For the long-awaited return of “Ted Lasso”, the image of the boss girl is taking the stage. Recently in past seasons of the Apple+ show, the lovely Keeley Jones (Juno Temple) made her way from powerhouse/model/soccer player to head of marketing at AFC Richmond.
Now in Season 3, after her success promoting the dating app Bantr, she’s striking out on her own by opening her own PR firm. In typical Keeley style, she does it with humor, style and her signature warmth. Kili is not like other bosses. She is a cool boss. But she is punished for that too.
At the end of the second season of Ted Lasso, many stories were in flux. AFC Richmond have been promoted to the Premier League. Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), the owner of the club, learns that her smug and promiscuous ex-husband Rupert (Anthony Head) has bought rival West Ham United – and the new head coach of West Ham is none other than Nate (Nick Mohammed). , the beloved kit man turned into a dark side, power-hungry prodigy. And the mysterious venture capitalist behind Bantr, the photo-free dating app made popular largely by Keeley’s efforts (and soon to become a reality via Bumble), wanted to fund Keeley’s own company.
Even when she was “only” an influencer, Keely always had a lot going on, balancing multiple projects and always thinking about the next step. That’s one of the reasons Rebecca hired her in marketing. But starting your own business turns into a whole other level of to-do lists — even having to schedule time to cry — and at the end of Season 2, fan-favorite couple Kiley and Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) found themselves in a strange position. Roy confessed his feelings to another woman, and Keeley stood by Nate’s kiss, which she definitely didn’t cause or encourage. Roy organized a surprise trip to see Kili to try and rekindle their love, but Kili was too busy to go and turned her down, prompting him, in his Kili style, to go alone.
She has no job and no home. She just has Kili.
Kiely has always been a leader – the boys at AFC Richmond are likely to follow her anywhere – but as a big boss she faces a shaky start. She’s a little insecure in season 3, which is a new place for the confident Keely. She has a fleet of employees who are quiet, obedient and timid. It’s not her.
Instead, Keeley is a man “without walls.” She is open, loud and loving. She doesn’t edit herself. She has no job and no home. She’s just Kili herself, which sometimes seems at odds with traditional office culture. She has her own big and imposing office with a door she doesn’t seem to like, separated from her employees who are in cubicles. She is eating lunch sitting on the floor when Rebecca, her former boss, forever mentor and friend, comes to visit her.
This is the key to Kili. She is not pretentious. She doesn’t pretend.
Kili is younger, which is the surprising source of her strength. Also her ease and openness. She’s a fun dresser with enviable and sometimes outlandish outfits, including faux Easter egg furs, silk dresses with animal nightgowns, huge hoops and high hair. Rebecca, older than Keeley and certainly richer, dresses for respectability, with silk shirts and impeccably tailored skirt suits. Kiley dresses for. . . whatever. The day, her mood, myself And that’s the key to Kili. She is not pretentious. She doesn’t pretend.
In an interview with Refinery29, Temple said that in Season 3 of her character, Keely “had some really, really great moments as a boss — some more positive, others maybe have more challenging elements, but I like how she handles everything. I think she stays true to Keely all the time and handles things exactly the way she needs to.”
Her employees don’t seem to know what to make of her – and one co-worker, strict CFO Barbara (Katie Weeks) is critical of her – but like an Outkast song, Kiley is real: her talent, her energy and her genuine concern for those who is around her. She wants fresh flowers to make the office “fun and nice smelling” and tries to get everyone to call her by her first name.
Jeremy Swift and Hannah Waddingham in Ted Lasso (Apple TV+)Being the boss, Rebecca initially put up brick walls, especially keeping Ted at a distance until she learned to trust him (and his awesome cookies…I’m still waiting for the gluten-free version, Ted). But Kiely is an open book. She is open to you, whoever you are, and she believes in you. So she’s more likely to inspire her staff if they just let her in. As Temple told Refinery29, “(Kiely) knows firsthand that when someone believes that you’re going to do something, sometimes when you start believing too, you can make things happen.”
Not everyone is happy that Kiley will be a busy boss in the upcoming season, which fuels that old chestnut: that women can’t have successful careers and fulfilling personal lives.
And in that sense, she’s different from the boss girl, who had a rise, fall, and subsequent backlash after the term was first coined by Sofia Amorusa, the former CEO of clothing company Nasty Gal. Vox wrote about the decline of gurlboss, citing female-founded companies that were still “plagued by stories of bullying, brutality and overworked and underappreciated staff… As more and more of these stories surfaced, “gurlboss ” culturally changed from a noun to a verb that described the sinister process of capitalist success and empty empowerment of women.”
But nothing is empty in Kili. Her character there is it is good and so sincere, in wanting the best for you and wanting to help. She calls her strict employees “poets and geniuses.” Her offer of a solo vacation to Roy wasn’t an empty gesture, but coming from someone who understands the importance of self-care — just look at her legendary bubble baths and sacred alone time — how she thought he could take care of himself. That’s what she would do
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Not everyone gets or appreciates leadership the way Kiley does. And not everyone will be happy with Kiley being a busy boss in the upcoming season, fueling that old chestnut: women can’t have a successful career and a busy personal life at the same time.
If anyone supports and understands her and her ambitions, it’s Rebecca, who helps the young woman gain respect without stepping on her open-toed platform shoes. Rebecca shows what a good boss and teacher she is by not modeling “that’s the way” (sorry Mando) but that “that’s a way — and I support your own way and that you find it.’
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