Me rooting hard for Ted and Rebecca to stay purely platonic because how often we ever see that? Even Mulder and Scully ended up hooking up eventually. Only platonic male-female pairing from pop culture that come to mind from last 20 years is Harry and Hermione. Maybe Michael and Saru on Star Trek Discovery, but me not sure they biologically compatible.
I recently re-watched The Good Place with my kids, and we all agree Eleanor and Chidi have no romantic chemistry but high friend chemistry. Why couldn't they just be besties?!
admittedly I haven't seen the last few seasons, but what about Joan and Sherlock on Elementary? their relationship (a platonic friendship) is my favourite thing about the show
I haven't seen Yellowjackets and I never watched Lost back in the day, but your description of the supernatural element on the former sounds exactly like how I felt during season 1 of True Detective. The occult stuff was creepy and added great vibes to how some of the people on the show might view their world -- but there was a segment of the audience that was really clamoring for Carcosa to be made explicit as some sort of Lovecraftian dimension, and I felt like that would have just broken everything that the story was actually about.
Didn't know TedBecca was even a thing until I read this, but I get it. These are two lovely characters with a clear fondness for each other. Seeing them become a couple would certainly be romantic.
But much like you Myles, I'm really not liking the direction the show is taking Rebecca. Rebecca is (by sitcom standards, anyway) a fully drawn female character with a complete and complex life. The notion that all she needs to be happy is a baby and a husband is just.....ugh. It's a cliché, and a trope, and a horrible, horrible idea. Fingers very much crossed that's not where we are headed.
I totally agree with you on Ted/Rebecca. I fully support people shipping whatever they want in an abstract or fanfic way, but with the awareness that there are some ships that would destroy the show if they became canon. (I personally have been known to write fanfic about wildly random ships that I, for whatever reason, have deep feelings about, but I think it would be terrible and crazy for some of them to ever actually happen.) It goes against Ted and Rebecca’s arcs. It destroys the rare platonic friendship. It doesn’t feel supported by their interactions or the chemistry the actors have cultivated. It has many of the same problems as Sam/Rebecca.
I similarly would hate to see Keeley/Jaimie again, because it would make this wonderfully realized female character feel like a prize for his redemption (I’m not worried though; agree that it’s an obvious red herring).
That Hollywood Reporter article was a really interesting read. Overall, I can't think of any of Amazon's shows or movies that I've absolutely loved, or at least found really compelling. I've already stated my disappointment with the Lord of the Rings shows in the reviews, I don't like the story direction they've chosen at all, and it feels like the world they've created is really small in scope. I'm looking a t a list of shows on Wikipedia and it's mostly underwhelming. The Tick I liked and was cancelled, Wheel of Time was comparable to a SYFY show in writing and production, the Peripheral was ok, Bosch was solid, Night Sky was interesting but also gone, Boys was captivating at first but wore out its welcome quickly, I like Upload, one of these days I'll watch the Man in the High Castle and most of the others don't hold much interest. I can't say I expect much from their original productions at this point, unlike other platforms.
I can kind of see the appeal in shipping Ted and Rebecca, they're the closest to Mom and Dad figures in the show and having them together is satisfying from that angle, but I think Myles did a good job of pointing out why it doesn't really work.
I really enjoyed Undone! But I haven't gone back to Season 2. That might just be a testament to how little I think about the Amazon TV ecosystem - I just don't have a reason to log onto it regularly.
I think there's a lot of really banger content on Prime - Good Omens, Invincible, Underground Railroad, and I'm with you on The Tick are for me near the top. There was this period of time where Prime seemed to be really into weird, short, niche content (I still don't know how to feel about Forever, other than really loving the one 'Departure' episode).
While I don't get their strategy, I do think they have (likely totally by accident) done cool things. I'm just feeling more recently like the content is increasingly... bland.
Finding out that there are things like Ted and Rebecca shippers and people thinking dead Adam on Yellowjackets was secretly Travis's brother Javi and Shauna just didn't recognize him makes me really glad I'm not on Twitter.
“There’s no vision for what an Amazon Prime show is. You can’t say, ‘They stand for this kind of storytelling.’ It’s completely random what they make and how they make it.”
Maybe I'm in the minority here (and obviously I'm not a nameless Hollywood showrunner), but how many networks/streamers really have an absolutely concrete identity in terms of what stories they make? I would say HBO (prestige adult television), Disney+ (Franchise, Franchise, Franchise) and maybe Netflix (propulsive enough to keep wanting you to binge). But Hulu seems pretty diverse, Apple is somewhat all over the map too, let alone broadcast networks and basic cable channels.
As to Amazon, I'll never understand their decision to release Underground Railroad all at once. That definitely seemed like a perfect show for a weekly release. Sure it has a propulsive plot, but who wants to binge-watch the horrors of slavery?
On last night's WWE Raw, there was an announced main event that didn't happen, multiple matches that got scratched at the last second, a commercial free first hour that featured 90 seconds of wrestling, and use of the phrase "local medical facility". If that wasn't enough to tip you off that Vince McMahon was back in charge of creative, multiple industry reporters have confirmed with people in the company that he has taken the reins back from HHH. So don't hold out your hopes for much quality entertainment on the WWE front, Myles.
WWE has never been my pro wrestling cup of tea, but I do read recaps and occasionally watch clips of their shows because Vince's writing style reminds me of what the thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters must be making when they aren't accidentally writing the complete works of Shakespeare. It's a weird kind of anti-storytelling. Just watch night 1 of Wrestlemania and the Gunther/Sheamus/McIntyre triple threat and pretend that was the WWE series finale.
As far as Ted and Rebecca go, I do not go in for shipping or fan theorizing at all. I'm not interested in projecting my personal desires for a piece of media onto it as much as I'm interested in what story the creatives choose to tell and how well they tell it. In the case of Ted Lasso, I agree that a relationship would be antithetical to the emotional journeys for Ted and Rebecca as the show has been building them for two seasons, and that nothing that I've seen from the two of them would lead me to believe a romantic pairing was ever in the offing. If a show has to rely on a psychic's prediction to do the heavy lifting for a romantic pairing, then the show hasn't done the work to actually make that pairing a thing.
I was just having a conversation with family about how I can’t support Sam and Rebecca unless Sam plays for another team. It’s just not right for the reason you gave. I guess I missed that people are still shipping Ted and Rebecca? Maybe Season 1 I heard something but I have been less online for Season 3. I agree Ted needs to go back to America so that means nope. They could have a fling but it’s not an OTP. And that would just piss off fans.
As someone who referenced a possible Ted / Rebecca pairing in my comments on the last episode I feel called out. It's not something I feel strongly about one way or the other, but they are a hetero couple who are roughly the right ages / life stages to be mutually compatible. And whether they have romantic chemistry or not, they certainly have a lot of mutual respect and affection. So I think it makes perfect sense to consider a TedBecca ending to be on the table until the show definitively takes it off.
I really meant just baseline, on-paper compatibility based on demographics, not personality. Now, I do actually think Rebecca and Ted complement each other rather well and could make a good couple, which is where we probably have to agree to disagree. But based on today's episode it looks like they are going in a different direction anyway.
I'll admit I was shipping Ted and Rebecca back in season 1 and was convinced that was endgame (kind of especially when he slept with her friend whose name I can't recall) but season 2 took away from that. I've only seen the season 3 premiere thus far, but I agree everything about this show is taking Ted back to America and Rebecca to a future where she overcomes her instinct to be defined by a man (primarily Rupert, but it could go beyond that too.)
I am very happy for Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens and I'm sure that winning the main event of Wrestlemania with your best friend is an experience neither one would give up for anything, but the Sami vs Reigns build was too good for that not to main event at Mania. Then again, considering how the actual Reigns match played out, it was better that they booked Sami out of it.
Me rooting hard for Ted and Rebecca to stay purely platonic because how often we ever see that? Even Mulder and Scully ended up hooking up eventually. Only platonic male-female pairing from pop culture that come to mind from last 20 years is Harry and Hermione. Maybe Michael and Saru on Star Trek Discovery, but me not sure they biologically compatible.
There's Ron and Leslie from Parks & Recs, arguably Joey and Phoebe. But, yeah, it's a short list.
Also Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanov. That was nicely refreshing, even if the writers still made them make out for plot reasons.
I recently re-watched The Good Place with my kids, and we all agree Eleanor and Chidi have no romantic chemistry but high friend chemistry. Why couldn't they just be besties?!
And Tahani had chemistry with *everyone* and she end up alone!
Great point! Jason too really.
admittedly I haven't seen the last few seasons, but what about Joan and Sherlock on Elementary? their relationship (a platonic friendship) is my favourite thing about the show
I haven't seen Yellowjackets and I never watched Lost back in the day, but your description of the supernatural element on the former sounds exactly like how I felt during season 1 of True Detective. The occult stuff was creepy and added great vibes to how some of the people on the show might view their world -- but there was a segment of the audience that was really clamoring for Carcosa to be made explicit as some sort of Lovecraftian dimension, and I felt like that would have just broken everything that the story was actually about.
Didn't know TedBecca was even a thing until I read this, but I get it. These are two lovely characters with a clear fondness for each other. Seeing them become a couple would certainly be romantic.
But much like you Myles, I'm really not liking the direction the show is taking Rebecca. Rebecca is (by sitcom standards, anyway) a fully drawn female character with a complete and complex life. The notion that all she needs to be happy is a baby and a husband is just.....ugh. It's a cliché, and a trope, and a horrible, horrible idea. Fingers very much crossed that's not where we are headed.
I totally agree with you on Ted/Rebecca. I fully support people shipping whatever they want in an abstract or fanfic way, but with the awareness that there are some ships that would destroy the show if they became canon. (I personally have been known to write fanfic about wildly random ships that I, for whatever reason, have deep feelings about, but I think it would be terrible and crazy for some of them to ever actually happen.) It goes against Ted and Rebecca’s arcs. It destroys the rare platonic friendship. It doesn’t feel supported by their interactions or the chemistry the actors have cultivated. It has many of the same problems as Sam/Rebecca.
I similarly would hate to see Keeley/Jaimie again, because it would make this wonderfully realized female character feel like a prize for his redemption (I’m not worried though; agree that it’s an obvious red herring).
That Hollywood Reporter article was a really interesting read. Overall, I can't think of any of Amazon's shows or movies that I've absolutely loved, or at least found really compelling. I've already stated my disappointment with the Lord of the Rings shows in the reviews, I don't like the story direction they've chosen at all, and it feels like the world they've created is really small in scope. I'm looking a t a list of shows on Wikipedia and it's mostly underwhelming. The Tick I liked and was cancelled, Wheel of Time was comparable to a SYFY show in writing and production, the Peripheral was ok, Bosch was solid, Night Sky was interesting but also gone, Boys was captivating at first but wore out its welcome quickly, I like Upload, one of these days I'll watch the Man in the High Castle and most of the others don't hold much interest. I can't say I expect much from their original productions at this point, unlike other platforms.
I can kind of see the appeal in shipping Ted and Rebecca, they're the closest to Mom and Dad figures in the show and having them together is satisfying from that angle, but I think Myles did a good job of pointing out why it doesn't really work.
I really enjoyed Undone! But I haven't gone back to Season 2. That might just be a testament to how little I think about the Amazon TV ecosystem - I just don't have a reason to log onto it regularly.
I think there's a lot of really banger content on Prime - Good Omens, Invincible, Underground Railroad, and I'm with you on The Tick are for me near the top. There was this period of time where Prime seemed to be really into weird, short, niche content (I still don't know how to feel about Forever, other than really loving the one 'Departure' episode).
While I don't get their strategy, I do think they have (likely totally by accident) done cool things. I'm just feeling more recently like the content is increasingly... bland.
Finding out that there are things like Ted and Rebecca shippers and people thinking dead Adam on Yellowjackets was secretly Travis's brother Javi and Shauna just didn't recognize him makes me really glad I'm not on Twitter.
“There’s no vision for what an Amazon Prime show is. You can’t say, ‘They stand for this kind of storytelling.’ It’s completely random what they make and how they make it.”
Maybe I'm in the minority here (and obviously I'm not a nameless Hollywood showrunner), but how many networks/streamers really have an absolutely concrete identity in terms of what stories they make? I would say HBO (prestige adult television), Disney+ (Franchise, Franchise, Franchise) and maybe Netflix (propulsive enough to keep wanting you to binge). But Hulu seems pretty diverse, Apple is somewhat all over the map too, let alone broadcast networks and basic cable channels.
As to Amazon, I'll never understand their decision to release Underground Railroad all at once. That definitely seemed like a perfect show for a weekly release. Sure it has a propulsive plot, but who wants to binge-watch the horrors of slavery?
On last night's WWE Raw, there was an announced main event that didn't happen, multiple matches that got scratched at the last second, a commercial free first hour that featured 90 seconds of wrestling, and use of the phrase "local medical facility". If that wasn't enough to tip you off that Vince McMahon was back in charge of creative, multiple industry reporters have confirmed with people in the company that he has taken the reins back from HHH. So don't hold out your hopes for much quality entertainment on the WWE front, Myles.
WWE has never been my pro wrestling cup of tea, but I do read recaps and occasionally watch clips of their shows because Vince's writing style reminds me of what the thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters must be making when they aren't accidentally writing the complete works of Shakespeare. It's a weird kind of anti-storytelling. Just watch night 1 of Wrestlemania and the Gunther/Sheamus/McIntyre triple threat and pretend that was the WWE series finale.
As far as Ted and Rebecca go, I do not go in for shipping or fan theorizing at all. I'm not interested in projecting my personal desires for a piece of media onto it as much as I'm interested in what story the creatives choose to tell and how well they tell it. In the case of Ted Lasso, I agree that a relationship would be antithetical to the emotional journeys for Ted and Rebecca as the show has been building them for two seasons, and that nothing that I've seen from the two of them would lead me to believe a romantic pairing was ever in the offing. If a show has to rely on a psychic's prediction to do the heavy lifting for a romantic pairing, then the show hasn't done the work to actually make that pairing a thing.
I was just having a conversation with family about how I can’t support Sam and Rebecca unless Sam plays for another team. It’s just not right for the reason you gave. I guess I missed that people are still shipping Ted and Rebecca? Maybe Season 1 I heard something but I have been less online for Season 3. I agree Ted needs to go back to America so that means nope. They could have a fling but it’s not an OTP. And that would just piss off fans.
I do not ship Tedbecca.
If they got together it would probably be fine, but prior admonishments from Roy Kent render that an impossibility.
As someone who referenced a possible Ted / Rebecca pairing in my comments on the last episode I feel called out. It's not something I feel strongly about one way or the other, but they are a hetero couple who are roughly the right ages / life stages to be mutually compatible. And whether they have romantic chemistry or not, they certainly have a lot of mutual respect and affection. So I think it makes perfect sense to consider a TedBecca ending to be on the table until the show definitively takes it off.
Not an assault on you, the Decider article was the primary inciting incident. (That said, I don’t think they’re mutually compatible at ALL).
I really meant just baseline, on-paper compatibility based on demographics, not personality. Now, I do actually think Rebecca and Ted complement each other rather well and could make a good couple, which is where we probably have to agree to disagree. But based on today's episode it looks like they are going in a different direction anyway.
I'll admit I was shipping Ted and Rebecca back in season 1 and was convinced that was endgame (kind of especially when he slept with her friend whose name I can't recall) but season 2 took away from that. I've only seen the season 3 premiere thus far, but I agree everything about this show is taking Ted back to America and Rebecca to a future where she overcomes her instinct to be defined by a man (primarily Rupert, but it could go beyond that too.)
They’re called Premium Live Events, Myles! PLEs!! Everyone knows this.
You should watch Night 1. That had the show on track for the GOAT Mania.
I watched the Tag match.
I am very happy for Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens and I'm sure that winning the main event of Wrestlemania with your best friend is an experience neither one would give up for anything, but the Sami vs Reigns build was too good for that not to main event at Mania. Then again, considering how the actual Reigns match played out, it was better that they booked Sami out of it.