Ted Lasso went home, back to Kansas. Much like Dorothy, and Bernie Taupin, he realized his future lies beyond the yellow brick road. But he didn’t leave Richmond and its A.F.C., or us, unchanged. Much as he was Dorothy, he was a Mary Poppins figure, too – who flew into London to save the family, and left when he felt his time had come, and they were good without him. Starting out as a seemingly simple fish-out-of-water comedy about an American football coach being hired to coach a Premier League football club (actual football, not handball football), it was soon clear that the show was anythin ..read more

Written by Brendan Hunt, Joe Kelly & Jason Sudeikis  Directed by Declan Lowney Ted Lasso, as expected, delivered an almost paint-by-the-numbers finale – even if, or rather, exactly because they didn’t win the whole fucking thing. (Yes I know, we still don’t have official confirmation this is indeed the actual finale, but cast and crew were definitely saying goodbye, so for the moment,  so will I). Ted is going home, and there’s no fake outs about that, even though they were plenty of others. The TedBecca shippers are probably going insane right now, especially after both the hila ..read more

Teleplay by Joe Kelly Directed by Declan Lowney Last week’s quote of the week was “I’m sorry”, so it’s only logical that this week’s is “I forgive you”. Last week was also about fathers, and now it’s mothers, so we meet both Ted’s and Jamie’s Moms, finally – and well, it’s like reading the instruction manual as to why the two of them are nuts (affectionately). One of the ongoing narrative arcs about forgiveness is obviously Nate. Even though I know a lot of people struggle with how his storyline has been handled, I think we have gotten enough puzzle pieces to actually justify a redemption – be ..read more

Press Gang’s final episode ‘There are Crocodiles’, written by Steven Moffat and directed by Bob Speirs, first aired on CITV on 21st May 1993. For anyone who doesn’t know, the show followed the staff of the Junior Gazette, a paper made by young people, initially while they wer/e attended their local comprehensive school, and then later on a more commercial basis. The final series starred Julia Sawalha as the brilliant but brutal editor Lynda Day, alongside Dexter Fletcher as head reporter and romantic sparring partner Spike, Paul Reynolds as the sleazy finance manager Colin, Lucy Benjamin as f ..read more

Written by Chuck Hayward Directed by Erica Dunton It’s the big coming out episode for Colin! And the best part of it is, it’s not that big in that’s a spectacle or massive drama. Actually, the person who struggles the most with it is Isaac, but not because he’s a homophobe, but because, as expected, he feels betrayed by his best friend. The tension between them remains palpable, so it’s still unclear going into the episode if he’s a homophobe – but the show wouldn’t let us down like that, and also not one of its Black characters. It would have felt off to make him a bigot generally, but especi ..read more

All good things must come to an end. And so it’s the case with Star Trek: Picard, and indeed for this podcast. With the crew of the Enterprise-D reunited, they must face off against their oldest enemy, and try and save Earth in the process. Yeah, it’s that old cliche. We’ll be discussing the final four episodes of season 3 and if they pulled off a successful final chapter for Star Trek: The Next Generation. P for Picard on Apple Podcasts P for Picard on Spotify P for Picard on Google Podcasts   The post P for Picard: ‘Dominion’ to ‘The Last Generation’ appeared first on The Spoilist ..read more

Written by Keeley Hazell & Dylan Marron Directed by Erica Dunton We open to Richmond on a winning streak, now that total football seems to work with Jamie as the key to it all – but that’s quickly sidelined in favor of several other plotlines. I see a lot of media and fans criticize and lament about episode length and especially time spent on certain plots weekly, and for the most part I don’t agree. This week was the second time after 3×05 that I have some gripes, but they are also already smaller after watching the episode twice. It was however the first time I have ever really walked aw ..read more

Written by Phoebe Walsh Directed by Matt Lipsey Well, that is not where I expected that episode title to go. Many people had speculated it would be about soulmates, specifically, Ted and Rebecca. While I still don‘t have particularly strong feelings about that, I cackled a lot at the fact that we do get Ted describing the Japanese folklore of invisible strings only for it to turn out to be about Roy tying the dicks of players together. (Not personally, presumably, but we didn‘t actually see that bit happening). Anyway, the episode is also about connection in a larger sense, as well as about bo ..read more

When the series finale of Star Trek: Picard began, our crew were at the stations on their old ship ready to take on the Borg. Well, everyone apart from Crusher who just stood there like Tawny Madison in Galaxy Quest. All of Starfleet has been assimilated and Picard’s son is the voice of the Borg, sending a signal from the Queen to control every human under 25.  How can we resolve all of this in just an hour? Turns out you can do it much quicker than that and then move onto a bunch of indulgent codas. The mission objectives are threefold. Riker and Worf must find the tech Maguffin on the B ..read more

Written by Jamie Lee Directed by Matt Lipsey Let’s do the time warp again. We jump ahead another 7 weeks, as Richmond’s luck has turned. Zava finally proves he’s a false God – he even says he’s not “a prophet”, because crucially, he “doesn’t believe, he knows.” Teamwork is what wins football matches, not ego trips, which oddly, even Zava himself affirms, and promptly retires. Not gonna lie, the fact that this was resolved so quickly and with so little conflict puzzles me, and is perhaps the only bit of this week’s increasingly unhinged discourse I keep reading unwillingly thanks to Elmo’s algo ..read more