Wow. I mean, I was fearing what I think a lot of brits were with this show - the offensively unfunny Ted Lasso, in the real world.
How wrong I was.
The sheer emotional rawness running through this documentary is harnessed to absolute perfection, managing to tread a seemingly impossible balance between mirth & heartbreak with affectionate aplomb, rather than following the standard type and falling into the territory of ego-driven puff piece.
Going into this, I already had a lot of appreciation and affection for the two R's (particularly McElhenney, one of the great comedy talents of the 21st century), but I still expected a car crash. Instead, they've turned out the finest sporting documentary since the first series of Sunderland Til I Die. I just hope they make good on their word, and see this through as a long term project to rejuvenate the oldest football club in Wales.
My only bugbear? The subtitles. If Americans can't understand English spoken in its actual native accent? That's their problem, and pandering to that ignorance only further enables the enduring ignorance of American audiences to any outside culture. I already hate it when Britain's finest shows are remade (and dumbed-down) for a US audience, these days seemingly in an almost conveyor belt fashion where our finest exports aren't even broadcast in the US in their original form. This is another very typical example of that problem, and frankly - i'm disappointed. It's distracting, can't Disney provide an option for British audiences to remove the (frankly insulting and frequently inaccurate) subtitles? We don't have subtitles on American shows which dominate UK screens, so why do they need them for ours?
But yeah - beyond that, as a piece of work, it's really exceptional. Long may it run, and I mean that in every possible respect. But please ditch the subtitles.
How wrong I was.
The sheer emotional rawness running through this documentary is harnessed to absolute perfection, managing to tread a seemingly impossible balance between mirth & heartbreak with affectionate aplomb, rather than following the standard type and falling into the territory of ego-driven puff piece.
Going into this, I already had a lot of appreciation and affection for the two R's (particularly McElhenney, one of the great comedy talents of the 21st century), but I still expected a car crash. Instead, they've turned out the finest sporting documentary since the first series of Sunderland Til I Die. I just hope they make good on their word, and see this through as a long term project to rejuvenate the oldest football club in Wales.
My only bugbear? The subtitles. If Americans can't understand English spoken in its actual native accent? That's their problem, and pandering to that ignorance only further enables the enduring ignorance of American audiences to any outside culture. I already hate it when Britain's finest shows are remade (and dumbed-down) for a US audience, these days seemingly in an almost conveyor belt fashion where our finest exports aren't even broadcast in the US in their original form. This is another very typical example of that problem, and frankly - i'm disappointed. It's distracting, can't Disney provide an option for British audiences to remove the (frankly insulting and frequently inaccurate) subtitles? We don't have subtitles on American shows which dominate UK screens, so why do they need them for ours?
But yeah - beyond that, as a piece of work, it's really exceptional. Long may it run, and I mean that in every possible respect. But please ditch the subtitles.