#13. 'Ted Lasso,' with Special Guest Kristen Soltis Anderson!
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Guest Kristen Soltis Anderson joins JVL, Sonny, and Vic for a wholly enthusiastic review of Ted Lasso, the AppleTV+ comedy about an American football coach hired to manage an English Premier League club. JVL's centerpiece argument is that it's the rarest of birds — a series that inadvertently captures a moment (like MASH or All in the Family): landing in the isolated, bitterly divided year of 2020, it's fundamentally about connection and healing a fractured workplace, and Ted's real superpower is making people feel "seen" (he cites the "would you rather be a panda or a lion" beat as where the show reveals Ted is a grandmaster, not a Forrest Gump). Kristen praises its structural discipline — every character behaves like a real adult, conflict gets resolved instead of protracted, no fat on any episode — and marks the Roy Kent/A Wrinkle in Time subplot as her turning point, flagging the Scrubs/Bill Lawrence DNA and Mumford-scored music cues. Sonny calls it sweet without being saccharine and champions Jason Sudeikis (playing a life coach, not a football coach) as the most underrated SNL alum; Vic loved it wholesale despite needing subtitles for the accents, singling out the deep bench (Keely/Juno Temple, Roy, Nate, the sympathetically-drawn Rebecca). Their one shared gripe: an ostensibly British show that never once deploys the C-word. Side threads include a deep Civilization nerd-out with Kristen (Egypt, wonders, domination victories) and naming Mythic Quest* as the other great non-HBO streaming comedy. The hangout covers Kristen buying a 1981 Yamaha upright from the non–Rick Jones piano dealer in College Park (and a "gray market piano" explainer) and Vic's Groundhog Day birthday, marked by scoring a lone 30-pound dumbbell from a Soviet-empty Dick's.
From the show notes
This week JVL, Vic, and Sonny were very excited to invite Kristen Soltis Anderson onto the show to discuss everyone's favorite football-coach-turned-EPL-manager, Ted Lasso! Is the AppleTV+ show the best sitcom of 2020? Is it the show we need right now? And, most importantly: what is a grey-market piano? All this and more on this week's Sub-Beacon!
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00This is a bit of news from the other side of the Atlantic. AFC Richmond announced the hiring of their new manager, American football coach Ted Lasso. You're an American who's now in charge of a football club, despite possessing very little knowledge of the game. I know that AFC Richmond is going to give you everything they got, win or lose.
Vic00:00:19All tie. Right, y'all do ties here. Did you see that?
JVL00:00:26He must be from England, yeah. Wales, is that another country? Yes and no.
Vic00:00:29How many countries are in this country? Four.
JVL00:00:44Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of the Sub-Beacon. I'm your host, JVL, along with Sonny Bunch, Victorino Matus,
Sonny00:00:53and our very special guest, Kristen Soltest Anderson. Hello, boys.
JVL00:01:00Just a reminder, the Sub-Beacon is available exclusively on Patreon at subbeacon.com. We have a store where you can buy Sub-Beacon merch, ranging from onesies to headache shirts. Just visit tpublic.com and search Sub-Beacon. You'll easily find us. Please buy shirts, tell your friends to subscribe, leave reviews, et cetera, et cetera, at subbeacon.com.
Guest00:01:24Kristen! I'm so glad to be here.
JVL00:01:27This is so exciting. You are, I believe, only the third girl ever on the show.
Guest00:01:32I know. Mary Catherine has already broken that glass ceiling for me.
JVL00:01:36No, Hannah Yost first. The lovely Hannah Yost was our first female guest, and then we had Mary Catherine, and then Chris Silliza. In the studio. And then Chris Silliza.
Vic00:01:49Burn on Chris. That's right. Not Mike Warren, Chris.
JVL00:01:54It is so good to see you. I like that in your background, you have all sorts of Legos. The Saturn 5 rocket, the BB-8 monster. What else am I seeing back there? Is that some Minecraft Lego?
Guest00:02:10No. So there's a Wall-E, the Pixar robot that is lovable and eats trash. And there is a droid, which is a turret from the video game Portal. There is a bobblehead of a soul singer I liked named Alan Stone. There's a Dwight Schrute bobblehead. There is a Jason Mendoza Funko Pop. He's wearing a Bortles jersey. So I've got a lot going on here, but this shelf was already full of tchotchkes before the pandemic, and I just chose not to touch it when I had to start doing TV.
Vic00:02:46I'm so glad there's a Filipino Funko Pop behind you, Jason Mendoza represented in your house.
Sonny00:02:53So this is your official room rating room then, is that right?
Guest00:02:58I don't think the room reader guy watches Fox, so I've never actually been officially room rated.
Sonny00:03:03So if I could, if I give it a solid, solid nine out of 10, I like, I like 10 perspective of it with the, the room going kind of in a back. I just held up intestines.
Guest00:03:12Yeah. That's not a 10 at all. Ooh, is it like a G money? G money? My four-year-old is doing
JVL00:03:19parts of the body in school. And so I'm glad that's the one for a four-year-old. These are my intestines. If they were Vicks, it would be a
Vic00:03:28horror show. Don't get it. Let me know when you get to liver. Okay. Oh, I believe it's on there.
JVL00:03:32So Kristen, how are you? How have you been? I've been doing well. I've been very
Guest00:03:37How was your weekend? Oh, the weekend. Uh, I got a new piano over the weekend. This has been about it. This was a hobby that I had as a child, uh, all the way up through middle school. I was, I was kind of an arts kid in, in high school as well. Um, but haven't touched a piano since, since then for sure. Um, but just over the course of the pandemic, as I've gotten more and more stir crazy in my house, began looking at used pianos online. And there's actually a, I would watch a reality show about the rivalry between the two major used piano dealerships in college park, Maryland. They're on opposite sides of the Ikea. And like, when you go to the one Jones, yes. Went to Rick Jones. Rick Jones is like the cool, like warehouse
Vic00:04:27like that's where I got it. That's where we got our piano. Yeah. Uh, so I got mine from the other
Guest00:04:33one piano man superstar. Um, but it was funny. They were like stop the show now then. Thank you. Well, they did see, it was funny. I was, I was at the one, they were like, are you, are you going to the other one after this? And I was like, yes, I am actually. I've got ones. I'm looking at both places. Yeah. Um, but it's, it's fun. I'm, I'm now I'm surely annoying my husband as I butcher that's great. Tori Amos and Fiona apple songs at all hours of the day.
Vic00:04:57Um, but that's, that was how my, that is awesome that you're playing. What kind of a piano is it?
Guest00:05:03It is a 1981 Yamaha upright. Um, so it's, it's, it's an older piano, but it it's in it's big sound for a little thing. I don't live in a huge house, so it fits perfectly. Yeah. Yeah.
JVL00:05:18Yeah. Why did you choose. The not Rick Jones, Rick Jones, Rick James, Rick Jones. Why did you choose the not Rick Jones over Rick Jones?
Guest00:05:27Well, when I was at the other store, that's where they had this beautiful. Piano that I liked and they said, well, are you going to Rick Jones after this? I said, yes, I have an appointment there too. And they were like, well, they're really good at grand pianos. We, but we're really good at uprights. When you get there, they won't have a selection of uprights that you'll find in your price range. And sure enough, I got there and I was like, I'm looking for an upright piano and here's my budget. And they were like, that's so cute. We have like two of them over in the corner. You're welcome to try them if you'd like. I mean, they were, they couldn't have been nicer. They were both lovely, but it was just very funny that like, as somebody who could barely sit down and like play chopsticks to test these pianos out, they were like, oh, that's great. That's so funny.
Vic00:06:09That's great. So I went with, I went with Kate to Rick Jones back in, I think 2002 or 2003. And so she took me there and then I was able to show off to her, you know, in order to just see if I can, you know, score some points and, you know, tickle, tickle her ivory. So I'm sorry, the ivories. And, uh, we ended up and it's funny because that, that piano is the one that was in her house and it was just like pretty woman right there in the store. That's what I was sitting. I was sitting on the piano keys. Uh, and I, uh, and that's the one that's now in our house and it's an upright Kauai, uh, which is really good. Um, and we just had it too. We just had our tuned, um, uh, a couple of weeks ago for the first time in ages. And the tutor told us, uh, that he thinks our piano was from what's called the gray market. And I don't even know what that means. I learned a little bit about that. I think gray market means
Guest00:07:09ones like the Japanese piano makers back in like the eighties and nineties would make different pianos for the Japanese market versus the us market. I think because of the different like humidity in Japan versus most of the us, something like that. So the gray market ones, it's not actually like black market like that. It's more that it was built for a different market and people in Japan don't buy used pianos. So they ship all them over here to the us where we love
Vic00:07:36buying used things. No, no, there is as much more precise, I am sure in sensitive and very
JVL00:07:42interesting. I thought it was gray market watches. Well, in, in watches, the gray market's very different. Oh, right. Which is, so you are getting, uh, you're getting a name brand watch, but not from authorized dealer because the authorized dealers have to honor certain pricing requirements. So if you are the authorized dealer of Omega or tutor, uh, or IWC, the manufacturer will tell you the minimum price that you have to charge for it. And if you are a like Joma shop or any number of other what are called gray market dealers, you're selling the same watch. You can charge whatever you want for it. Uh, but the difference is the watch is then not backed by an authorized dealer warranty. Yes. All this time. I thought
Vic00:08:32that the gray market meant that, you know, they got the piano from old people who died.
JVL00:08:39It's fine by me. It's fine by me. It happened. So Kristen, when you were in high school, were you, uh, were you like goth emo girl writing your, your, cause you were a drama girl, right?
Guest00:08:49I was a, a drama and music girl. Uh, but then the debate team got its claws in me around sophomore year. And that put me on this. Boy, those debate nerds must've felt like they had,
JVL00:09:02they had won the lottery. We got a girl, we got a girl from the drama side.
Sonny00:09:09I bet, I bet there were plenty of girls on the, on the debate team. I feel like that is a
Guest00:09:14definitely cross-gender activity. Yeah. Well there, there are a lot of, uh, different ways you can do high school debate. So there are, for instance, within the debate team, there are whole events where you are reading poetry and things like that and performing, you know, dramatic plays in, in short bits. Um, and even in the events that were more conventional debate, one-on-one there, there were, were plenty of, of young women. The particular event that I did was called student Congress, where we had to pretend to be a fake United States Congress and pass bills and make speeches, things that the actual Congress really doesn't do a whole lot of. Talk about Jewish space lasers. Um, less of that. And there were, there were not really as many young women there. And this was sort of where I, I developed my shtick of like, I got a, a red business suit and that, and I, I would just, I'm like, none of the guys here can wear a red suit. None of them have the guts to. And so that's how I'll stand out. And, uh, you know, the rest is history. Did you ever have to give an answer?
Vic00:10:16That was the limit is there is no limit. No, no, I was not a math lead. Oh, you were very good. Thank you. Ah, so good. So good to have you on the show.
Sonny00:10:29Do you want to go scout out some of the local high school debate,
JVL00:10:32debate teams in your area to see if there are any girls on them?
Vic00:10:35I'm doing, I'm doing a, I'm doing a very long piece. I'm doing a very, very long piece,
JVL00:10:39a deep dive into it to see if there's anything going on. Oh God. Santino. How are you buddy? I'm good. You doing good. HBO max is doing great. I saw some Nielsen numbers for wonder woman 84. They're just through the roof. 2.2 billion minutes, 2.2 billion minutes watched. Uh, well, I mean, it is actually a big number.
Sonny00:11:00It's the, it's the highest number that Nielsen has ever tracked for a streaming film. Uh, which is big. I mean, that's, that's a big, that's a big, everybody in China watched one minute and 15 seconds of that movie and the, and, and, and Warner brothers slash HBO slash TNT slash whoever is actually in charge of releasing the numbers, uh, release numbers on how many more activations they had. They, they added some, I don't know, seven or 8 million HBO max, uh, subscribers. So it was, it was a hit, uh, Wonder Woman 1984 by the, by the metrics they were looking for was a hit. We'll see. We'll see how that keeps going through the rest of this experiment of releasing everything on, uh, on, uh, HBO max and in theaters.
JVL00:11:43Have you ordered your mother box? Oh, I did. I did order, uh,
Sonny00:11:49tell the class about it. Well, so it's basically, it's like, what are, what are those food box prep kit things that, that, uh, almost saying the entire podcast industry blue apron, right? So it's like blue apron, except themed, except themed, uh, by the Snyder cut. So it's like, it's like foods from restaurants in the DC expanded universe and it's beers that are, that are branded from the, it is, this is real. This is, I sent you a text message about it. Cook your own big belly burger. It's basically the greatest thing that's ever happened. You can, you can make Aquaman fish and chips. Uh, it's just really the greatest. I can't wait to do it. I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do a whole special episode of the sub beacon, just myself, just me cooking this food, taking some pictures, putting it on the, on the Patreon. It'll be great. Oh, speaking of extra Patreon stuff, uh, uh, somebody discovered that the old substandard episodes are available in an archived feed on apple. They are, they are there. They. Uh, the only problem is they don't have any of the, uh, they don't have any of the descriptions. So it's just the title of the episode and the date. And like, sometimes you have the movie in there, but our, our data, our data, uh, uh, upkeep was not very good back in the ye olden days. Uh, so it's, it's kind of hard to tell what is what I, uh, there's some news, some news for the, for listeners of the show. I have asked some of the good folks at the SSEU to take a look, uh, at this old archived, feed of episodes and pick out some of their favorites and we'll put them, we'll put them on the, the Patreon. They'll be unlocked episodes. You can share them with everyone. Um, but, uh, this will, this will allow some of our newer listeners to catch up on some of the inside jokes, uh, that did not necessarily, that have not necessarily made sense to them for the past two years. Um, uh. Gotta make sure we get that Martin Scorsese episode out there. Since the show, since the show disappeared. Uh, the only, the only problem is, so I asked, I asked some of the guys to send this to Christopher Haberman, uh, good man sent me, sent me, uh, uh, some sent me an episode back with a description and his favorite parts of it. The only problem is he put two spaces after a period. So I fired him and I said, no more free content for us from you. I need, I need a, I needed a professional who does it right. Uh, so sorry. Thank you. Well, it might be, might be a couple of weeks before we get that
Vic00:14:13first one out. Well, that's weird that it popped up on a iTunes. I have no idea where it came from.
Sonny00:14:17I don't know if it, I don't know if it's a glitch, if it's a, if it's something that Apple does when a feed disappears or, or what, but the, I also found, I also found the, uh, old, uh, episodes
Vic00:14:29on LimeWire. The whole thing is Kazaa. Yeah, right. You can get it there on Kazaa. Sonny,
JVL00:14:36are you, uh, are you wearing your black armband for Lord Beesauce? Are you taking, I was a little bit worried about you on the show tonight because I didn't know how you'd be taking the news.
Sonny00:14:47You know, it's, it's all things pass and Amazon had a good run. He was supposed to live forever. Well, that's why he bathed in the blood of children. Well, I assume that this is the first part of him trying to figure out how to live forever. I assume this is, this is his, uh, uh, who was, who was the guy in, uh, oh, you guys are too. Contact. He's gonna like John Hurt. He's
JVL00:15:07gonna now live in a 747 circling the globe constantly. Uh, I assume he's doing the thing
Sonny00:15:12like the bad guy from Gargoyles who was trying to find immortality. He's, he's, he's put business aside. He's got to focus on the important things like living forever. So there was a show on Gargoyles
Vic00:15:22when I was a kid and it was like on one of the local channels and it was during the day and it was fantastic. If any listener remembers that one, please, uh, get back to me on Twitter. Thank you. Victorino. How are you buddy? I'm doing just fine. Happy birthday. Oh, thank you. Thank you. You remember all it's groundhog's day. That's my birthday. I was remembering when you and I used to go out for breakfast every morning. That's right. At the Mayflower. We'd get up. Say, what do you want for breakfast? And I say, oh, how about we go downstairs? Let's go downstairs. It was like, it was like J Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson. So anyway, thank you.
JVL00:16:04In bathrooms, the bathrooms, I don't want to get charged for the bathroom. So, uh, those were the
Vic00:16:08days, those were the days, those were the days doing fine, doing fine, continuing to go out and
JVL00:16:13drink and, you know, the big five. Oh, what does it feel like? No, no, no, no, no. If you think I will
Vic00:16:22actually make it to the big five. Oh, that's, that's, that would be news. Uh, the big four, eight, the big four, eight, which is, man, that's uncomfortably close. That's uncomfortably close. Um, feeling fine, feeling fine. Nothing is a change. I can't go out unfortunately because of the weather. Like I I'm not running. I'm not that crazy. I'm not a fanatic that I'm going to go running in the snow, but I did happen to stop by, um, Dick's Sporting Goods and I found a dumbbell. Yes, it's like, but it is like the empty, it's like the shelves in the Soviet union, in the supermarket. And it was one 30 pound dumbbell. And then the next weight was one 55 pound dumbbell. And then a bunch of the small ones, you know, because you just buy them both and then sell them on the gray market. I could, yeah, I guess I should have done that, but no, I just took the one 30 pound dumbbell. And, uh, which means, you know, I can't really do anything chest, but I'll do pushups, but at least I can do that and do curls and triceps and things. And one day I'll go back and look for the other one. I can't imagine why it's only one. That means somebody must've taken only one. Maybe some sicko. Who does that? I just want one of them because if you look online, there's so much fine print about ordering dumbbells, like on Amazon. And then you see so many people saying, no, no, no, you have to double order because they say it's a pair, but it's actually just one. And it's, you know, you don't know when that's going to arrive and different. I said, I'm just, I'd rather see it in person like in the olden days. So that's what I did anyway. But I, I have to tell you, I am really excited to have, uh, Kristen on the show because, uh, I don't know what Sonny was thinking we were going to discuss on this show, but really, uh, Sonny, this is an ambush. This is a two hour
Sonny00:18:01special on civilization. All right. I do have, okay. All right. Listen, listen, we do this with
Vic00:18:08co-hosts sometimes, uh, uh, special guests. And I did have a couple of Sonny's left the room,
Guest00:18:13by the way. He's taken his headphones off. He's out. Just go question. What is your preferred civilization and why. Egypt because I am addicted to building the wonders. Oh yes, that's right.
JVL00:18:28Okay. Plus you get the chariot early. Yes. Although then you're is critical of this because
Guest00:18:34all your special units are like classical and early and then you're done. That's right. You just
JVL00:18:38gotta hope the panzers don't roll in. Once you get to medieval, you are useless. Okay. So you got to strike fast. All your conquests should be early anyway. Strike fast. That's right. If you're waiting to do conquest till the modern age, then it's too late. What is your preferred
Guest00:18:50form of conquest? I had been playing for cultural victories for a long time. And very recently, I, I, I switched to go for domination victories. Yes. And I can make it. Oh, excuse me. I didn't
Vic00:19:05mean to get too excited here. I'm just, I'm just doing God. We don't have fixed video. I'm just
Guest00:19:09doing curls with my dumbbell right now. Oh yeah. I can win a domination victory on king difficulty in Civ five, but I, I've not tried on emperor yet. I'm such a baby. Which like Civ Reddit doesn't acknowledge anything below deity, but whatever. I'm trying. No, I, I, I, I haven't
Vic00:19:28even gone up to King. I'm I, I remain at Prince cuz I refuse to accept that they're gonna have like these, the upper hand on you. Yeah. Equal playing field, Kristen, equal playing field. That's what I say. Okay. And finally, what is your favorite wonder to build? Ooh. You know,
Guest00:19:44I weirdly love building the mausoleum of Halicarnassus, even though it is objectively really dumb.
JVL00:19:50Oh, yes. Excuse me. It gives you one archer every five turns or something. No, no, no, no, no. This is the one that you spend.
Guest00:19:55No, you get like a hundred gold when you use a great person.
JVL00:19:57Yes. That's right. Yes.
Guest00:19:58It's really dumb, but I, I love that cash.
Vic00:20:00It's a great, it's, it, that, that's nice. I love that.
JVL00:20:03Great library. Great library is the best cuz you just start stealing technologies from everybody.
Guest00:20:09But anytime I don't get the great library, I get angry and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna lose this game. I've got three hours of misery in store.
Vic00:20:16Do you, do you, have you moved up yet? You haven't moved up to Civ six. I did the tutorial and I, but I didn't go any further. We're almost done 30 more minutes, Sonny, 30 more minutes. So go ahead, Kristin. What did you say about, you did the tutorial and.
Guest00:20:29And I liked it, but I, it, it seemed not too complicated, but I just, I, no, it didn't feel like that much of an upgrade for me.
Vic00:20:38No, I agree. It's cartoonish and the, the map is now like hexagonal. If that's the word.
JVL00:20:44Kristin, what is your preferred world set up? What, what kind of continental system, what age worlds do you prefer?
Guest00:20:53I haven't noodled with that. I mean, I have played hundreds of hours of this game now, and I haven't really messed with Sonny is drinking straight out of the bottle. I have not messed with the settings on that. So I, I tend to just play continents starting in ancient and, and I always get mad if I get stuck on a continent by myself at the beginning, because then I have to build a Navy and I hate building navies and.
Vic00:21:19Anyhow, I, you know, really quick, really quick. And then, uh, we'll, we'll move on. I I've played as a Syria and I liked them cause you get the battering Ram.
Guest00:21:30Oh, but I always hate when they're next to me. Cause then I know I'm going to die. It's them and Alexander of, and I know if either of them is my next door neighbor, when we start,
Vic00:21:39like it's a wipe, just, there's a, just walk away. I'm going to, they're going to kill you.
Sonny00:21:43Wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm sorry. I don't understand in, in sieve you, you, you play as a, as a civilization, but they randomly throw you onto the world.
Vic00:21:54Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And a randomly generated continent.
Sonny00:21:57That's that's re that's ridiculous. The whole reason, the whole reason many of these civilizations succeeded was because of their natural resources, which have to do exactly with where they were. Well, that's the thing. You don't
Guest00:22:07know what you're going to get when you get it. It's generated bias. So like as Egypt, there is a risk. It biases me toward probably starting near the desert. Um, oh, Petra. That's actually my favorite wonder. Oh yes. If I'm on desert and I can build Petra. Wow. That's my
Vic00:22:23favorite. Yeah. And you know, but don't go inside because only the penitent man shall pass. Sorry.
JVL00:22:29Okay. We're done nerding out. No, no, we're not. Kristen, do you, do you ever bail out on a, on a game early? Like, is there a point at which you'll, you will look at a game and say, all right, I'm only 25 minutes into this or two minutes into it or whatever, whatever length. And I already know, I just don't like this. I don't like the setup. I don't like the geography I'm out. I'm going to start over. Do you ever do that? I try not to, because
Guest00:22:54I view it as a moral failing if I do, but I do, especially if for instance, they, I am Egypt and they stick me in Tundra at the beginning. Then I'm like, well, what the heck am I supposed to do? You know? So that kind of a thing, like when it's just, this is going to be four hours of misery in my life that I don't need sunk cost, walk away, just restart life's too short.
Vic00:23:19Best show, best show ever. Thank you. Thanks everyone for listening. Okay. That's it.
Sonny00:23:25I'm going to make this the free episode that we put on iTunes just to prove how, how many people are driven to the show by it.
Guest00:23:38All right. I'm just grateful that you all have invited me onto the show. Cause I have to say, I was really reluctant to do this, not because I don't love you guys, but because I do listening to this show is a highlight of my week. And I hate the sound of my own voice. So this means that I won't be able to listen to the episode about this TV show that I love. I just have to remember this moment because I'll never be able to relive it.
Sonny00:24:04When I mix it, I can send you a Kristen-less mix. If that would make you feel bad. Honestly, might be great. Just one that's like, I'll do a special.
Vic00:24:12I mean, your husband will have to listen because when Kate listens to the show, I don't, but she, when she listens to it, she has headphones on and then I'll hear her chuckle and I'll immediately say, Oh, what part was that? Because I just want to know, was it me?
Sonny00:24:26Is it usually you guys? She's a good focus group then. Is it usually you? Yeah, that's right. You're the funny one. So that makes sense.
JVL00:24:32That's what she tells him anyway. Kate, listen, Kate's been around the block. She knows if Vic says, who was it? Her response is, Oh, it was you honey. Better be Vic.
Vic00:24:39Yes, of course it was you.
JVL00:24:40Oh, it was you honey. All right. So we are here this week to talk about Ted Lasso and I would like to preface this before we go to Sonny or Kristen for the big boy review. I don't know who we should go. Kristen, what did you just switch up to? You were doing red wine and now you are.
Guest00:24:57No, it was, it was beer. I was just drinking it out of a glass and then the glass is almost empty. And if I pour it, it makes a noise. And so I switched to the can. It is Cigar City Brewing Brown Ale Maduro.
Vic00:25:10Wait, save that for a Spirit of the Week.
JVL00:25:13Don't jump the segments newbie.
Vic00:25:17So I'm not sure who's doing the big boy. I don't know which of you is doing the big boy review,
JVL00:25:21but I would like to say I do not watch any series television. And the last two series television shows I have watched are all because of you KSA. And they are because you sat me down and said, you have to watch this. And the first one was Good Place. And now Ted Lasso. You're batting
Guest00:25:42a thousand in my book. Oh, that's wonderful. So in fact, I said
JVL00:25:47to to to Shannon, I said, so we should just only watch shows that Kristen is really, really adamant that we watch. That's that's we are metric anyway. So which of you two wants to do the big boy review? Because I assume Gene did not watch Ted Lasso. Sonny Kristen, Kristen, do you want to do
Guest00:26:07what? Come on. Come on. This is your you're here. Okay. Okay. Big girl review of Ted Lasso. Ted Lasso is a show developed by Apple Plus that is derived from a piece of intellectual property from NBC Sports from the early 2010s when soccer was having a bit of a moment here in the United States. Jason Sudeikis and one of his best friends created the character of Ted Lasso, who is an American football coach brought over to coach a Premier League soccer team in the UK. It is set up as a fish out of water, jokes about Americans not understanding things about the UK and vice versa, things about football in America being different than football in the UK. But where the show expands upon the original four minute YouTube video is that the premise is that Ted Lasso has been brought over on this somewhat ridiculous mission because the team has been taken over by the now ex-wife of the former owner. Who loved the team and the ex-wife would very much like to see the team fail. And so she has brought over this YouTube famous ridiculous coach in hopes of crushing her ex-husband emotionally and thus hilarity ensues. That's pretty good. That's good. That's a good review. It's a solid,
Sonny00:27:36it's a solid, solid review. So who wants to drive first? Victorino? Would you like to tell
Vic00:27:43us what you thought of it? Did you watch the whole thing? Of course I did. I got, I had to finish it. And so did, did you understand it? No, I could have used subtitles. There was a lot of, a lot of this in a little, and then, so there was a lot of that going on. And then, uh, and then of course, even, even Ted Lasso and his buddies, um, and his, the assistant coach, um, they talk fast and there's a lot of stuff that they say under their breath that I know is funny, but I just
JVL00:28:11missed it. And so you laughed anyway. I laughed anyway, because I said, this has got to be good.
Vic00:28:16Then sometimes I'll have to turn to Kate and say, what did he say? And then she'll tell me what they said. And I said, Oh, that is funny. And other times I'm like, I don't feel like rewinding and having to, so I miss it. But after a while you do get into the lingo and then it becomes easier to understand. And I have to tell you, I love this through and through. I really, really did because, you know, when you get the premise of it, you're thinking to yourself, okay, well, you know, we're familiar with this kind of thing before, whether it be major league, or even if you remember first and 10, you know, on HBO, you know, there's this an ongoing theme. Oh, you know, the woman owner of the team and she wants to see it fail or this or that. Okay, fine. But then it, it goes deeper. So it doubles deeper. And you think, you know, who Ted Lasso is, is sort of this caricature of this coach from Kansas. And then in fact, it takes a very serious turn, uh, more towards the end of, uh, of the series. And I thought, wow, uh, it was just giving more depth than I expected. And the other great thing about it is, uh, much like with Simpson characters that are very well developed over years, you really do enjoy the other characters. They're not just side characters surrounding Ted Lasso. You can have whole episodes devoted to these little subplots, whether it be, you know, Keely and Roy or Keely and Rebecca for that matter, or even Nate, I love Nathan, you know? And, uh, so all these little, uh, bit players are not actually been players. And as our friend, I, and I, it is Larry Miller, right? Who said, you know, there, um, no, no bit parts. You have to play your small character, your beat, you know, your, your, uh, character as the main, you have to think of him as the main actor. And I think that's what they do. It really works. And you develop real sympathy for some of these people. Um, so I really, uh, very much enjoy it. There
JVL00:30:11you go, Sonny. Yeah. So you're dead inside. Yeah. But yet this is a show for people with love in their hearts. Yeah. Well, this
Sonny00:30:21did you hate it? No, no. So this is what I, I, uh, I really liked about it was that, uh, it is, it's sweet without being saccharine. Uh, it is there, there is a, there is a niceness at the heart of it that is not, uh, that doesn't like curdle into like, eh, this is gross. It just is, is it's just constantly very, very nice. And like the reason it works is because Jason Sudeikis Is, is like a kind of fundamentally ridiculous person. Uh, went in his performances. I mean, this has always been, this is why I've always argued that he is the most underrated SNL cast member of the last, I don't know, 20 years or so after the, the will Ferrell era, because he is like, he, he commits fully to whatever bit he is in. And the bit he is doing here is essentially not football coach. It's not football coach. It doesn't sports don't really matter to this. He's he's a, he's a life coach. He's a, he's a, he's a Tony Robbins style figure. He's just trying to make people better, uh, better people, not better soccer players, not better football players, not better coaches, not better owners, whatever. He's just trying to make them better people. And it, it just, it, it really, uh, it really all works, uh, because he, again, fully commits to the idea of this guy as like, uh, as, as, as a nice dude who is, who's very, um, uh, very winning and very, very into it. Uh, I, I don't know. I, I like the whole thing. Um, I, there were little things about it that will, I will think about sometimes and they will just make me laugh. Like, uh, when Jamie Tartt scores the goal and he just starts pointing to the back of his Jersey, he's like me, me, me. And like, and the look on Jason Sudeikis faces, he's doing this. It's just like, it's also perfect. It's all there. There are these people who are either super self-absorbed or super not unsure of themselves or, uh, you know, doing things for the wrong reasons. And, and Ted Lasso, this character is able to pinpoint all of the things that are wrong and to fix them. Uh, and I, I just, I, I found it, I found it deeply, um, deeply pleasing to watch on an episode by episode basis.
Guest00:32:26What's so fascinating about that though, is the difference between the Ted Lasso that shows up in this series versus the Ted Lasso of the four minute NBC promo in 2013. So that promo in 2013 is, you know, he's playing it much more as. He's playing it with a little bit more of an edge. It's a little more aggressive. It's not really exuding nice so much as you know, arrogant, dumb. And, but I also remember thinking that that four minute ad from NBC was really funny. Um, and, and sort of being excited when I heard that there was going to be a Ted Lasso show, but when the first promo for the actual show came out, I was nervous that it wasn't going to be very good because, so I'll give you an example in the original. NBC four minute clip, that joke where he's, uh, you know, in the clip, he points at, um, a soccer player and he's like, well, where's he from? Is he from England? And the assistant coach says, uh, no whales, sir. And he goes, well, how many countries are in this country? And the response is for sir. And it like, it all just like zips really quickly. And then that same joke appears in the first episode of this Ted Lasso. And it was in the promo for the show. And it just, it, it played out slower. It wasn't as funny. And I thought, oh, this show is just going to be the reheated leftovers. They took a four minute thing that was good and they're going to try to stretch it into a show. And there's, I just don't know if there's going to be enough there. And so I did not, even though I loved that initial Ted Lasso clip and I thought it was funny and I'm interested in soccer and I vaguely followed the premier league. I just didn't think this would be for me. And so I was so surprised and delighted to see that they had taken Ted Lasso in this kinder, gentler direction. That actually makes it have so much more of a payoff in the end.
Sonny00:34:17Well, and they do that by, by foisting some of the harder edges off onto other players and under other characters like the, the old, the old soccer, what's his name? Roy Kent, who is, who is at the, at the end of his career and is like kind of, you know, angry that is being coached by Ronald McDonald as he puts it at one point, but who, who also still for all of his rough edges, you know, Reads, Madame L'Engle books, right? With his, with his, with his daughter wrinkle wrinkle in time. Yeah. And then, or nice, nice, nice, nice. And, or Jamie Tartt again, like kind of a harder edge. He's the, he's, you know, the brash upstart who is trying to, you know, carry the team on his shoulders and that knows, frankly knows that he's the best guy on the pitch at all times. But he still, you know, has that kind of vulnerable side to him who, as the season goes along, we realize, you know, he's, he's, he's got, he's got his own issues and around by his dad. Ted Lasso helps, helps him solve some of his issues. So I don't know. I liked it. I thought it
Vic00:35:27was great. Did you, did you like also the baby shark song remade as Jamie Tartt? Yeah. I had a question. Was it ever, uh, was the, was the promo on NBC, did they ever think it was going to be a show on NBC? Cause I could totally see this as a TV show on one of the three networks, but I, it would not have been as good because of language and
Guest00:35:50things like that. I'm not sure. I know that at one point I was reading about the origins of all of this and that Jason Sudeikis had been, I think living in the Netherlands with the guy who plays coach beard, the assistant coach in both the promo and, and in this, and that they had sort of cooked up this character from just learning about soccer while they think it was in the Netherlands. And so this was a character, it wasn't that they had developed this for NBC. It was something they had just sort of cooked up as, you know, buddies trying to get started in their careers. And then it, it's blossomed from there. I could totally see it. And you can tell too, something that I really love is the, the friendship between Ted Lasso and coach beard. It feels very real. And that's cause it is very real. I mean,
Vic00:36:34they are in real life, friends, the best of friends. And I think it really comes through
Guest00:36:38on screen. Um, cause I feel like they are all, I can see it like a nine o'clock, nine o'clock show. A real triumph of this show is that everybody behaves largely like a real person might, um, which is, is hard to do in a show that's trying to be so funny. But like, I imagine that Keely is exactly what I would get if I was, were to meet one of these wags, the wives and girlfriends of football players. Like I actually think she's just like such this charming, but, but when, when push comes to shove and these characters have conflict, some TV shows push it to weird extremes and behave so bizarre just to draw out the drama and something that's great about this Ted Lasso, the way they handle it is everybody behaves like an adult. Somebody does something wrong and they admit it. There is forgiveness. People move on instead of things that other shows I feel might draw out for.
Vic00:37:26That's right. You know, you're conditioned to, for example, I felt conditioned to hate Rebecca from the onset. Oh, I know what she's doing here. She's here. You're, you know, she's the villain and you're gonna, you know, and she's gonna do these terrible things and she'll be thwarted every step of the way. Ha ha. It's done in less than 30 minutes or less. And then they make you feel sympathetic to her for these little things, all these little slights. Okay. We understand that she's angry at her husband, her ex-husband, but then it builds until, you know, the final kicker, you know, at the, towards the end of the season. Spoiler alert. When, when Rupert says that he's having a, you know, in one of the worst things ever is, you know, I'm having a baby. Oh, you know, I just didn't want to have one with you, you know, and that's w and then you, you see her and you see how she's trying to hold up. And I thought it was great. And you mentioned Keely, uh, Kristen, I love her. I get it all out. I love her. The great Juno temple. She has a great line when they're going on their little trip to Liverpool. And Rebecca says, oh, no, you know, she, I don't want you to think that we like, oh my gosh, you know, the idea of like sharing a bed, like what would happen there? And Rebecca goes, oh, I mean, I just, just thinking about it. And Keely says something to the effect
JVL00:38:35of, oh, I've thought about it, but in like a positive way. So hot. I think my favorite Keely moment might have been when she is looking at the pictures of Rebecca topless on a boat and she, what is she saying? She says, I'm like, I'm like a teenage boy. I can't stop
Vic00:38:53looking at JVL. Did you like, did you like, uh, the Ted Lasso riff on practice? We're
JVL00:39:00talking about practice. Having an Allen Iverson bit in there was really quite delicious. And
Vic00:39:06we're supposed to assume that the, that we are talking about what he's talking about
Sonny00:39:10right. And he's like, do we think, do we, do we think that that, uh, that Allen Iverson speech exists in the Ted Lasso universe and that everyone is aware of it? But I mean,
JVL00:39:20do you think that the players don't know? Yeah, exactly. He and coach beard. No, that's right. That's right. That's what's funny. He's making a joke for him and coach beard and he keeps making it because nobody else is getting it. Nobody's got to get, he's going
Vic00:39:34over it over here and they're just staring at him. Right. So can I, can I go a little deep here? JVL, you didn't tell us more about like how,
JVL00:39:40right. What you think. So go for it. I propose to you the Ted Lasso is the rarest of birds, which is a television series, which inadvertently captures the zeitgeist of a moment in American history. Sure. Like mash, maybe like all in the family, maybe. And I don't think that it was intended to be this way, but Ted Lasso turns out to be the show for the year 2020 and I would make the argument in the following way. Uh, 2020 was about isolation, right? Because of the pandemic, we were all shunted into our little bubbles and I hear that many people did not like that. I thought it was great, but many people found it confining and alienating. And Ted Lasso is about first and foremost, the search for connection. It's about people trying to, to be connected to one another. 2020 was also marked by, uh, without getting too political, the worst internal divisions in America since probably 1865. Or so give or take. And Ted Lasso is about, uh, healing a workplace, which is full of deep divisions. The whole, the whole setup for the show turns out to be synecdoche for America in the year 2020. And the, the brilliance of it is that it sells you at least for the first episode and a half, maybe in the first two episodes on the idea that Ted Lasso is essentially Forrest Gump, that he's this idiot savant who, you know, walk through life and is making things better just kind of by magic. But he's not, he's really like a, a grand master, right? I mean, he's in total control. I think that they, the show finally, you know, there's so much show and don't tell in, in Ted Lasso. And the, the moment where I think they really make it obvious to the audience is where Ted and Keely are sitting, having that silly little debate about should she go as a Panda or a lion? And she's getting dressed up for some photo shoot. And it's a really funny bit between the two of them. And she's doing some great physical comedy and, and Jamie Tartt walks in and Ted says to him, would you rather be a Panda, a Panda bear or a lion? And Jamie Tartt goes, be Jamie taught, right? And it's hysterical, right? Cause the joke here is that Jamie Tartt is so self-absorbed that he says he'd just rather be Jamie Tartt. Why would he want to be a lion or a Panda? And Ted throws away this line where he says, you have no idea how healthy that is, do you? And that's the little moment where we are first shown. That Ted is actually smarter than everybody else. And the way he does it. Ted's superpower is that he is able to make people feel seen. That turns out to be the key towards the key to understanding the key towards rapprochement with people is simply helping people to feel seen. Because what Ted understands is that in this world, so much of our conflict comes from the fact that we feel as though we're invisible and that nobody else can see us and understand us. And one of the most beautiful things he does, he says to Rebecca, at the night of the big charity auction. And he afterwards he says to her, he said, I he says, I know you think that you're the only one who sees what he really is. But you're not right. That is the most comforting. Again, it is exactly what she needs to hear in that moment, because it's about seeing and being seen. There's
Vic00:43:33also and being seen. There's also a very subtle thing he does when he first meets Rebecca with Rupert at the same time there. You know, he's there standing and they're having this exchange. And Rupert has this very, you know, backhanded compliment to her. And he you could see he furrows his eyebrow like, oh, you know, that's not good. I mean, it was just, you know, because he's he's picked despite the fact that he puts on this big he has he has this shell and it's always smiles and confidence and optimism and witticisms. But, you know, he knows what's going on. And I tell you, you know, it the weight of being the eternal optimist, it's heavy. And every now and then you just have to just let it go. And he has that moment, obviously, during the karaoke thing when he has a panic attack and he can't you know, he just and he's middle of a divorce. He can't he can't keep it up anymore. It's heavy. As speaking as a fellow optimist. No, this is my work. Threatens to quit
Sonny00:44:28the show every six months. I can't do it once every six months. Vic calls us up in a tizzy. He's like,
Vic00:44:33I can't do it anymore. I can't do the show. I am so in fact, the three of you. I'm so tired of carrying
JVL00:44:38your dead, your dead inside souls. And I got to do this from ear to ear. Even the horror of a
Vic00:44:45podcast, even though you can't see me, it is hard work. And I so fully connected and related to Ted Lasso. And I love I love the character to pieces. But and I it is the show, you know, after the year we've had and going into who knows what's coming up next. It's definitely the show that we needed.
Guest00:45:03Can I? I'm sorry. Go ahead, Kristen. For me, it was it was around the third episode when he gives the so he for everybody on the team, he puts a gift in their locker and it's a book and it's not they don't all get the same book. They all get books that are sort of personalized to what you can tell he thinks they need to see. And of course, Jamie Tardif, you know, he doesn't care. He throws the book away. But Roy Kent, who is the old player who used to be great now, he's he's the team captain. He's kind of gruff. But, you know, he's definitely lost a step, as they say, and they give him a wrinkle in time. And, you know, they haven't really developed the Roy character up until that point. And he takes this book and the episode shows him mentoring or going to his niece's school for the day. And it's very cute. And the, you know, headmaster of the school says, oh, we've never had a player come stay this long. This is so nice to have a talk about. And at the end of the day, it's it's Roy Kent sitting in bed reading this book to his niece. And he gets to this part where basically they say, you know, he's reading this line. It can't be anyone else. It has to be me. And it all works for him, like exactly what's going on here. But throughout the show, they're dropping they you know, they drop a ton of like musical theater and just theater general, you know, references and things to to sort of show like Ted Lasso. Don't judge a book by his cover. He he can make one flew over the cuckoo's nest jokes, right? And like, you know, things like
Vic00:46:27that. Did you did you happen to catch the book that he did give Jamie Tartt? Wasn't it an F. Scott Fitzgerald? Yeah, it was the beautiful and damned. Yeah, it's fantastic. The
JVL00:46:37the wordplay jokes with he and Coach Beard are such a fabulous running gag, because they're so subtle, but you know, they got the boot and put your boots in a boot. And they're talking about the three. You can see these again, it's one of these gags where you can imagine the two of them making those jokes to each other over the course of 20 years. Yeah, you know, long before they show up in this television show that we're observing and then long afterwards. That's right. The chemistry is very apparent. I gotta say this is the first streaming show I have ever watched. Which felt every bit as lean as a top flight broadcast show. Did any of you notice that like there's there's no fat on any of these episodes? It feels it feels
Sonny00:47:32like a good HBO show is what it feels like. It feels like a V for Silicon Valley. Well, or
Guest00:47:36what I think it has a lot of DNA from is scrubs. So you'll notice that one of the I think executive producers on the show is Bill Lawrence, who is the guy behind scrubs. Zach Braff, I think directs the second episode. And there's the thing that I think is the most scrubs Ian about the show is the commitment to a really good soundtrack. I feel like TV shows don't do that anymore. They don't pay attention to making the music cues really just hit and scrubs was always very good at that. And it's a lot of this show is isn't it a lot
JVL00:48:11of that. So the theme song sounded to me like XTC. And I thought, Oh, they've got like they've gone back and gotten this great British pop and it's Mumford. Yeah, yeah. It's Marcus Mumford.
Guest00:48:23And they are do yourselves a favor. Boys, have any of you seen the music video for the Mumford and Sons song hopeless wanderer? Oh, no, but I guess let me guess who's in it. I go ahead. Well, guess who's in it? Jason Sudeikis, Jason Sudeikis, Jason Bateman. And oh, my gosh. Oh, Will Forte, the other one of the other SNL guys. It's the three of them. Do yourselves a favor. Stop. If you're listening to this podcast, press pause. Go find it. Go Google this. And it is it. So Mumford and the Mumford guy and Jason Sudeikis obviously have had a long friendship, too. And that I think that music just because they do they have like a score throughout the show. And I just
Vic00:49:06think it adds so much. It is. Absolutely. It's on a level with those shows and Big Bang Theory, too.
JVL00:49:16Wow. Yeah, I yeah, I just love the crap out of the whole thing. And it's earnest. And the other thing it does is that the show gives us what we need and not what we want. And again, a perfect example is the finale. Right, right. Spoiler alert everybody. I'm just assuming everybody has watched this whole thing where they lose the championship match, which is exactly what the story needs. The story needs them to lose. We don't want them winning. And it's not just that they lose.
Guest00:49:49They lose because Jamie Tartt learned the lesson. Yes, that's exactly. That Ted Lasso was teaching
JVL00:49:54him. You have to pass the ball. That's exactly because Jamie makes the extra pass, which is one of the reasons that Ted is able to walk away from that game genuinely happy. He helped him. Because he's what he genuinely likes is helping to coach people. And I would say I have one very serious complaint about it, which is that the show is deeply steeped into British culture. But there's one thing they simply refuse to do. Not a single use of the C word. Oh, oh. And Sonny,
Sonny00:50:31you want the Guy Ritchie version of this? I think you would agree with me. No, I agree.
JVL00:50:35I mean, this movie would have been this whole series would be 10% better if every other episode
Sonny00:50:40somebody said the C word. Of course. I mean, look, I've always you know, this I've always argued that America has a very unhealthy relationship with the C word that we should be much more like our British counterparts. My only it's my only it's my only real Britishism that remains from my time over there. But 100% there's everything would be 10% better with the
JVL00:51:01C word every every time you agree, right? Because when the British do it, it's okay.
Guest00:51:05No comment. I do wonder Vic in the quadrants. Yeah, there is discussion of female nudity. But but it's not seen there is however, it's another scene of male nudity. What does that mean? Like locker room when they're changing? There is a brief locker room scene is like a rear end. Yeah, it's not a lot. But I'm wondering how does that get calculated in your quad?
Vic00:51:28Well, you saw it sort of stretched out because we don't know what's going to happen in season two. So you know, jury's still out on that, that quadrant. Part. But so I look forward to Ted Lasso to back to the minors as it is,
Sonny00:51:39there was also there was also a very funny there's I'm thinking of the nudity. Now there's a very funny and telling bit very early in the show where he like puts tape over the tape over
JVL00:51:49the naked jury is a page three girl. Yeah, right. Exactly. And he's a page three girl. As she says, and the the bit where we see her having done a gig as the hotel channel
Vic00:52:04and the hotel channel is so funny. God, it's great. I would watch that over and over that channel. I love hotel channels. I just leave it on loop. I like the music of the hotel channels. I will say one of the like one of the most graphic, horrible things that JB Tartt said that was still nevertheless funny was when his Nigerian teammate was asking for advice. We're giving advice on how to be better. And he says, go back and go back in time and have your mother. Fuck Maradona. No. And he says, take a helicopter, go to Architeta and drop her on Maradona's cock. That's what he says. It's just like, wow, that was harsh, but funny.
Guest00:52:44So I have a question for you all in the magazine world, which is, or in the journalism world, just generally, we've spent time in that universe about Trent Krim. So in the show, if you're listening to this, I mean, again, I'm sorry, we've already spoiled it for you, but there's, there's a character who plays one of the reporters covering AFC Richmond. And it strikes me that Trent Krim seems very much like someone I can imagine writing for Rolling Stone. Uh, but it's hard. Does somebody like Trent Krim cover sports?
Sonny00:53:19I feel like in England, that is a much bigger beat than it, than it would be here. Like the, like the, the guy he's writing for the Telegraph, right? The independent or the independent. Yeah. Yeah. So he's writing for the independent. He's like their soccer guy. I feel like that's a pretty big, pretty big beat, but you're right though. He definitely comes across as like, uh, a, a like vanity fair style writer, much more than like a daily beat reporter.
Vic00:53:46But I will also say, you know, again, talking about the authenticity of all these characters, I, you know, I, that episode where he has the interview, you know, you can't help being in the line of work that we're in to watch him like a hawk. You know, it's like when you, if, if, if doctors see movies or TV shows and they can say, oh, that's not real this or that. And I'm looking at him and, and he totally pulls it off. I mean, that is exactly how that type of journalist would be and act and try to keep that separation. And he's not gonna,
Sonny00:54:14you know, and that's the piece he would write. It's what I, what I thought when I was, when I was, when I was watching it was like, that is, that is like how lay bash would scare square that circle between like, like realizing that this guy is a buffoon who was not qualified for his position,
Vic00:54:28but also like totally likable, but also how he comports himself, even in the casual setting like that restaurant, you know, there's still a little bit of that distance there. I mean, that's not how I am with my subjects, but you know, but you know, like a responsible
JVL00:54:41journalist, a responsible journalist would be, would be much like that. I said, that's spot on. It was spot on. Well, Vic, you're normally under the table at that point.
Vic00:54:51Michelle. Oh yes. Oh yes. Thank you. I'm on the floor. Okay.
Sonny00:54:55Michelle Richard. That's a man. All right. Thank you. I have no idea how we're doing on time,
Vic00:55:00by the way, because we have to splice splice this.
JVL00:55:03So here's a question we should be exiting. Is this the first legitimately great sitcom to come
Sonny00:55:14out of non HBO streaming mythic quest is also very good. Also on apple TV plus
Guest00:55:21I regret to inform you Sonny is right. I think Ted Lasso's better, but mythic quest is better
Sonny00:55:28than it has any right to be. I think it's very, very close. I mean, mythic quest is made by the guys who, uh, who made always sunny in Philadelphia, which I've always had a very soft spot for. Um, and it is very funny and it's the only show that has had a good, uh, post pandemic episode. It's a, it's the only, uh, show with a good lockdown episode. So,
JVL00:55:50so what do we think this means for apple is Ted Lasso, the kind of series, which we get people because I have over the last week since Christian blessedly made me watch this. I have proselytized to probably two dozen people and said, go sign up for apple plus right now, just for Ted Lasso, just for Ted Lasso. I can't imagine it's only one third of it. It's only one third of a max.
Guest00:56:17It got nominated for a golden globe. Didn't it? I mean, that, that is something
JVL00:56:21$5 a month when the max is $15 a month. Who would pay that for the max?
Sonny00:56:26More importantly though, everybody who has bought an iPhone or, uh, a Mac book, or other Apple gear of the last 18 months has come has gotten a like offer for essentially a free
JVL00:56:40year of apple TV plus. And I, uh, I just bought a Mac mini today. You are going to come with a free,
Sonny00:56:47you will probably get something. I mean, I, I swear to God. So I was, I remember I, I got my new phone right before the pandemic started right before the lockdown started. And it came with an offer for apple TV plus. And like, I just ignored it. Cause I was like, ah, apple TV plus there's nothing on here that I want. And eventually there are a little icon popped up. It was like, we are taking, this expires in six days if you don't activate us. I was like, all right, fine, fine. I'll do it. And I will say that like, again, genuinely, uh, mythic quest and Ted Lasso are probably two of my like three or four favorite shows of all of 2020. Um, the, the movies haven't been
Vic00:57:21terrible. I saw, I finally saw a great, I saw a Greyhound last night and I have to tell you, uh, the meat of it, we did a whole show about, I know I wasn't there for that. I wasn't there for that pod was there. It was you, you guys in pod, but I didn't listen to it cause I didn't see the movie. So I saw it, uh, just yesterday, uh, yesterday. And the, the meat of it is great, but it's so weird because you know, a lot of these war movies always feel like they have, this is a whole other episode by the way, but, um, they always feel like they have to pay, do some other like non-war non-battle scene that involves a wife or this and that. And, you know, and it's like, you know, how long, getting a woman on screen is like, no,
Sonny00:58:01no, no, no, no, no. Just stick with the Nazis. Yeah. Just stick with the Nazis. That's all we want. I wanted to see what's going on in the U-boat. I want to see what's going on in the U-boat. I want to, I want to, I am not satisfied with these taunts. I want to see the actual planning. Your comrades will die tonight. No, but I wanted to, uh, but, but then, you know, this was like the exact opposite where they tried to just throw in two minutes of Elizabeth shoe. And I'm like, what? Best choice. You could have held your breath for her scenes. Sonny,
JVL00:58:31Sonny, you said you got your phone right before the pandemic and it had an offer for apple plus.
Sonny00:58:37Uh, yeah, it had an offer for apple TV plus. It was like a free year or a free six months or
JVL00:58:40something. So Vic got his phone right before nine 11. And did that come, do you think that came with an offer for some day, 20 years from then, if they launched a streaming service, you would get a full
Sonny00:58:53year of that. That came with an offer for 20 free texts, 20, 20 free texts, but only send me texts because I don't want to pay for it. It was the keyboard where you had to press a three times.
Vic00:59:06I don't want to pay to get the right letter to get the right letter. As you know, there's only nine buttons there for that or plus zero, but I'm not, don't send me texts because I don't want, I don't want to get paid. Don't try. I don't get charged for the texts.
Guest00:59:19Well, I'm, I'm glad you all have phones because in the words of Roy Kent, it means you don't need a watch JBL. I assumed you enjoyed that little line when she's teasing him about your last girlfriend, your Rolex, it's sold it for drug buddy. And he's like, I don't need a phone and a watch. I thought, oh, I feel like Sonny has said that verbatim on this show.
Sonny00:59:40I mean, it's true. This is what you, this is what we're saying about the show. It has truth in it. This is how real people react to the world. You know, the watch, when you got your iPhone
Guest00:59:50full of great characters, something that my, my husband did note, by the way, that he appreciated as an apple fan boy is supposedly in every shot. You can see that people have phones in their pockets. Like that that's like a weird little like set dressing thing.
Sonny01:00:05Wow.
Guest01:00:05But that like, I don't think most TV shows think of, but like it's Apple. So.
Sonny01:00:10Well, Apple's very, very kind of Nazi ish about this. Speaking of that, they're all using the, all their laptops are, you know, obviously like, like Tim Cook has laid down rules about what sorts of characters can have iPhones and how everybody else should have iPhones. Like,
JVL01:00:26I mean, it's like, it's, it's crazy. Drug dealers use, use Samsung.
Sonny01:00:30They, they use Android platforms.
JVL01:00:33All right. Uh, enough Ted Lasso spirit of the week. I am drinking the Hardywood gingerbread stout, which I stockpile every December and I am onto my last four pack. Oh my gosh.
Sonny01:00:46Oh, I'm very, very sad. It's delicious. Uh, Kristin, can you please, now that it's the
JVL01:00:53appropriate time in the show, tell us what you were drinking.
Guest01:00:57Uh, yes, I am drinking a Cigar City Brewing Maduro Brown Ale. Does it mean it tastes like a cigar? No, well, it's, it's a brown ale. So it, I'll read you what's on the can. Named after a dark cigar wrapper, Maduro Brown Ale boasts notes of semi-sweet chocolate, toffee, and hints of fresh coffee. Okay. Thank you. I'm like, I'm like Keeley.
JVL01:01:22Sonny, what were you shotgunning there, big guy? Uh, I took a,
Sonny01:01:25I took my bottle of Kayo whiskey, uh, straight to the face. The Japanese? When you guys were talking about the Japanese, uh, I was like, can you say the name of that brand again, please? Kayo whiskey. Kayo. Uh, Kayo. Oh, yeah, it's the seven-year-old.
JVL01:01:40Don't spit it all over your microphone. You were so close.
Sonny01:01:44Uh, but the, uh, yeah, no, I, I actually did for the record, to everybody listening at home, the cork was in it when I mimed taking it to the face. I did not actually take it to the face.
Vic01:01:54Victorino, are you drinking? What are you doing over there? We can't even see you. I assume you're like, everybody should know
JVL01:01:59Victorino's camera has been broken for three weeks now. And so we can't see him at all. And I think that I may just send him a, an external camera to clip to his laptop. Do you have the clamshell, the clamshell MacBook? Do you remember those with the, the, the, the giant,
Vic01:02:18no, I'm using the cube. I'm using the cube, the neon green, the cube. No, I had a Beaujolais, but something light. Cause it's the weekday, you know, I don't start drinking in earnest until Friday. Isn't Beaujolais a scam? No, no, no, no, no. Good French Beaujolais is still good.
JVL01:02:32Are you sure? I thought Beaujolais was a scams like, Hey, let's take these grapes that we always used to throw out. Cause they're the first ones of the season to sell it to the Americans with a French name. No, no, no, no, no, no. They're good. I'm pretty sure I read the wine
Vic01:02:45guy and I have a Beaujolais. Also it was, it's, it's the everyday, very cheap wine. I'm not, it's not a shot enough to pop. It's just like, oh, I had to open it up. So there you go.
JVL01:02:56Corrections, additions, shout outs. The first shout out, of course goes to Kristin. Thank you for coming on the show with us today. It was fantastic.
Guest01:03:05It has been my honor, gentlemen.
JVL01:03:07Thank you so much. Anybody else have anything?
Vic01:03:09No, that's it.
JVL01:03:11Shout out to Chris Anderson for letting us borrow his wife for a little while. That's right. Hoya Saxa, Chris. Oh, sorry.
Sonny01:03:17I don't think that's how it works anymore. I don't think, I don't think that's,
JVL01:03:20you know. Okay. That's all the time we're giving to this episode, questions, comments, complaints, compliments, tweet us at Sonny Bunch at Victorino Matus. Kristin, do you want them tweeting at you or no?
Guest01:03:32Sure. @kseltisanderson, but don't complain about pictures of my dog because that's what you're
Sonny01:03:38going to get. So just know going in. And @jvlast. Make sure you ping @jvlast when you're, when you're tweeting at Kristin, because JVL wants to hear from you.
JVL01:03:46Please tag Kristin into the mega thread. She'll enjoy that.
Sonny01:03:50No! Leave a comment at subbeacon.com.
JVL01:03:53We're there. Tell your friends. Until next time.
Sonny01:03:58All right, Victorino, what do you got?
Vic01:04:06Do you really think I need a computer, a new computer? Because I'm using one from that belonged to the wife of listener Sean Hackbar. This is Alyssa Kadopio's computer, which must be from the last five years, at least, you know?
Sonny01:04:22It's old. I mean, that, that is, and she probably got it from somebody else who worked at the beacon before that. So like, that is probably an original Washington free beacon laptop. God only knows what sort of
Vic01:04:34spyware and other stuff is on there. Don't go there. I think it's fine. I don't know why you can't see me. Your computer doesn't work. We can't see you, Vic. It's not fine. I got kicked out of the iCloud, but it wasn't even for me. It was for Alyssa's iCloud. I don't know why. And Harrison's name is on it. I'm rather confused, but you know what though? I can still, I can see you guys. I can use word perfect on it. And also I can play my video games on here. I got Zork. I can play Zork and Karateka, which I used to call Karateka, as in it rhymes with erotica. That's a different. That's something else. I'm sure it's fine.
Guest01:05:21Anime.
?01:05:28Anime.
Guest01:05:58I do know, so JVL, this, I have to thank you. We are coming upon. My husband's birthday and you will recall that last year it was his birthday where you saved me from somebody wife birthday disaster JVL you turn on the recording.
JVL01:06:41Yeah, I did.
Guest01:06:43Well, keep going you saved me from wife birthday disaster because I knew my husband was kind of dabbling with the idea of becoming a watch guy and so at like 5:30 p.m. the night before his birthday. In New York City. I text JVL help I'm in a panic and he says you are a 15-minute walk from the Seiko boutique on Madison or Park or whatever it is walk or run don't walk and this is what you want you want this watch you want the grand turtle with the samurai so I don't even remember what it is. It's cool. It has a shark fin on it and he likes it you told me not to get one. With a cyclops. I didn't even know what that was. I was like arguing with the guy at the Seiko boutique. Like my friend told me I'm not supposed to get one with a cyclops and he's like they all come with a cyclops now it's cool your friend is wrong and now my husband's pretty obsessed with watches.
JVL01:07:44So what is the next purchase in the Anderson household?
Guest01:07:49So they are this is this is a like a long-term reach thing but he really likes Nomos watches. He's been like. Eyeballing them. Nomos Glashut. And tried a couple on his wrist. Yes. So that's his like that's his next reach.
JVL01:08:07Yeah. Stretch goal.
Guest01:08:09So. Oh. This is all your fault. Listening to this podcast over the years has been an incredibly expensive thing. I have a freaking Weber Genesis grill because of Vic. My husband buys watches because of JVL. You all have cost me so much money.
Sonny01:08:25I've not cost you anything for the record. She's going to get Japanese whiskey next.
JVL01:08:28She's going to get Japanese.
Sonny01:08:29Very cheap taste.
JVL01:08:30Oh, no, no, no. You don't. She has the one off steel box copy of Sucker Punch of Sucker Punch, which was cut for a single for the Shrek Shkreli Shkreli Shkreli, the Shkreli version of Sucker Punch for Zack Schneider.
?01:08:46Jealous.
Guest01:08:47I'm sure it's fine.
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