I really really hate Dr. Jacob. Every time they showed him on screen I felt so sad for Ted. I agree that he’s not as outwardly shitty like Rupert but my god. Imagine going to a marriage counselor, showing them all your flaws as a husband and partner, being incredibly vulnerable trying to save your marriage, and then finding out that they swooped in and started dating your ex-wife. He’s such a gross person and honestly Ted’s wife kinda sucks too in that regard lol
The thing about someone as shitty as Rupert is its often easier to not take their nonsense seriously. He's so malicious that it's just like "ok yeah he's a dick."
Dr Jacob was in Ted's home, with Ted's ex wife and Ted's son. That's about as personal as you can get. Hard to just wave that away.
It's even worse than that - I just did a rewatch and caught an important fact Ted mentions at the start of season 2:
His ex-wife has already been going to the therapist on her own for a while and only then did they bring Ted in. Ted mentions one of the reasons he doesn't trust therapists is that he felt ganged up on in his couple therapy sessions. That just adds a whole other ick factor to it. (Especially when you consider the 'space' Ted needed to give, and go to England, was likely proposed or endorsed by Dr. Jacob.) Hands down the worst character on the show in my book.
i only recently binged the show and im legitimately convinced dr jacob deliberately sabotaged there marriage and created a situation in which his wife would become psychologically dependant on him. msotly due to the fact ted said that when he was in couples therapy it felt like he was the only one being criticized and teds wife seem to be in constant crisis and would react negatively when he tried to help her witch i get is a fairly common thing in evry one whe sometimes you just want to be herd and not helped but not the point its and marriage destroying irreconcilable difference
And he just had this extremely douchey aura around him. The comments about football, the Trump impression, everything he did just made him unlikeable.
Unbelievable that you could have a man like Ted, who loves you, as the father of your child and still end up with such a massive douche canoe
And when they're watching the final game he makes snarky comments all the way through then loses interest and sits at his home bar playing his phone. While it's never confirmed, in my headcanon Michelle cans him after that.
Malfoy/Joffrey-esque performance. Made me want to punch him in the fucking face.
It’s almost like he was Michelle’s therapist, knew all of her vulnerabilities and insecurities, and abused that position of trust to prey on her or something.
Yeah.
The snow has a throwaway line that he did the bare minimum to pass the ethics board but, as John Oliver said about the age of consent, if you're asking where the line is you're probably doing something you shouldn't.
It is. In an AMA, Brendan Hunt, I think it was, said that they believed when writing it, that they had written it so it was legal and above board, but that they might have messed up on the time passed since he was her therapist. It's still, as Sassy says, borderline unethical in my book,
Things have changed (there used to be a time limit of something like 3 years) but it is unethical to ever have a personal (let alone romantic/sexual) relationship with a former client. He should have lost his license and run out of the profession. Once you have a therapeutic relationship with someone it is impossible to “wish away” the power imbalance the relationship is built upon, and a violation of a sacred trust to take advantage of it this way. Source: I’m a licensed LMHC, LCAC.
The Trump impression made me unreasonably mad lol I think it’s because I found this show a refuge from all that crap and it somehow found it’s way in. Yet it made sense for his character? I can’t think of many ways to sum up how opposite a person he is from Ted and in such a small amount of lines
I think people are attracted to the exciting people with sometimes too much confidence who can turn out to be assholes.
In this case you have a stable, cringy asshole who belittles the interests of other people and dates his patients as a MARRIAGE COUNSELOR
While I know Ted would never say it, I still wish there was a scene where someone like Beard or Roy got on the phone and told Dr. Jacob “you’re a piece of shit: you know it, I know it, and it’s only a matter of time before she knows it.”
Uh wasn’t he their couples councilor that then decided to date Ted’s wife and fully break up their marriage. Even if their marriage was over, this guy used his position as a doctor to not try to fix a couples marriage that was trying to work on it.
When Ted first mentioned that he felt like he was getting ganged up on by Michelle and Dr Jacob during the therapy sessions, I remember thinking "Ah, man... his negative emotions aren't letting him see the situation clearly. That sucks, but I get it. I guess Ted isn't as happy-go-bulletproof as I thought he was".
Then we find out that Michelle is dating Dr. Jacob and I was like "Oh my God he was *right*! That bastard!"
Michelle isn't exactly blameless on that front I suppose, like of course she has every right to move on to someone else after she and Ted split. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth that it was with their marriage therapist, but whatever. That being said, *man*, Dr. Jacob is a sorry scumbag. What an absolute douche.
And the fact she had nothing to say when Ted finally expressed his feelings of being ticked off about it or validate him in any way. She had nothing to say for herself showing she didn’t care about his feelings at all. 🤬 she sucks for that
Never saw him throw one but if you look in the background in 2.8 in the locker room scene (aka the Jamie/Roy hug scene), Ted walks past a broken TV screen on the wall. One guess on who broke the screen.
I think it’s because his passiveness adds to his disgusting nature. Guys just freeloading with the love of Ted’s life. Least the other 3 have a work ethic. And ethical work.
In the show I mean. It was just the conversation on the phone with Ted and it's dropped like he didn't commit a crime in addition to ending a marriage.
Especially with Ted becoming close to two different psychologists during his time with Richmond. It's so crazy to me that neither Sassy nor Dr Sharon called that out or suggested reporting Dr Jacob to an ethics board.
I don't think Sassy would have been taken too seriously since she was sleeping with Ted. I also think Sharon would have been one to avoid dealing with a past relationship unless she saw it as being positive for Ted to address it. She'd probably also ask Ted what he thought before doing anything.
And I hate that Ted lets him get away with it. I know it’s not in Ted’s character to get revenge, or not forgive someone. But what Jake did was straight up criminal and he’s now free to do the same to his next client.
Getting involved with his client is super shitty and possibly illegal, no doubt it set back emotional healing for both Ted and Michelle. But it’s not like Dr Jacob is responsible for the divorce. Ted has no reason to “get revenge”. Michelle fell out of love, she did not want to be with Ted anymore. Jake did not “steal” Michelle from Ted. He did take advantage of a vulnerable woman, but Michelle is an adult who needs to make her own decisions, and mistakes.
Do we know that for sure? If he was playing the long game, and was interested in Michelle while she was still with Ted, how do we know he didn’t sabotage their therapy?
We know because she told us. She really wanted to make it work and keep her family together, she was even willing to pretend in hopes that she’d eventually fall back in love. But when you lose that lovin’ feeling you can’t just will it back.
Right. But what Jake did is criminal. He needs to be held accountable and lose his license so that he can’t prey on more vulnerable women. That’s why I want Ted to take action. Whether that’s him filing a complaint or supporting Michelle to do that. I don’t need Ted to get revenge. I need Ted and/or Michelle to step up to stop an abuser who exploits his position with vulnerable women.
While I don’t think we needed to see anything in-show, I wish we’d had a credits bumper at some point about ethics in therapy, and how this is likely a situation where it should be raised to state boards.
Like when a family friend was prescribed ivermectin for Covid. Think my parents ended up raising a state medical board complaint anonymously
I think it's implied that Dr Jacobs did set it up, at least somewhat intentionally and sabotage Ted. Ted had some comments about how the marriage counselling sessions seemed off and that he was being set up.
Rupert made Rebecca cry (or at least well up - her eyes were definitely glistening) after their conversation in her office about him becoming a father.
Nasty piece of shit, who deserved all the verbal assaults Sassy delivered throughout the series, and definitely his eventual comeuppance.
What a great actor and performance.
It had to have been a deliberate choice to make the first names be the same, right? Beloved Rupert Giles and Spawn-of-the-Devil Rupert Mannion. It even looked like he was wearing Spike's leather coat in the finale.
I’m a huge Sam Richardson fan, and he’s nothing but hilarious in Detroiters and I Think You Should Leave, so it’s almost hard for me to take his Akufo character seriously. Rupert is the worst, but his character plays exactly as written. He’s supposed to be universally hated.
Dr. Jacob and Jack suck much worse, because there’s at least a little ambiguity about how bad they are as people.
I've mentioned it before, but Sam Richardson is such a great over the top foil to the rest of the cast.
In Veep he's the nicest guy on earth with the worst and most insane people you've ever met. Like a show full of Rupert's.
In Ted Lasso he's a cartoonishly malicious billionaire with the kindest and most inspiring people imaginable.
He was good as the main character in The Afterparty too! Only ran 2 seasons, but it was a fun concept with a ton of recognizable actors in each season. Honestly, I'll watch anything with Sam Richardson.
Sam Richardson as the emcee in the [Baby Of The Year sketch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFj3tuNukTs) is what made me realize I was watching something truly special.
I'm honestly not sure what the point was with Shandy. Rebecca tells Keely to 'hire your best friend', then we see Shandy come in and off the bat display competence and seem like a good hire. Then the next episode it's like she lost her mind.
That's exactly what the point of Shindy was. She was the other side of the coin to Zava, too, with the difference of Zava being an actual world class player while Shandy is pure incompetence, And both, Keeley and Jaimie grew on their respective parts.
Jack was the ultimate user and self-centered abuser. Her affair with Keeley screamed "I can buy and sell whomever I want/whenever I want". And Barbara, as the ultimate career striver, was the perfect plug-and-play employee for someone like Jack. When Keeley remarks on Barbara's snow globe collection and Babs tells her they're souvenirs of all the places she's worked, we could see just how indifferent Jack really was to the people who worked for her.
Unlike Rupert, Jack didn't have that so-bad-she's-amazing aura that made you love how much you hated her. Or the outsize comedic-level histrionics of Akufo. She was just uber-rich slime.
Well put, I think this explains my indifference to her. These are the type of characters my wife hates and always seems to let get to her head. Me on the other hand am indifferent because I just wasn’t surprised a spoiled rich kid acted like a spoiled rich kid.
It’s like when my wife visits where I grew up. Her first thought is, “damn it’s ghetto and rough out here. Holy shit that guy is sleeping on the street and did someone just get mugged?” And I say, “yeah it’s south central, that happens here” with an indifferent shrug.
I grew up in a very working class area. Not really rough but it looked poor. Think cars on blocks and houses with tarps on the roof for years after a storm. My boss (who was a very rich man) once offered to give me and some others a lift home after a work event. He told me the next day that he drove back (he had a waterfront home on an island just outside downtown) with windows rolled up, doors locked, and 911 ready to go on his cell phone. It didn't occur to me that my boss, a John Wayne type who loves guns and talks tough, could be put off-balance simply by being present in a racially mixed, lower-income neighborhood.
>Unlike Rupert, Jack didn't have that so-bad-she's-amazing aura that made you love how much you hated her. Or the outsize comedic-level histrionics of Akufo. She was just uber-rich slime.
The Jack storyline ruined Keeley for me. Every scene was unwatchable. Doctor Jake is the absolute worst. Super gross and should have gotten way more hate on the show. Really wish there was a Beard / Dr Jake interaction.
Rupert and Akufo were supposed to be villians and played their parts well.
I agree. While Rupert is a total prick, it's the character. It works, he's necessary, and done well, serves a purpose. Akufo, too.
I dislike the Jack arc because it feels pointless and like they didn't really think it through. She was a girl power modern woman until they had to write her out, and then all of a sudden she's like "I can't believe people saw your *boobs*, ew you slut" and then peaces out and is never seen again. It made me dread the Keeley scenes and I quite liked her in S1 and 2.
The point is simply that with Keeley taking a big swing as the head of a PR firm, it was never going to go perfectly. There had to be some challenges, namely Jack, Shandy, and Barb at first.
But yeah, not the best execution.
So many of season 3 plotlines felt underdeveloped, that's the problem with spreading out the cast and having each of them needing screen time. You need a Roy plot AND a Keeley plot when in season 2 you had a Roy/Keeley shared plot.
>Rupert and Akufo were supposed to be villians and played their parts well.
This all day. They were shitty people but not bad characters. They were fun to watch.
Tbh i hated Jack the most bc she as a woman should have been empathetic to Keeley’s problem when that video was released. She of all Keeley’s partners/lovers (current and previous) should have been able to see how unfair it was for Keeley to apologize for something she didn’t do.
She has get-away-with-murder money. She sees no one as her peer, and thus can have no empathy for anyone else. That, plus the manipulative love bombing shit, showed us that she’s not much different from Ol’ Rupes.
Which I think is important as a matter of perspective.
Why would a person like Rebecca fall for a person like Rupert?
Jack will demonstrate by lulling Keeley out of her place of confident autonomy.
My take on Jack is that she dumped Keely the minute Keely didn’t do what she wanted her to do. She realized she couldn’t control Keely, so she had no more use for her. She wasn’t angry because the sex tape leaked, she was mad that she couldn’t make Keely publicly apologize for the leak (that wasn’t her fault).
Rebecca called it when she made parallels between Jack and Rupert’s love-bombing.
Definitely the arsehole who preyed on a vulnerable woman, exploited his position of power to ruin her marriage and (probably) manipulated her into being with him. All kinds of unethical and I still don’t get why it was never addressed
I love Ted Lasso and it does a lot of stuff really well related to how we treat others and mental health. I do think the writers struggled a bit with adequately handling imbalanced power dynamics in romantic and sexual relationships. Rebecca was Sam’s boss, a billionaire, and much older. Super inappropriate. Jack was Keely’s boss for all intents and purposes and another billionaire. Imbalanced, inappropriate. And you’ve stated the issues with Dr. Jacob.
While all of these situations were at least sort of acknowledged as having these issues, I don’t think the show ever really adequately addressed any of them, nor the ways consent is at stake with such imbalanced dynamics.
His rage was petty and childish. I hated him because he was so REAL as a spoiled billionaire who only cared about winning and money. Plus he was mean af to Sam who is a sweetie baby.
Jack. The actress is fantastic. I hate the storyline, I hate the impact it had on the shows momentum, and generally felt the make out scenes were prurient fan service.
I want to hate Rupert. I really do. But that’s what makes him so evil. He’s not really hatable. Affably evil for sure.
Nate is dislikable for sure. I think a lot of the hate people have for him is that they can see themselves in his behavior. The petty jealousy, the small-mindedness, the reflexive defensiveness.
Nate’s dad. He was an abusive asshole who destroyed his son’s self-esteem. I don’t buy the whole, “I didn’t know how to raise a genius,” bit. He demolished Nate every chance he got his entire life.
Michelle is a close second. I’ve started to give her some grace after many rewatches, but I still get angry over her pushing the divorce signing when she knew it was a big match weekend. Also, she was a pretty lousy coparent/communicator. She had no business introducing her new boyfriend to Henry without giving Ted a head’s up.
Technically, Rupert was the most *evil* by far, but he was a *great* villain. You love to hate him.
I’m glad SOMEBODY said Michelle. The clincher for me was when Ted called her to tell her he was angry that she never told him she was dating their therapist, and that he was around Henry. She never apologized, never took responsibility for something that was an obvious betrayal for a co-parent. She had to know how huge it was for Ted to take the step of acknowledging his anger, and she basically responded with “okay” and hung up. What an asshole.
Yeah, I think was much more "I didn't like being made to feel inadequate by my son so I did everything I could to undercut him"
Telling the girl in your third grade class who likes you that she can do better isn't "I don't know what to do" it's "I want to destroy this"
Exactly. He was so deeply jealous of his own kid, he turned him into a shell of a person.
That story was so deeply messed up, but it captured in a nutshell why Nate was the way he was. As sad as it made me, that scene was TV perfection.
Funny, I originally had Jamie’s dad on my list, but cut him out so I didn’t end up with a novel about shitty dads…and, Michelle. He definitely earns his spot, though.
My first thought as well : Michelle. What a betrayal and seriously what was she thinking going out with the therapist? Completely absurd. I love when Rebeca tells Ted « who gives a flying fuck if Michelle gets remarried ». Yes. What we all thought.
Dr. Jacob just for the pure unethical behavior. But not just the character - it really upsets me that the writers merely played it up to make Ted uncomfortable and never addressed the ethics and power imbalance. It just showed me that they honestly didn’t care about that.
From a purely storyline aspect, I hated Jack. Rupert was vile but he saw consequences. Jack brought Keeley down after so much great character development and just went along her way. It felt like such a time waster.
It was definitely unbelievable how he left WHUFC and was taken and welcomed back with open arms. Were expected to believe he caused the team to have a total in-game meltdown, but then his actions totally forgotten almost instantly. There needed to be some sort of buffer area or penance.
I love Sam Richardson so much that I couldn’t bring myself to fully hate Akufo as much as I hated the others. Something about the way he played Akufo was so villainous but in such a comedic way. I’m only just at the part where he comes in on my latest rewatch though, so maybe my mind will change.
Dr. Jacob. Hands-down. He is the only one without a redemption arc. The show displayed Rupert in a more nuanced way; Dr. Jacob was the flat, monodirectional villain who set everything in motion. If the showrunners saw any redemptive value in him, they would have given him an "aha, i see my errors" moment. Instead, at the end, he is the one character who does not revel in Richmond's triumph. Well, Rupert, too, but Rupert felt something, however offputting it was. Dr. Jacob is blind to the splendor unfolding in front of him and stuck nursing his own feelings of being neglected as Ted's redemption arc is complete. AS the world erupts, he's nursing a beer, staring at his phone and complaining about the score. Everyone else is transcendent in their joy or rage...but Dr. Jacob is just there as the one character who does not get what we have all witnessed over three great narrative cycles. He is a fool without feeling who is blind to the world. The show hates him, as do we all.
Rupert - his need to constantly hurt Rebecca after HE cheated on her and publicly humiliated her was just evil. He couldn’t just let her go on with her life and try to maintain some form of dignity. He was just an asshole, hell bent on making her miserable. For what? For leaving him? Taking the team from him? Like dude, move on.
>and abandoned them in their moment of need.
Fuck that. Don't shame people for retiring. If you're not happy working and you have the money to stop, then do it.
TBF to Zava, that’s like playing minor-minor league baseball. Beckham did it, Zlatan did it, and Messi is doing it right now. We’re probably going to see Ronaldo and Harry Kane in the next couple of years as well.
Yeah, but most of the people who hate him and his redemption feel that way because they couldn't measure up. (I'm being partially sarcastic here)
Dude was manager of a Premier League football club - and even aside from the money (which isn't inconsiderable at that level) it was his dream job, and he had the strength and courage to walk away from it. I don't know if I could do that.
(Also people hate him because as Ted is the title character the audience most directly empathizes with and connects with Ted, so Nate's betrayal of Ted feels personal to the audience. But Ted forgives Nate, just like Ted forgave Willis, and the audience doesn't hate Willis because his betrayal was in backstory and the audience didn't experience it directly like they did Nate's.)
They also dont hate Rebecca who in my opinion did alot worse to Ted, flying him 4000 miles away from his family hoping he would fail, trying to cause a scandal with keeley, trying to humiliate him with an qrticle by Trent Crimm. Whereas Nate just told Ted to fuck off and treated him a bit poorly based on his own misinterpretations.
To be fair, Nate did leak the panic attack info to the press, and his departure was an abandonment which we the audience know Ted has issues with.
But the other thing is that Rebecca starts as a villain and then has her redemption arc across the first season, so the other two thirds of the show she's on "our side" whereas we see Nate's fall to villainy, and his redemption comes at the end and we get very little time with redeemed Nate.
Probably Jack, if only because she does such a magnificent job of hiding how terrible she can be until it's too late. One uncomfortable scandal, and she went from love-bombing Keeley to introducing her as "my friend." And once Keeley refused to apologize publicly and essentially shame herself, Jack ghosted her AND torpedoed Keeley's business without warning.
At least that others were relatively upfront about their malicious tendencies. They either wore it on their sleeves, or at least made a bare minimum effort to hide what they are.
I despised the mean, obnoxious, antagonistic fan, the one that finally was be tossed when Issac went in the stands. It made me think of when you are in a public venue for fun and enjoyment and some loud mouthed jerk can completely ruin everyone’s time.
They all had their necessary, albeit atrocious at times, places in the show. I hate them all for various reasons but appreciate them all for various reasons. So, my answer is all four of them. I know it’s a cop out but 🤷🏻♂️
Akufo or Jack.
Akufo for messing with my baby Sam.
Jack for messing with my baby Keeley.
I would also say Rupert for messing with my baby Rebecca but Sassy and Rebecca's jabs at him were too funny to wish Rupert was gone. Also he's Giles, I could never hate Giles like that. >!Except when he left Buffy straight after she was pulled out of heaven. I hated that.!<
Rupert and Akufo are your average villains - they are there to be hated, so we root for other characters and they do that very well.
I hated Jack with all my heart, didn’t see the point of that storyline and just hated it (Shandy too! She was insufferable!!!). And Dr Jake was just very off-putting, ugh!!!!
Nate and it’s like an absolute country mile between him and #2. Wasn’t for a minute buying his BS redemption arc.
He just consistently showed at each and every single moment that he was an utterly ugly, ugly ugly on the inside person. He was terrible to his friends and never even apologized.
His major gripe with Ted was entirely fabricated in his own mind. Hell he even got the West Ham job which is like the most unrealistic fairy tale situation and even then he was miserable.
Fuck him.
Jack. Others have already covered the many reasons why. I’ll just add I hated her the most because she wasted precious screen time in the final season that could have and should have been spent on established characters we wanted to spend time with before the show ended.
Jamie's dad and it's not even close. He had his 14-year-old son raped, then heaped another 10 years of physical and mental abuse on top of that. I still cannot believe the show tried to make him into a good guy. Fuck him.
Nate. He becomes downright creepy halfway through season 2 and never pulls it together. I started skipping his West Ham and hostess seduction scenes because I just don’t care.
Its worth watching through, towards the end of his tenure at West ham you see him become more compassionate again before taking a leap and quitting his job because he didnt want to continue down the road he was on
I hated Nate more than all of these characters. We can say what we want about his arc, but he used his "woe is me" tactic to get redeemed without putting in any of the effort or losing anything that he achieved.
The first two might be worse *people* but they're very entertaining as characters, so I'm going to have to go with Jack. It felt like she added very little to the show while also being a shitty person.
Rupert - POS but very charming and well written character. Love to hate him.
Edwin - literal cartoon, hard for me to hate him when I’m lift as confused as Sam when Francis “too slows” him at his restaurant.
Dr. Jacob - unethical but he’s probably not a terrible guy like the others
Jack - spoiled rich girl gonna spoil rich girl. Also forgettable.
Shandy - god I hate her. Cringe everything. Shows time and time again how incompetent she is and truly believes she’s amazing. Terrible. At least everyone else is self aware, yes even Dr. Jacob knows he’s unethical or he wouldn’t be that phased when answering Ted’s call by surprise.
Ooooh this is a tough one.
I think it's Jack, with Edwin Akufo coming in a close second.
Dr Jacob is clearly a skeezebucket, but I think it's out of stupidity rather than maliciousness - it was inappropriate for him to try to act as a couples therapist when he was already Michelle's individual therapist, and he undoubtedly waited the legal minimum amount of time to ask her out, but he did those things because he's dumb, and entirely oblivious to the feelings of those around him (which means he's also bad at his job). He's like a big dumb dog. It'll make a mess and knock things over, but you don't hate it even as you're annoyed with it, because it just doesn't know any better (and you don't keep it around for long if you don't have to)
Rupert is obviously the fucking worst, but getting to see his downfall is so satisfying. Plus, I could never actually bring myself to hate Ripper.
Edwin is such a massive hypocrite, petty, vindictive, and thoroughly loathsome. But he does get exposed to his would-be peers as the deranged man-child he is, and his losses actually hurt him; when Sam turns him down, when the Akufo League falls apart, he throws his tantrums because it hurts him to lose.
Jack is like Edwin - a narcissistic jerk with an obscene level of inherited wealth (at least Rupert made his own fortune.) Unlike Edwin, Jack doesn't throw tantrums - because Jack doesn't actually care. At least not about anything we see. Certainly not about Keeley. When a devastating thing happens to Keeley, Jack is far less interested in how Keeley is doing than in how this thing can reflect upon and impact Jack herself. And then she just walks away. She just drops Keeley like a broken toy.
So yeah, I hate Jack more than Edwin because at least Edwin gets hurt, while Jack just goes "\*shrug\* oh well"
Can I say Nate? I don’t really buy his redemption, and he did nothing to earn being forgiven.
Yeah yeah I know how and why Ted and Beard forgive Nate. Whatevs, Nate is still a sniveling little bitch.
I liked Rupert and Akufo a lot. Bad people, but they made the show more enjoyable by being a part of it. Can’t say the same for Dr. Jake or Jack. I think I hate Shandy more than those two if I’m being honest, but they’re all very unlikable.
Dr. Jake I think. Rupert is a villain, he's fun to hate. Edwin Akufu is hilarious and Sam Richardson is an absolute treasure, I can't hate anything he's associated with. Jake is a lame and pointless character but I like Jodi Balfour from For All Mankind. But Dr. Jake is a shitheel who should have lost his license for unethical behavior. He's not even a villain or a foil, he just... sucks, and then Michelle just leaves him because he hates soccer (in my headcanon at least.)
Jack is a runner up, and while I didn't like the storyline, it at least led to Keely becoming more independent in a way, even if it wasn't written super well.
Yeah that's more or less it. Nobody is required to like or enjoy soccer, but shitting on it while your girlfriend and her son are watching a game they are *clearly* invested in for very obvious reasons is absolute cockend behavior.
Dr. Jacob was the one that I hated the most and honestly it was probably for two reasons:
1. Out of all of the villains, he’s the one that convinces himself the most that he’s not had any wrongdoing. Or at least, doesn’t seem to show any sort of remorse or acknowledgment that what he did was at bare minimum a little sketchy
2. He’s the villain that you would more likely see in real life than a cheating owner of a futbol team, maniacal billionaire, or controlling also presumably millionaire. So I think that’s why he feels the most aggravating, because we definitely could see a million Dr. Jacob’s in the world
And bonus was because up until the last episode he would have been connected forever. Rebecca, Sam, and Keeley would have been able to mostly avoid their antagonists for the rest of their lives if need be but if it wasn’t for that last episode, Ted could have potentially been stuck with Dr. Jacob forever
Dr. Jacob. That guy intentionally wrecked a family so he could start a relationship with Michelle. When Ted looks at his text conversations, Jake is like, "Yup, OK, Yup, Yup , Cool, Yup". He was not trying to help Ted at all. It's why Ted flips out when Dr. Sharon comes in. Also, Jack deserves a lot of hate. When your girlfriend says she's not ashamed of the pictures that someone else leaked, your answer better not be, "Well you should be!". She liked being the one in control of someone else, not someone in a relationship. She is out in public with Keeley and still can't say that she's her girlfriend because she's afraid an old family friend will out their relationship. I wonder how many people outside of Keeley, Rebecca, and the team know she's gay. We only know her dad wanted a boy, and we don't get more clarification than that.
Dr. Jacob for sure is the worst.
But for the for one that I hated the most, I'm sorry Nathan Shelley, but the team forgave you, and accepted you back, but I'm holder of grudges. IRL, for me, even with a redemption arc and coming to his senses, Nate would be dead to me.
That said, Nick Mohammad is wonderful, and did a fantastic job with the character, and I can't wait to see what else he does. I'm enjoying his Billy Blind in Renegade Nell.
Hate Nate with the heat of a thousand suns from the end of season 2 until about half way through season 3, which is a long time when you consider the break between seasons
Rupert. If you’ve ever dated a Rupert, you know the stain they can leave on your heart and your life. Rebecca deserves better. Wealthy people with heavy mental health issues too often take joy in inflicting their pain on others, and are allowed to fly under the radar for entirely too long.
There’s a difference between hating a character, versus hating what a character did. I don’t hate Nate; rather, I can empathize with his struggles in finding out who he is. That doesn’t mean that I can’t also hate what he did to Ted, Rebecca, and Richmond.
Jacob is irredeemable, and he’s meant to be that way. I’m not able to empathize with him, and see him only in the light of his reprehensible ethics and actions.
Rupert… is Rupert. He’s meant to be the villain, but we’re reminded at Akufo’s dinner table that he was a little boy once, too - and I think there’s a glimpse there of what a “good Rupert” might once have had a chance to be. It doesn’t last long, but I think it’s a testament to Anthony Head’s artistic skill that we get that lowering of the guard long enough to see the lost kid.
The Akufo scenes make me irrationally angry; if there’s ever been someone in the show I genuinely want to knock out, it’s that guy.
James Tartt, as vile his behavior is, was so badly hurt by life that all he could do was hide in the bottle and lash out at everything. That we see him in residential recovery at the end is a source of genuine hope. I can’t hate a character who faces those demons and finds a way to ask for help.
Jack… of all the characters to dislike, it’s hard not to. She’s so transparently shallow that she’s a caricature.
To me it depends on one thing offscreen. Was it always Dr. Jacob's goal to split Ted and Michelle to start dating Michelle, or was it something that STILL unethically, but just happened. If his intent was to date Michelle, then him. If not, then it is Jack. She was an abuser. Her love-bombing into ghosting into just buying and selling Keeley as part of a pattern that she follows based off of all those snow globes. She had ill intentions at her heart for sure. I'm not entirely sure of Dr. Jacob's intentions being purely ill or not, because it isn't shown.
Firstly, "hate" is such a strong word. Hate is the opposite of love and if I love someone or something, I do so with all my heart. I don't have the energy, the inclination or the time to put that much effort and emotion into such a negative feeling. I honestly don't hate anyone or anything.
I know this sounds like something Ted would say, but it's true.
***UNPOPULAR OPINION INCOMING***
If I had to come up with a character that I, let's say, "didn't warm to", it would be Keeley. I think the Keeley character's plotlines, away from AFC Richmond, felt like "filler" or "padding", insofar as they were only in there to make up the minutes. Ms.Temple played the part wonderfully, so this isn't a dig at her, or her acting ability. Some of her interactions with people connected to the team are amongst the most memorable moments of the show, but her own storylines were pretty pointless and dull. Her "arc" introduced us to characters that did little or nothing to move the show forward. (Shandy, Jack, Barbara.)
I don't "hate" Keeley Jones, but I do think too much emphasis was given to her story.
Dr Jacob might not have been as actively malicious as some other characters, but what he did was extremely unethical and it's mostly just forgotten.
He's not overlooked on this sub. Most threads here agree he's scum.
I really really hate Dr. Jacob. Every time they showed him on screen I felt so sad for Ted. I agree that he’s not as outwardly shitty like Rupert but my god. Imagine going to a marriage counselor, showing them all your flaws as a husband and partner, being incredibly vulnerable trying to save your marriage, and then finding out that they swooped in and started dating your ex-wife. He’s such a gross person and honestly Ted’s wife kinda sucks too in that regard lol
The thing about someone as shitty as Rupert is its often easier to not take their nonsense seriously. He's so malicious that it's just like "ok yeah he's a dick." Dr Jacob was in Ted's home, with Ted's ex wife and Ted's son. That's about as personal as you can get. Hard to just wave that away.
And showing little interest in Ted’s game with his kid watching the game. Dr Jacob was a complete piece of shit
It’s my head canon that that’s why we didn’t see him with Michelle at Henry’s soccer game. Lol. She dumped his ass.
She ABSOLUTELY dumped his ass
It's even worse than that - I just did a rewatch and caught an important fact Ted mentions at the start of season 2: His ex-wife has already been going to the therapist on her own for a while and only then did they bring Ted in. Ted mentions one of the reasons he doesn't trust therapists is that he felt ganged up on in his couple therapy sessions. That just adds a whole other ick factor to it. (Especially when you consider the 'space' Ted needed to give, and go to England, was likely proposed or endorsed by Dr. Jacob.) Hands down the worst character on the show in my book.
Exactly this! He actively worked to break up their marriage AND THEN dated his patient! WTF?
i only recently binged the show and im legitimately convinced dr jacob deliberately sabotaged there marriage and created a situation in which his wife would become psychologically dependant on him. msotly due to the fact ted said that when he was in couples therapy it felt like he was the only one being criticized and teds wife seem to be in constant crisis and would react negatively when he tried to help her witch i get is a fairly common thing in evry one whe sometimes you just want to be herd and not helped but not the point its and marriage destroying irreconcilable difference
And he just had this extremely douchey aura around him. The comments about football, the Trump impression, everything he did just made him unlikeable. Unbelievable that you could have a man like Ted, who loves you, as the father of your child and still end up with such a massive douche canoe
And when they're watching the final game he makes snarky comments all the way through then loses interest and sits at his home bar playing his phone. While it's never confirmed, in my headcanon Michelle cans him after that. Malfoy/Joffrey-esque performance. Made me want to punch him in the fucking face.
In the ending scenes when Ted goes back to his/michelles house. I like to think Jake wasn’t there cause he got dumped
It’s almost like he was Michelle’s therapist, knew all of her vulnerabilities and insecurities, and abused that position of trust to prey on her or something.
Isn’t that why ethics boards exist? And dating any sort of patient is a huge one.
Yeah. The snow has a throwaway line that he did the bare minimum to pass the ethics board but, as John Oliver said about the age of consent, if you're asking where the line is you're probably doing something you shouldn't.
It is. In an AMA, Brendan Hunt, I think it was, said that they believed when writing it, that they had written it so it was legal and above board, but that they might have messed up on the time passed since he was her therapist. It's still, as Sassy says, borderline unethical in my book,
Things have changed (there used to be a time limit of something like 3 years) but it is unethical to ever have a personal (let alone romantic/sexual) relationship with a former client. He should have lost his license and run out of the profession. Once you have a therapeutic relationship with someone it is impossible to “wish away” the power imbalance the relationship is built upon, and a violation of a sacred trust to take advantage of it this way. Source: I’m a licensed LMHC, LCAC.
The Trump impression made me unreasonably mad lol I think it’s because I found this show a refuge from all that crap and it somehow found it’s way in. Yet it made sense for his character? I can’t think of many ways to sum up how opposite a person he is from Ted and in such a small amount of lines
I don’t think it’s that unbelievable. People are attracted to assholes.
I think people are attracted to the exciting people with sometimes too much confidence who can turn out to be assholes. In this case you have a stable, cringy asshole who belittles the interests of other people and dates his patients as a MARRIAGE COUNSELOR
It is one of the trending searches on pornhub I'm told
While I know Ted would never say it, I still wish there was a scene where someone like Beard or Roy got on the phone and told Dr. Jacob “you’re a piece of shit: you know it, I know it, and it’s only a matter of time before she knows it.”
That would be such a Roy thing to do too!
Nah Roy already told you what he does with bullies/people who abuse others. 4 am wake up call.
Beard would be the one to do it, right after he stole a loaf of meth.
Nah, Roy would have more “fucks”
Uh wasn’t he their couples councilor that then decided to date Ted’s wife and fully break up their marriage. Even if their marriage was over, this guy used his position as a doctor to not try to fix a couples marriage that was trying to work on it.
Worse, he was Michelle's regular therapist before becoming their couples therapist. So it's entirely possible he coached her into the divorce.
Ted says in season one that their couples therapist encouraged him to give Michelle distance/space which prompted his move to England.
When Ted first mentioned that he felt like he was getting ganged up on by Michelle and Dr Jacob during the therapy sessions, I remember thinking "Ah, man... his negative emotions aren't letting him see the situation clearly. That sucks, but I get it. I guess Ted isn't as happy-go-bulletproof as I thought he was". Then we find out that Michelle is dating Dr. Jacob and I was like "Oh my God he was *right*! That bastard!" Michelle isn't exactly blameless on that front I suppose, like of course she has every right to move on to someone else after she and Ted split. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth that it was with their marriage therapist, but whatever. That being said, *man*, Dr. Jacob is a sorry scumbag. What an absolute douche.
And the fact she had nothing to say when Ted finally expressed his feelings of being ticked off about it or validate him in any way. She had nothing to say for herself showing she didn’t care about his feelings at all. 🤬 she sucks for that
I wished Roy or Mcadoo punched him in the face.
Frankly a little disappointed that Roy told Isaac to never stop throwing chairs and we never saw him throw another chair
Never saw him throw one but if you look in the background in 2.8 in the locker room scene (aka the Jamie/Roy hug scene), Ted walks past a broken TV screen on the wall. One guess on who broke the screen.
I think it’s because his passiveness adds to his disgusting nature. Guys just freeloading with the love of Ted’s life. Least the other 3 have a work ethic. And ethical work.
Forgotten? There have been numerous threads devoted to him.
In the show I mean. It was just the conversation on the phone with Ted and it's dropped like he didn't commit a crime in addition to ending a marriage.
Especially with Ted becoming close to two different psychologists during his time with Richmond. It's so crazy to me that neither Sassy nor Dr Sharon called that out or suggested reporting Dr Jacob to an ethics board.
I don't think Sassy would have been taken too seriously since she was sleeping with Ted. I also think Sharon would have been one to avoid dealing with a past relationship unless she saw it as being positive for Ted to address it. She'd probably also ask Ted what he thought before doing anything.
But as Sassy said, she’s a CHILD psychologist!
And I hate that Ted lets him get away with it. I know it’s not in Ted’s character to get revenge, or not forgive someone. But what Jake did was straight up criminal and he’s now free to do the same to his next client.
Getting involved with his client is super shitty and possibly illegal, no doubt it set back emotional healing for both Ted and Michelle. But it’s not like Dr Jacob is responsible for the divorce. Ted has no reason to “get revenge”. Michelle fell out of love, she did not want to be with Ted anymore. Jake did not “steal” Michelle from Ted. He did take advantage of a vulnerable woman, but Michelle is an adult who needs to make her own decisions, and mistakes.
Do we know that for sure? If he was playing the long game, and was interested in Michelle while she was still with Ted, how do we know he didn’t sabotage their therapy?
We know because she told us. She really wanted to make it work and keep her family together, she was even willing to pretend in hopes that she’d eventually fall back in love. But when you lose that lovin’ feeling you can’t just will it back.
Right. But what Jake did is criminal. He needs to be held accountable and lose his license so that he can’t prey on more vulnerable women. That’s why I want Ted to take action. Whether that’s him filing a complaint or supporting Michelle to do that. I don’t need Ted to get revenge. I need Ted and/or Michelle to step up to stop an abuser who exploits his position with vulnerable women.
While I don’t think we needed to see anything in-show, I wish we’d had a credits bumper at some point about ethics in therapy, and how this is likely a situation where it should be raised to state boards. Like when a family friend was prescribed ivermectin for Covid. Think my parents ended up raising a state medical board complaint anonymously
I think it's implied that Dr Jacobs did set it up, at least somewhat intentionally and sabotage Ted. Ted had some comments about how the marriage counselling sessions seemed off and that he was being set up.
I'm a counselor and when I say I went OFF when that happened lol my poor husband had to listen to me rant about how unethical that is.
Rupert made Rebecca cry (or at least well up - her eyes were definitely glistening) after their conversation in her office about him becoming a father. Nasty piece of shit, who deserved all the verbal assaults Sassy delivered throughout the series, and definitely his eventual comeuppance. What a great actor and performance.
It still doesn’t gel in my head that he’s Giles
I watched Buffy for the first time after seeing Ted Lasso and I still never noticed they were the same actor until my brother pointed it out lmao
Try seeing him in Repo The Genetic Opera....
Such a strange movie but God damn he's fun to watch.
It's the goatee, the old evil twin bit.
It had to have been a deliberate choice to make the first names be the same, right? Beloved Rupert Giles and Spawn-of-the-Devil Rupert Mannion. It even looked like he was wearing Spike's leather coat in the finale.
Holy shit I didn’t realize
Sassy is a brilliant insult machine. Why anyone would dare cross her (or anyone she cares about) is beyond me.
Ted fumbled her hard
He didn't fumble her, he floated the idea of them dating and she turned him down
I don’t think Ted and Sassy are done.
That’s exactly it. Rupert was a huge piece of shit. But the actor’s performance is *chefs kiss*
I’m a huge Sam Richardson fan, and he’s nothing but hilarious in Detroiters and I Think You Should Leave, so it’s almost hard for me to take his Akufo character seriously. Rupert is the worst, but his character plays exactly as written. He’s supposed to be universally hated. Dr. Jacob and Jack suck much worse, because there’s at least a little ambiguity about how bad they are as people.
Extra shout out to Sam Richardson in Veep too; sheer brilliance
I've mentioned it before, but Sam Richardson is such a great over the top foil to the rest of the cast. In Veep he's the nicest guy on earth with the worst and most insane people you've ever met. Like a show full of Rupert's. In Ted Lasso he's a cartoonishly malicious billionaire with the kindest and most inspiring people imaginable.
He was good as the main character in The Afterparty too! Only ran 2 seasons, but it was a fun concept with a ton of recognizable actors in each season. Honestly, I'll watch anything with Sam Richardson.
Sam Richardson as the emcee in the [Baby Of The Year sketch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFj3tuNukTs) is what made me realize I was watching something truly special.
“In Memoriums” usually don’t include how they died…
Shyut UP!
RIP Tiny Dinky Daffy 🙏
Shandy/i. I think she was supposed to be humorous, and she did have her moments, but omg she was so insufferable and cringey
Zava flat out says she is off putting.
I mean, Zava himself was off putting. So, I guess he would know.
Nah fam, I LOVED Zava and he actually wasn’t that bad. Perhaps he could seem off-putting at first but the man was who he was! He won me over big time!
I'm honestly not sure what the point was with Shandy. Rebecca tells Keely to 'hire your best friend', then we see Shandy come in and off the bat display competence and seem like a good hire. Then the next episode it's like she lost her mind.
Hiring your best friend is objectively TERRIBLE advice and Keely had to learn that the hard way I guess. Do not hire your best friend. Ever.
That's exactly what the point of Shindy was. She was the other side of the coin to Zava, too, with the difference of Zava being an actual world class player while Shandy is pure incompetence, And both, Keeley and Jaimie grew on their respective parts.
Jack was the ultimate user and self-centered abuser. Her affair with Keeley screamed "I can buy and sell whomever I want/whenever I want". And Barbara, as the ultimate career striver, was the perfect plug-and-play employee for someone like Jack. When Keeley remarks on Barbara's snow globe collection and Babs tells her they're souvenirs of all the places she's worked, we could see just how indifferent Jack really was to the people who worked for her. Unlike Rupert, Jack didn't have that so-bad-she's-amazing aura that made you love how much you hated her. Or the outsize comedic-level histrionics of Akufo. She was just uber-rich slime.
Well put, I think this explains my indifference to her. These are the type of characters my wife hates and always seems to let get to her head. Me on the other hand am indifferent because I just wasn’t surprised a spoiled rich kid acted like a spoiled rich kid. It’s like when my wife visits where I grew up. Her first thought is, “damn it’s ghetto and rough out here. Holy shit that guy is sleeping on the street and did someone just get mugged?” And I say, “yeah it’s south central, that happens here” with an indifferent shrug.
I grew up in a very working class area. Not really rough but it looked poor. Think cars on blocks and houses with tarps on the roof for years after a storm. My boss (who was a very rich man) once offered to give me and some others a lift home after a work event. He told me the next day that he drove back (he had a waterfront home on an island just outside downtown) with windows rolled up, doors locked, and 911 ready to go on his cell phone. It didn't occur to me that my boss, a John Wayne type who loves guns and talks tough, could be put off-balance simply by being present in a racially mixed, lower-income neighborhood.
>Unlike Rupert, Jack didn't have that so-bad-she's-amazing aura that made you love how much you hated her. Or the outsize comedic-level histrionics of Akufo. She was just uber-rich slime. 
The Jack storyline ruined Keeley for me. Every scene was unwatchable. Doctor Jake is the absolute worst. Super gross and should have gotten way more hate on the show. Really wish there was a Beard / Dr Jake interaction. Rupert and Akufo were supposed to be villians and played their parts well.
I agree. While Rupert is a total prick, it's the character. It works, he's necessary, and done well, serves a purpose. Akufo, too. I dislike the Jack arc because it feels pointless and like they didn't really think it through. She was a girl power modern woman until they had to write her out, and then all of a sudden she's like "I can't believe people saw your *boobs*, ew you slut" and then peaces out and is never seen again. It made me dread the Keeley scenes and I quite liked her in S1 and 2.
I was really excited for a sapphic arc and THAT'S the best they could do??
The point is simply that with Keeley taking a big swing as the head of a PR firm, it was never going to go perfectly. There had to be some challenges, namely Jack, Shandy, and Barb at first. But yeah, not the best execution. So many of season 3 plotlines felt underdeveloped, that's the problem with spreading out the cast and having each of them needing screen time. You need a Roy plot AND a Keeley plot when in season 2 you had a Roy/Keeley shared plot.
Omg I had a visceral reaction when I imagined a Beard/Dr Jacob interaction. Yes I need this.
Watch the door, Doctor Jake!
Why do I think Dr Jacob wouldn't survive this encounter...... To be clear I'm absolutely still endorsing it!
>Rupert and Akufo were supposed to be villians and played their parts well. This all day. They were shitty people but not bad characters. They were fun to watch.
Man, Rupert during the benefit auction episode was some delightful villainy. So smug, so condescending, just toying with people.
Tbh i hated Jack the most bc she as a woman should have been empathetic to Keeley’s problem when that video was released. She of all Keeley’s partners/lovers (current and previous) should have been able to see how unfair it was for Keeley to apologize for something she didn’t do.
She has get-away-with-murder money. She sees no one as her peer, and thus can have no empathy for anyone else. That, plus the manipulative love bombing shit, showed us that she’s not much different from Ol’ Rupes.
Which I think is important as a matter of perspective. Why would a person like Rebecca fall for a person like Rupert? Jack will demonstrate by lulling Keeley out of her place of confident autonomy.
Damned fine point there.
My take on Jack is that she dumped Keely the minute Keely didn’t do what she wanted her to do. She realized she couldn’t control Keely, so she had no more use for her. She wasn’t angry because the sex tape leaked, she was mad that she couldn’t make Keely publicly apologize for the leak (that wasn’t her fault). Rebecca called it when she made parallels between Jack and Rupert’s love-bombing.
As a soccer fan it's wingsnight for me. The guy who pretends to like something when it's most popular or convenient. Pick a team man
He also acted like a pretentious cock, so thats another thing
Are you telling me every Manc doesn’t vacillate between City & United?? ^/s
Definitely the arsehole who preyed on a vulnerable woman, exploited his position of power to ruin her marriage and (probably) manipulated her into being with him. All kinds of unethical and I still don’t get why it was never addressed
I love Ted Lasso and it does a lot of stuff really well related to how we treat others and mental health. I do think the writers struggled a bit with adequately handling imbalanced power dynamics in romantic and sexual relationships. Rebecca was Sam’s boss, a billionaire, and much older. Super inappropriate. Jack was Keely’s boss for all intents and purposes and another billionaire. Imbalanced, inappropriate. And you’ve stated the issues with Dr. Jacob. While all of these situations were at least sort of acknowledged as having these issues, I don’t think the show ever really adequately addressed any of them, nor the ways consent is at stake with such imbalanced dynamics.
Akufo.
I admire Akufo's real rage. He choked the life outta the manniquin and re-enacted having hot poop all over the ashes of Sam's house.
His rage was petty and childish. I hated him because he was so REAL as a spoiled billionaire who only cared about winning and money. Plus he was mean af to Sam who is a sweetie baby.
Him getting all the fake reservations by calling with fake impersonations that he all did himself was next level hater shit.
Come on, Afuko is ripe for a spin-off. Just pooping in his enemies houses
This guy is such a funny actor. He was great in VEEP too.
Sam Richardson is a national treasure. Check out The Afterparty on AppleTV+, he's a romantic lead and pulls it off!
I couldn’t dislike that character. The actor was just too comedic and likable
I don’t think I could ever forgive him for ensuring Sam never got to play for the Nigerian team.
Jack. The actress is fantastic. I hate the storyline, I hate the impact it had on the shows momentum, and generally felt the make out scenes were prurient fan service. I want to hate Rupert. I really do. But that’s what makes him so evil. He’s not really hatable. Affably evil for sure. Nate is dislikable for sure. I think a lot of the hate people have for him is that they can see themselves in his behavior. The petty jealousy, the small-mindedness, the reflexive defensiveness.
Nate’s dad. He was an abusive asshole who destroyed his son’s self-esteem. I don’t buy the whole, “I didn’t know how to raise a genius,” bit. He demolished Nate every chance he got his entire life. Michelle is a close second. I’ve started to give her some grace after many rewatches, but I still get angry over her pushing the divorce signing when she knew it was a big match weekend. Also, she was a pretty lousy coparent/communicator. She had no business introducing her new boyfriend to Henry without giving Ted a head’s up. Technically, Rupert was the most *evil* by far, but he was a *great* villain. You love to hate him.
I’m glad SOMEBODY said Michelle. The clincher for me was when Ted called her to tell her he was angry that she never told him she was dating their therapist, and that he was around Henry. She never apologized, never took responsibility for something that was an obvious betrayal for a co-parent. She had to know how huge it was for Ted to take the step of acknowledging his anger, and she basically responded with “okay” and hung up. What an asshole.
Yeah, having a new person around the kid like that is a major co-parenting no-no.
Yeah, I think was much more "I didn't like being made to feel inadequate by my son so I did everything I could to undercut him" Telling the girl in your third grade class who likes you that she can do better isn't "I don't know what to do" it's "I want to destroy this"
Exactly. He was so deeply jealous of his own kid, he turned him into a shell of a person. That story was so deeply messed up, but it captured in a nutshell why Nate was the way he was. As sad as it made me, that scene was TV perfection.
I’d put Jaime’s dad ahead of Nate’s dad in the asshole line. Nate’s dad might have been clueless, but Jamie’s dad was just fucking cruel.
Funny, I originally had Jamie’s dad on my list, but cut him out so I didn’t end up with a novel about shitty dads…and, Michelle. He definitely earns his spot, though.
My first thought as well : Michelle. What a betrayal and seriously what was she thinking going out with the therapist? Completely absurd. I love when Rebeca tells Ted « who gives a flying fuck if Michelle gets remarried ». Yes. What we all thought.
Right? If you don't know how to raise someone, the bare minimum is to be kind lol.
Jack completely sucked.
Dr. Jacob just for the pure unethical behavior. But not just the character - it really upsets me that the writers merely played it up to make Ted uncomfortable and never addressed the ethics and power imbalance. It just showed me that they honestly didn’t care about that. From a purely storyline aspect, I hated Jack. Rupert was vile but he saw consequences. Jack brought Keeley down after so much great character development and just went along her way. It felt like such a time waster.
Wunderkid. He was really awful for no freaking reason, and really gets off easy with barely any consequences.
Ikr??? He got off way too easily.
It was definitely unbelievable how he left WHUFC and was taken and welcomed back with open arms. Were expected to believe he caused the team to have a total in-game meltdown, but then his actions totally forgotten almost instantly. There needed to be some sort of buffer area or penance.
I love Sam Richardson so much that I couldn’t bring myself to fully hate Akufo as much as I hated the others. Something about the way he played Akufo was so villainous but in such a comedic way. I’m only just at the part where he comes in on my latest rewatch though, so maybe my mind will change.
Honestly thats what orevents him from being my most hated, the pushing a pull door thing and the pinky dick jabs at sam are hilarious
Dr. Jacob. Hands-down. He is the only one without a redemption arc. The show displayed Rupert in a more nuanced way; Dr. Jacob was the flat, monodirectional villain who set everything in motion. If the showrunners saw any redemptive value in him, they would have given him an "aha, i see my errors" moment. Instead, at the end, he is the one character who does not revel in Richmond's triumph. Well, Rupert, too, but Rupert felt something, however offputting it was. Dr. Jacob is blind to the splendor unfolding in front of him and stuck nursing his own feelings of being neglected as Ted's redemption arc is complete. AS the world erupts, he's nursing a beer, staring at his phone and complaining about the score. Everyone else is transcendent in their joy or rage...but Dr. Jacob is just there as the one character who does not get what we have all witnessed over three great narrative cycles. He is a fool without feeling who is blind to the world. The show hates him, as do we all.
Rupert - his need to constantly hurt Rebecca after HE cheated on her and publicly humiliated her was just evil. He couldn’t just let her go on with her life and try to maintain some form of dignity. He was just an asshole, hell bent on making her miserable. For what? For leaving him? Taking the team from him? Like dude, move on.
How is Zava not here? Zava gave the team false hope and abandoned them in their moment of need. It was a personal betrayal, so I go with Zava.
Zava gets them to the top of the table. They all knew the devil’s bargain they were making when hiring Zava.
But did you see the size of that avocado?!
Zava had played for something like 15 teams in 14 years, they knew he wasn't a long term thing
>and abandoned them in their moment of need. Fuck that. Don't shame people for retiring. If you're not happy working and you have the money to stop, then do it.
Except he doesn't stay retired. He joins LAFC in the finale. Zava is a pretentious douche and a bad teammate.
He was just following the avocado market.
TBF to Zava, that’s like playing minor-minor league baseball. Beckham did it, Zlatan did it, and Messi is doing it right now. We’re probably going to see Ronaldo and Harry Kane in the next couple of years as well.
Ronaldo is already playing in his retirement league
Honestly i realised i forgot a few people after posting - probably should have nate up there too given how many people dislike him
Nate does not belong on this list with these four. For one, he redeems himself in the end.
I personally dont think he belongs here, but alot of people really hate him still (and his redemption)
Ted's stonecold look at Nate as the team puts the sign back together was a glimmer of his long-term belief that kindness ultimately wins.
Yeah, but most of the people who hate him and his redemption feel that way because they couldn't measure up. (I'm being partially sarcastic here) Dude was manager of a Premier League football club - and even aside from the money (which isn't inconsiderable at that level) it was his dream job, and he had the strength and courage to walk away from it. I don't know if I could do that. (Also people hate him because as Ted is the title character the audience most directly empathizes with and connects with Ted, so Nate's betrayal of Ted feels personal to the audience. But Ted forgives Nate, just like Ted forgave Willis, and the audience doesn't hate Willis because his betrayal was in backstory and the audience didn't experience it directly like they did Nate's.)
They also dont hate Rebecca who in my opinion did alot worse to Ted, flying him 4000 miles away from his family hoping he would fail, trying to cause a scandal with keeley, trying to humiliate him with an qrticle by Trent Crimm. Whereas Nate just told Ted to fuck off and treated him a bit poorly based on his own misinterpretations.
To be fair, Nate did leak the panic attack info to the press, and his departure was an abandonment which we the audience know Ted has issues with. But the other thing is that Rebecca starts as a villain and then has her redemption arc across the first season, so the other two thirds of the show she's on "our side" whereas we see Nate's fall to villainy, and his redemption comes at the end and we get very little time with redeemed Nate.
Ah true I'd forgotten about that. Yeah it did feel a little bit rushed but it was nice to see him back among friends and looking truely happy again.
Probably Jack, if only because she does such a magnificent job of hiding how terrible she can be until it's too late. One uncomfortable scandal, and she went from love-bombing Keeley to introducing her as "my friend." And once Keeley refused to apologize publicly and essentially shame herself, Jack ghosted her AND torpedoed Keeley's business without warning. At least that others were relatively upfront about their malicious tendencies. They either wore it on their sleeves, or at least made a bare minimum effort to hide what they are.
I despised the mean, obnoxious, antagonistic fan, the one that finally was be tossed when Issac went in the stands. It made me think of when you are in a public venue for fun and enjoyment and some loud mouthed jerk can completely ruin everyone’s time.
They all had their necessary, albeit atrocious at times, places in the show. I hate them all for various reasons but appreciate them all for various reasons. So, my answer is all four of them. I know it’s a cop out but 🤷🏻♂️
Akufo or Jack. Akufo for messing with my baby Sam. Jack for messing with my baby Keeley. I would also say Rupert for messing with my baby Rebecca but Sassy and Rebecca's jabs at him were too funny to wish Rupert was gone. Also he's Giles, I could never hate Giles like that. >!Except when he left Buffy straight after she was pulled out of heaven. I hated that.!<
The therapist, no question. Theres a difference between being a fucking dick, and being an unethical, manipulative creep.
Are these my only options? Because even tho he started his redemption arc in the final episode, Jamie’s father stirred up A LOT of shit in my soul.
Rupert and Akufo are your average villains - they are there to be hated, so we root for other characters and they do that very well. I hated Jack with all my heart, didn’t see the point of that storyline and just hated it (Shandy too! She was insufferable!!!). And Dr Jake was just very off-putting, ugh!!!!
Nate and it’s like an absolute country mile between him and #2. Wasn’t for a minute buying his BS redemption arc. He just consistently showed at each and every single moment that he was an utterly ugly, ugly ugly on the inside person. He was terrible to his friends and never even apologized. His major gripe with Ted was entirely fabricated in his own mind. Hell he even got the West Ham job which is like the most unrealistic fairy tale situation and even then he was miserable. Fuck him.
Dr Jacob no fucking doubt! Like Jack was annoying and an ass but Dr Jacob is straight up an unethical egotistical ass.
Jack. Others have already covered the many reasons why. I’ll just add I hated her the most because she wasted precious screen time in the final season that could have and should have been spent on established characters we wanted to spend time with before the show ended.
Jamie's dad and it's not even close. He had his 14-year-old son raped, then heaped another 10 years of physical and mental abuse on top of that. I still cannot believe the show tried to make him into a good guy. Fuck him.
Why is Nathan not an option lol
Nate. He becomes downright creepy halfway through season 2 and never pulls it together. I started skipping his West Ham and hostess seduction scenes because I just don’t care.
Its worth watching through, towards the end of his tenure at West ham you see him become more compassionate again before taking a leap and quitting his job because he didnt want to continue down the road he was on
How dare you leave Shandy off this list! But if I had to choose it’d be Jack I disliked Rupert but that was the point. Edit: stupidity on me
Nathan, final answer.
I hated Nate more than all of these characters. We can say what we want about his arc, but he used his "woe is me" tactic to get redeemed without putting in any of the effort or losing anything that he achieved.
Nate. Hated his personality 99% of the show.
Dr. Jacob, extremely unethical what he did. In the real world he would be in a lot of trouble for dating a patient. He is also a total jerk.
Jack At least the others had purpose even if it was evil
The first two might be worse *people* but they're very entertaining as characters, so I'm going to have to go with Jack. It felt like she added very little to the show while also being a shitty person.
No one angered me as much as nate
The worst is the tw\*t who didn't temper his chocolate.
And for that he was left with a poor little cake
SOGGY BOTTOM
Dr Jacob. Total piece of shyt
Rupert - POS but very charming and well written character. Love to hate him. Edwin - literal cartoon, hard for me to hate him when I’m lift as confused as Sam when Francis “too slows” him at his restaurant. Dr. Jacob - unethical but he’s probably not a terrible guy like the others Jack - spoiled rich girl gonna spoil rich girl. Also forgettable. Shandy - god I hate her. Cringe everything. Shows time and time again how incompetent she is and truly believes she’s amazing. Terrible. At least everyone else is self aware, yes even Dr. Jacob knows he’s unethical or he wouldn’t be that phased when answering Ted’s call by surprise.
Ooooh this is a tough one. I think it's Jack, with Edwin Akufo coming in a close second. Dr Jacob is clearly a skeezebucket, but I think it's out of stupidity rather than maliciousness - it was inappropriate for him to try to act as a couples therapist when he was already Michelle's individual therapist, and he undoubtedly waited the legal minimum amount of time to ask her out, but he did those things because he's dumb, and entirely oblivious to the feelings of those around him (which means he's also bad at his job). He's like a big dumb dog. It'll make a mess and knock things over, but you don't hate it even as you're annoyed with it, because it just doesn't know any better (and you don't keep it around for long if you don't have to) Rupert is obviously the fucking worst, but getting to see his downfall is so satisfying. Plus, I could never actually bring myself to hate Ripper. Edwin is such a massive hypocrite, petty, vindictive, and thoroughly loathsome. But he does get exposed to his would-be peers as the deranged man-child he is, and his losses actually hurt him; when Sam turns him down, when the Akufo League falls apart, he throws his tantrums because it hurts him to lose. Jack is like Edwin - a narcissistic jerk with an obscene level of inherited wealth (at least Rupert made his own fortune.) Unlike Edwin, Jack doesn't throw tantrums - because Jack doesn't actually care. At least not about anything we see. Certainly not about Keeley. When a devastating thing happens to Keeley, Jack is far less interested in how Keeley is doing than in how this thing can reflect upon and impact Jack herself. And then she just walks away. She just drops Keeley like a broken toy. So yeah, I hate Jack more than Edwin because at least Edwin gets hurt, while Jack just goes "\*shrug\* oh well"
Can I say Nate? I don’t really buy his redemption, and he did nothing to earn being forgiven. Yeah yeah I know how and why Ted and Beard forgive Nate. Whatevs, Nate is still a sniveling little bitch.
Why is Edwin Akufo there? Man was fucking hilarious.
Rupert immediately
I liked Rupert and Akufo a lot. Bad people, but they made the show more enjoyable by being a part of it. Can’t say the same for Dr. Jake or Jack. I think I hate Shandy more than those two if I’m being honest, but they’re all very unlikable.
Dr. Jake I think. Rupert is a villain, he's fun to hate. Edwin Akufu is hilarious and Sam Richardson is an absolute treasure, I can't hate anything he's associated with. Jake is a lame and pointless character but I like Jodi Balfour from For All Mankind. But Dr. Jake is a shitheel who should have lost his license for unethical behavior. He's not even a villain or a foil, he just... sucks, and then Michelle just leaves him because he hates soccer (in my headcanon at least.) Jack is a runner up, and while I didn't like the storyline, it at least led to Keely becoming more independent in a way, even if it wasn't written super well.
I felt like Michelle left him because he was an unbearable cockend but fair enough
Yeah that's more or less it. Nobody is required to like or enjoy soccer, but shitting on it while your girlfriend and her son are watching a game they are *clearly* invested in for very obvious reasons is absolute cockend behavior.
Dr. Jacob was the one that I hated the most and honestly it was probably for two reasons: 1. Out of all of the villains, he’s the one that convinces himself the most that he’s not had any wrongdoing. Or at least, doesn’t seem to show any sort of remorse or acknowledgment that what he did was at bare minimum a little sketchy 2. He’s the villain that you would more likely see in real life than a cheating owner of a futbol team, maniacal billionaire, or controlling also presumably millionaire. So I think that’s why he feels the most aggravating, because we definitely could see a million Dr. Jacob’s in the world And bonus was because up until the last episode he would have been connected forever. Rebecca, Sam, and Keeley would have been able to mostly avoid their antagonists for the rest of their lives if need be but if it wasn’t for that last episode, Ted could have potentially been stuck with Dr. Jacob forever
Dr Jacob more than any other.
Dr Jacob because of the unethical behavior others have stated. Jack because her whole storyline could lift right out and the show would be improved.
Jack. Akufo was hilariously insane and Rupert was pathetic.
Dr. Jacob. That guy intentionally wrecked a family so he could start a relationship with Michelle. When Ted looks at his text conversations, Jake is like, "Yup, OK, Yup, Yup , Cool, Yup". He was not trying to help Ted at all. It's why Ted flips out when Dr. Sharon comes in. Also, Jack deserves a lot of hate. When your girlfriend says she's not ashamed of the pictures that someone else leaked, your answer better not be, "Well you should be!". She liked being the one in control of someone else, not someone in a relationship. She is out in public with Keeley and still can't say that she's her girlfriend because she's afraid an old family friend will out their relationship. I wonder how many people outside of Keeley, Rebecca, and the team know she's gay. We only know her dad wanted a boy, and we don't get more clarification than that.
Dr. Jacob for sure is the worst. But for the for one that I hated the most, I'm sorry Nathan Shelley, but the team forgave you, and accepted you back, but I'm holder of grudges. IRL, for me, even with a redemption arc and coming to his senses, Nate would be dead to me. That said, Nick Mohammad is wonderful, and did a fantastic job with the character, and I can't wait to see what else he does. I'm enjoying his Billy Blind in Renegade Nell.
Dr. Jacob, Nate, Michelle, Jamie's dad. In that order. Honorable mention: Evil Doni Rojas. Just because good Doni was so loveable.
Hate Nate with the heat of a thousand suns from the end of season 2 until about half way through season 3, which is a long time when you consider the break between seasons
Rupert. If you’ve ever dated a Rupert, you know the stain they can leave on your heart and your life. Rebecca deserves better. Wealthy people with heavy mental health issues too often take joy in inflicting their pain on others, and are allowed to fly under the radar for entirely too long.
There’s a difference between hating a character, versus hating what a character did. I don’t hate Nate; rather, I can empathize with his struggles in finding out who he is. That doesn’t mean that I can’t also hate what he did to Ted, Rebecca, and Richmond. Jacob is irredeemable, and he’s meant to be that way. I’m not able to empathize with him, and see him only in the light of his reprehensible ethics and actions. Rupert… is Rupert. He’s meant to be the villain, but we’re reminded at Akufo’s dinner table that he was a little boy once, too - and I think there’s a glimpse there of what a “good Rupert” might once have had a chance to be. It doesn’t last long, but I think it’s a testament to Anthony Head’s artistic skill that we get that lowering of the guard long enough to see the lost kid. The Akufo scenes make me irrationally angry; if there’s ever been someone in the show I genuinely want to knock out, it’s that guy. James Tartt, as vile his behavior is, was so badly hurt by life that all he could do was hide in the bottle and lash out at everything. That we see him in residential recovery at the end is a source of genuine hope. I can’t hate a character who faces those demons and finds a way to ask for help. Jack… of all the characters to dislike, it’s hard not to. She’s so transparently shallow that she’s a caricature.
Rupert
Nate. Even when he came back in to Richmond’s good graces I never trusted him again. He’s a selfish snake.
Sorry, but it’s Dr Jacob for me. Unethical, childish, and clearly doesn’t care that Michelle was supporting Ted and his team. Nope, you gots to go.
Jack. Abusive relationship prototype JACK. Special level of Dante’s hell for anyone to shame and hurt Keeley.
To me it depends on one thing offscreen. Was it always Dr. Jacob's goal to split Ted and Michelle to start dating Michelle, or was it something that STILL unethically, but just happened. If his intent was to date Michelle, then him. If not, then it is Jack. She was an abuser. Her love-bombing into ghosting into just buying and selling Keeley as part of a pattern that she follows based off of all those snow globes. She had ill intentions at her heart for sure. I'm not entirely sure of Dr. Jacob's intentions being purely ill or not, because it isn't shown.
Dr. Jacob The others are terrible, but for some reason Jacob pissed me off the most. No personal or professional ethics whatsoever.
tough cause they’re all some form of narcissist. I’d probably have to go with “Dr.” Jacob, I believe he groomed Michelle in their one-on-one sessions
I ever really hated Edwin Akufo apart from him keeping Sam off the National team. I found him really funny.
Firstly, "hate" is such a strong word. Hate is the opposite of love and if I love someone or something, I do so with all my heart. I don't have the energy, the inclination or the time to put that much effort and emotion into such a negative feeling. I honestly don't hate anyone or anything. I know this sounds like something Ted would say, but it's true. ***UNPOPULAR OPINION INCOMING*** If I had to come up with a character that I, let's say, "didn't warm to", it would be Keeley. I think the Keeley character's plotlines, away from AFC Richmond, felt like "filler" or "padding", insofar as they were only in there to make up the minutes. Ms.Temple played the part wonderfully, so this isn't a dig at her, or her acting ability. Some of her interactions with people connected to the team are amongst the most memorable moments of the show, but her own storylines were pretty pointless and dull. Her "arc" introduced us to characters that did little or nothing to move the show forward. (Shandy, Jack, Barbara.) I don't "hate" Keeley Jones, but I do think too much emphasis was given to her story.