Review: Ted Lasso, "The Strings That Bind Us" | Season 3, Episode 7
If you cut this episode down to a reasonable length, maybe it wouldn't be so confounding
Sam Obisanya is the origin of the moment I disconnected from the general fanbase for Ted Lasso. Through the show’s first season, I feel like everyone was on the same page—albeit without any kind of weekly coverage dissecting the show—on the charm of the show’s characters and story, but Sam’s battle against Cerithium Oil was a critical turning point. Or, rather, how the show resolved that story was a bellwether moment for the series and the stories it wanted to tell.
For me, the way the writers introduced the idea of significant financial consequences for Sam’s protest and then swept the entire situation under the rug between episodes broke my trust in Ted Lasso. It reinforced the show’s desire to tell compelling stories but communicated a disinterest in addressing the implications of them, even when those implications would have clearly benefitted the character and story arcs involved. And this distrust spread to other stories, including Sam’s relationship with Rebecca,…