I’m back from vacation!
I spent the last week exploring the Pacific Northwest - checking out the sights and sounds of Seattle, Portland, and everywhere in between. It was a much-needed vacation full of great food, a fun concert, some amazing scenery (seriously, Oregon and Washington are absolutely beautiful states!), and a wolf or two!
On my last full day in Seattle, I drove two hours north of the city to Anacortes, Washington - where the Predators of the Heart Wolf Sanctuary is located. I got to spend two hours hanging out in the Washington wilderness with a pack of wolves. Supervised visiting, of course. I was a little nervous before the trip as I received email after email from the sanctuary detailing the types of clothes I was not allowed to wear least I get attacked by a confused wolf. Leather, fringes, wooly hats with poof balls - all verboten. By the time I showed up, I half expected to be immediately pounced upon by a hungry wolf.
The wolves couldn’t have been more incredible, though. They were HUGE - but friendly and ready to pose for photos. If you’re in the Washington area, I can’t recommend the experience enough.
Speaking of wolves, WHERE WOLF is done! I mean, not done-done. I still need to get the book designed and there are a few supplemental pages I want to write and the book needs to be printed (which apparently is an issue right now as the comic book industry faces paper and shipping issues) but all 277 pages of the comic book are written, illustrated and lettered.
Creating WHERE WOLF this past year was an incredible learning experience. They say to get good at something you need to do it a lot and tackling a nearly 300-page graphic novel as my first attempt to create a comic book certainly taught me how not to do certain things. While there are certain parts of WHERE WOLF I would do differently in retrospect, I’m very happy with the end result and can’t wait to share it with you. I had a very promising meeting last week regarding the future of the project and I hope to have news to share about how you can read WHERE WOLF in the next few months.
Getting back from vacation has meant catching up on work, but also television. I finally had a chance to watch the last few episodes of TED LASSO’s second season over the weekend and I have thoughts.
SPOILERS FOR TED LASSO SEASON TWO BELOW
I loved it. A lot.
I particularly found the character arc for Nate (Nick Mohammed) compelling. I saw a lot of folks on social media shocked and outraged by Nate’s heel turn - and most amusingly, several of the most outspoken folks were themselves Nates! But, in fairness, I think a lot of us have an inner-Nate all-too-often.
When we meet Nate at the start of TED LASSO, he’s an eager, friendly, and affable assistant to the new soccer coach played by Jason Sudeikis. He’s quick to help in whatever way he can and, by the end of season one, his good work is rewarded when he’s promoted to assistant coach.
Throughout TED LASSO’s second season, though, Nate lets the power go to his head. He verbally abuses the young man who took his old job, is an asshole to the players he’s supposed to be coaching, and - by the end of the season - betrays Ted by leaking his mental health issues to a local newspaper before quitting the team to take a coaching position with a rival team.
During a particularly emotional confrontation between Nate and Ted, Nate lashes out at his former mentor - accusing Ted of abandoning Nate when he needed his guidance the most. I the end, it was Nate’s own lack of self-confidence that turned him into a villain. He was caught up in his insecurities and could not appreciate the trust Ted had put in his protege. In fact, to Nate, the trust was a trap - meant to trick Nate into failing. The failing would sting all the more because of the taste of success Ted had first given him.
This mentor/mentee failing out was in stark contrast to the arc for Keeley Jones (Juno Temple), whose personal success grew beyond the point where she was able to continue working for her personal mentor, Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham). There was a great line about how a great mentor wants their mentee to succeed on their own. Nate could not see that the independence Ted had given him was a good thing and that resentment (and fear) festered inside of him until it became something toxic.
To stumble in your personal growth because of a lack of self-confidence rings true. So many times I’ve found myself traveling down the path of asshole because I was insecure or jealous or afraid. Fear is the mind-killer, after all. Nate is not a bad person - not deep inside - he’s just a scared kid who suddenly found himself with adult responsibilities without a parent there to hold his hand and show him the ropes 24/7. He lashed out as a child would.
But here’s what really excites me - you know TED LASSO season three is going to be about Ted saving Nate from himself. And goddamnit if I don’t love redemption stories.
We have seen so many stories recently about good people being pushed past the point of no return and becoming villains. I’m tired of that trope. I want to see more stories about bad people learning to become better. More importantly, I want to see them being forced to do the work necessary to become better people. Because that road to becoming a good person is tough - it takes real hard work to make substantial changes to your personality and character. But if good people can become villains, villains can become good people. And if media can teach people bad habits, can’t it also teach them good ones too? Can’t a television show about an asshole learning to be a better person teach a real-life asshole a new (better) trick or two?
Anyway, that’s what I’m hoping the next season of TED LASSO is about. That’s what I’m hoping the last season of BETTER CALL SAUL is about too. That’s what I’m trying to make WHERE WOLF about.
I love stories but I love stories even more when they put good into the world. The world is full of assholes. I’ve certainly been one of them all too often. Let’s get some anti-asshole instruction manuals out there into the world.