Ted Lasso – TV Review
By Jackson Heller
As an aspiring comedian and television writer as well as a soccer superfan, Apple TV’s Ted Lasso sounded like a show made in heaven to me. After watching its first season and much of its second season, I can confidently say that Ted Lasso is an excellent, albeit not perfect, sitcom about the beautiful game.
Let’s start with what Ted Lasso does correctly. The character designs and casting are excellent, with standouts like Brett Goldstein as Roy Kent, Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso, and Hannah Waddingham as Rebecca Welton. The plot follows a recently divorced owner of a soccer team (played by Waddingham) who aims to bring AFC Richmond, the club her sleazebag husband loved so much, to the ground.
To do so, she brings in Ted Lasso, Division II College Football coach who knows absolutely nothing about soccer. It’s a bit of a dumb premise on paper but succeeds primarily through it’s characters. For instance, Ted Lasso, despite knowing nothing about the sport, manages to unite a divided team and turn an owner hell-bent on destroying Richmond into their biggest fan through his raw charm, enthusiasm, and sheer happiness.
Ted Lasso, while being a relatively cheery show in nature, doesn’t shy away from taking a very needed melancholy tone once in a while. Ted leaves behind his family and broken marriage to leave for England, leading to him getting a divorce midway through season one, a plot choice that I seriously commend for happening in the middle of the season’s arc instead of the finale. It’s refreshing to see a show take a risk once in a while. It isn’t just Lasso, however, who fights his way through sadder conflict.
Roy Kent, the hard-as-nails former Chelsea legend struggles with life after he retires. Star striker and certified egomaniac Jamie Tartt has to learn to mend the bridges he burnt with his former teammates all the while dealing with an emotionally abusive father. Rebecca’s ex-husband cheated on her with a string of young supermodels, leading her to question her self worth. In a show that is lauded for thriving in its most joyful moments, it beautifully contrasts them with real, raw, emotion that had me rooting for Richmond like a real soccer team.
Ted Lasso’s writing follows the common sitcom troupe of ‘found family’, where a group of outcasts and misfits comes together to form a lifelong bond and are usually held together by one central figure, and I think this is the best found family sitcom I’ve watched since Community. As it is a comedy, the jokes work well enough but I found myself watching more for the plot than for the humor.
As for my criticisms, I feel like Ted Lasso really only falters in its humor. I feel like the writers definitely could’ve handled the soccer aspect of the show better, as soccer is a sport packed with universal references and hilarious moments. The writers never really take a risk to go anywhere beyond “Ted doesn’t understand what this means”, which is funny, but it could be so much more. Compared to how well the risks paid out with the storylines (which are all excellent), I would’ve liked the writers to take one or two bigger risks with the jokes.
My main gripe with the show is that the writers will take on a tone of PG, maybe PG-13, and then they’ll throw in a R rated joke that completely breaks the comedic tone and rhythm. As someone who watched it with my family, it did little more than make me wince and wait for the scene to be over. Pacing can also pose an issue in some episodes, leading to meaningful conflicts being wrapped up in mere minutes, but the show’s short season length makes this almost a necessity.
All in all, Ted Lasso is a great sitcom story-wise, with engaging, relevant storylines and a wonderfully diverse cast of characters that really elevate a concept that could have been seriously mishandled. While the comedy certainly could have been better, it’s still levels above stereotypically bad comedy and functions well enough to compliment Ted Lasso’s real strengths and create a show well worth watching.
Final Score – 8.5/10