‘Ted Lasso’ Did Wrong by Shandy

When we first meet Keeley’s old friend Shandy (Ambreen Razia) in Ted Lasso season 3, Shandy seems to have a good head on her shoulders. She offers an elegant solution to the problem of trying to get a hundred new extras for a commercial. She congratulates Keeley on making it out of the WAG (“wives and girlfriends” of footballers) world, and Keeley realizes that Shandy might have a promising future of her own, carving out a career based on her talents.

So Keeley hires her. The PR firm’s CFO, Barbara, isn’t pleased with the news—she calls out the fact that Shandy didn’t go to college, and more or less accuses Keeley of cronyism. As if the entire business world weren’t propped up by rich dudes hiring their comically unqualified frat buddies! But when an outsider brings on someone who seems to have a natural talent for PR, hiring a friend is suddenly a problem?

However, Shandy almost immediately proves to be an absolute disaster. She’s crass, reckless, unpredictable, and disrespectful. She changes Bantr’s tagline to “Wanna fuck a rich celebrity??” The last straw is when the firm loses a client because Shandy called them in the middle of the night to pitch a ridiculous idea.

When Keeley fires her in episode 5, Shandy flips out. She makes a scene in the office, and then brings in the lamb from the commercial shoot so that it can poop everywhere. It turns out Barbara was completely right.

Why did Shandy end up being a caricature?

In a show all about kindness, portraying someone as irredeemably bad is an extraordinary step—formerly reserved for Rupert. Even Rebecca, season 1’s villain, turned into one of the show’s most beloved and sympathetic leads.

Which is what makes Shandy’s departure so dismaying. What point did her character serve, exactly? To show how gross Keeley’s old friends are? To force Keeley to stop being nice and fire someone? There’s plenty of room for nuance for someone in Shandy’s situation, but instead, the series chose to make her a clown.

It’s possible that Shandy will come back in a later episode. After all, she did claim that she’s starting her own firm. But the blasé attitude with which Keeley loses a client and then gives an old friend the boot is just weird.

Even when Shandy started going off the rails, I hoped for a satisfying end to her story. Hopefully we still get it.

(featured image: Apple TV+)