be around the game - not in a studio talking about it.
When Ted tells Roy, “You complete our team,” he might be quoting Jerry Maguire but he’s also right. Roy Kent is Richmond and Richmond is Roy Kent.
Now, Roy is back as a coach. Unfortunately, Nate doesn’t look to be too happy about it.
Roy doing the romcom airport run - I mean, come on. That was fucking hilarious. At one point, he’s literally running to the stadium. The way he leaves the TV job and the security guard not recognizing him until he curses her out.
Ted really did leave the tickets for Roy under the name Reba Mcentire because, of course, Ted did.
And we got another Roy Kent chant. See below.
CM Punk & Nostalgia
One of the few good memories I have from high school is playing a video game called Extreme Warfare Revenge on a shitty school-distributed IBM laptop.
I forget how I found EWR, but I remember being really into pro wrestling back then. I loved the game because it reminded me of the comprehensive dynasty mode in NCAA Football.
EWR takes you behind the scenes of the wrestling business and puts you in charge of a promotion. You book the show - picking the winners and setting the “babyfaces” (good guys) and “heels” (bad guys).
You get to kinda write the script to all the stuff you see on TV that you know is scripted. You can be in charge of a global promotion like the WWE and book matches with The Rock or Stone Cold Steve Austin, or you could take over an Indie promotion like Ring of Honor.
Back in 2003, Ring of Honor featured some of the brightest stars in pro wrestling today. At least in the game, they had AJ Styles, Bryan Danielson, Samoa Joe, and CM Punk.
Whether you are a wrestling fan or not, you may have noticed CM Punk’s name trending on Twitter recently. He retired from in-ring competition seven years ago but announced his return on TV this week.
Goddamn, it made me feel old to see Punk cutting a promo in the middle of the ring at 42 years old.
When I first learned about Punk, he was the young hotshot prospect that WWE fans were lusting over. He was gonna save them from Triple H’s reign of monotonous terror.
The hype around Punk’s WWE debut was insane. Fans buzzed about the straight-edge star with the Pepsi logo tattooed on his arm who wore basketball shorts in the ring.
He was the best wrestler on the planet with an IDGAF attitude about the WWE. His old Youtube videos are pretty cool. He wrestled in something called a Clockwork Orange House of Fun Match. It’s not for the faint of heart.
I went on message boards back then (remember when those were a thing?), and they were loaded with posts about CM Punk. His pending WWE debut was the pro wrestling nerd version of LeBron or Zion coming into the NBA.
I remember thinking, How do so many people know about this dude, and why does he have so many fans when he’s never been on TV?
Punk didn’t look or talk like a typical WWE star, but that was part of his appeal to fans. He didn’t look like he’d injected himself with steroids, and he didn’t talk like a robot.
Punk became known for his trademark “pipe bomb” promo that turned pro wrestling on its head back in 2011. Punk broke character and got as close to reality as the WWE will let one of its own do on TV.
It felt like Phil Brooks, not CM Punk, was talking about his own bullshit with the WWE.
The promo was on WWE airwaves so it would only be allowed to go up to a certain point, but you couldn’t help but feel like some of what he was saying was very real.
Especially when he was fired three years later on his wedding day. Punk has a reputation for being tough to work with, but he walked away from the WWE because he was hurt and burnt out. They responded by firing him.
It’s nice to see CM Punk making a comeback. Even if it does make me feel super old.
📺 What To Watch 📺
🐺 Shadowhunters 🐺
Names you’ll recognize: Sarah Hyland (Guest star), Alisha Wainwright, Isaiah Mustafa
Where to stream: Hulu
Original run: 3 seasons, 55 episodes on Freeform (2016-19)
Cliffhanger ending: No
You’ll like this if you like: Lucifer (Netflix), Grimm (NBC)
Synopsis
Clary Fray’s 18th birthday goes sideways when a bunch of guys with swords try to kidnap her.
Her mom explains to her that she’s a Shadowhunter. They are human-angel hybrids who hunt down demons and live in the Shadow World populated by warlocks, vampires, and werewolves.
Clary has allies like her best friend Simon (in the friend zone) and new Shadowhunter friends - Jace (not in the friend zone), Alec (hates Clary), and Izzy (likes everyone).
There’s also Luke (Isaiah Mustafa) who’s been like a father to Clary her entire life, but his motives are unclear when Clary’s mom is kidnapped in the pilot.
Why You Should Watch
The Downworlders
The Shadowhunters job is to protect the humans (they call them mundanes) from demons but they spend a lot of time arguing with Downworlders.
The Downworlders are werewolves, warlocks, vampires, and faeries.
That’s a good thing because the show is at its best when it involves the Downworlders.
Some Shadowhunters think less of the Downworlders because they are part demon and part human. That’s pretty much what makes them the best characters on the show.
The Shadowhunters can be lame, stuffy, and by the book, while the Downworlders do their own thing.
Clary comes into conflict with how a Shadowhunter should behave because, unlike most Shadowhunters, she has personal relationships with Downworlders.
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