Ted Lasso Is the TV Comfort Food We Need Right Now
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On paper, Ted Lasso is not a show for me. A series that centers around a white man who is supremely unqualified for his job coaching a professional sports team is not something I’d typically seek out. Add in the fact that it’s based on a series of NBC Sports commercials from 2013, and I’m a little surprised I ever tuned in.
But word of mouth is a powerful thing. Over and over again, I had people telling me that I’d love it—and eventually, curiosity got the best of me. Once I pressed play, I couldn’t stop. I binged the entirety of the first season in a weekend, consuming each of the 30-minute episodes like one of Ted's addictive biscuits (cookies to our American readers).
My first impressions of the show weren’t wrong; Ted Lasso is undeniably about an unqualified white man learning the rules of soccer as he coaches it at the game's highest level. Jason Sudeikis (SNL, Colossal) stars as a folksy American football coach who moves to London to manage a team—that’s the show’s central premise. (Rebecca, the team's owner, played by Game of Thrones alum Hannah Waddingham, is trying to get revenge on her cheating ex-husband by ruining the team’s prospects. Hence, why she hired Lasso.)
Push past the sports-related plot points that whizzed right over my head, and the Coach Taylor in Friday Night Lights-esque inspirational locker room talks, though, and there’s a lot to like about the show: the dialogue is clever, and full of smart pop-culture references; the jokes are often delightfully weird; and the women characters (while few in number, and almost exclusively white) are complex and interesting.
More than anything, at its core, Ted Lasso is the story of a kind-hearted guy, who is relentlessly optimistic. And he's just so darn nice to everyone: baking treats for his boss on the daily, planning a birthday party for a player celebrating far from home, pretending to enjoy a too-spicy dish so as not to disappoint restaurant owners, befriending Nate, a low-level staffer, who is constantly being bullied—the list goes on and on. He sees the best in people, and inspires them to be better.
Ted Lasso falls into a particular category of comfort television that’s had a real moment over the past year: lighthearted shows that steer just shy of saccharine, but where characters are, for the most part, good, or trying to be better. Schitt’s Creek, which Lasso will go up against in Sunday’s Golden Globes, is a prime example. So is The Good Place. They’re escapist, and easy to watch, but they’re also sincere, funny, and hopeful. And as we approach the one year anniversary of the pandemic, a little positivity, even when it's masking hardship, goes a long way. If nothing else, the serotonin boost is well-worth the price of an AppleTV+ subscription.
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