Ted Lasso: The Scrappy Underdog of TV Shows
August 2020. 7 months of living in the pandemic and a virtually unknown show premieres on Apple TV. Within the times of work from home, social distancing and complete isolation, came a show that was about the humam spirit, positivity and acceptance. It brought people a sense of comfort within their homes, and helped them introspect about themselves”
Is what I would have said if I watched it during the pandemic. But unlike a lot of people, I first watched the show a week ago, and was in love almost immediately. When I tried to talk to my friends about it, a lot of their reactions were something along the lines of
“Oh you watched it now? Its a great show!
“Its a wholesome show. How are you watching it right now?
To be fair, there’s a lot of times I’ve entered the content bandwagon a bit late. I watched Game of Thrones, after a lot of people were done with it, I watched Suits quite late too. But none of them hit me quite as hard as missing out on Ted Lasso.
To be honest, I had my reservations as soon as I read the synopsis online. Ted Lasso is about a middle aged American Football coach, Ted (Jason Sudeikis), who is appointed as the manager of AFC Richmond, a middle tier club that plays in the English Premier League. He enters into the U.K having no prior managing experience in football, and the story follows Lasso’s attempt to bring a team together.
As soon as I read a brief synopsis, I was convinced that this would be the same old worn out sports drama. Lasso enters as a underdog coach, takes an underdog team all the way to a Premier League win, silencing his haters on the way. And sure enough, the first couple of episodes had me thinking that way. And boy, was I wrong.
It becomes immediately clear that the team has problems. They are a young, untested side, and their best player Jamie Tart (Phil Dunster) looks down upon them for being lesser talented than he is. He also has issues with the team’s captain Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein), who is a former Champions League winner and carries more experience than the entire squad combined. The rest of the squad is a mix of different players, and they are all adapting to the situation in the premier league. The one thing they all agree on, is that Ted has no job being there, due to his lack of experience.
But Ted perseveres through. He comes with a can do attitude, his layered humour and the kind of positivity that can lighten up a room. You don’t see Ted succeed right away. You see him struggle to understand simple football terms, drills and rules. He doesn’t make a breakthrough with the team right away or even the fans. In fact, towards the end, we see the team fighting a battle to not be relegated. So how does Ted make an impact?
He makes an impact in the best of ways. Despite not being familiar with the rules, he finds way to unite them. Like when he celebrates a young player’s birthday after a loss, showcasing how important it is to celebrate the little things. He wins over each player using his own unique style and brings the unity back in the team.
The show also explores life beyond the locker room. There is Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) the club’s new owner, coming to terms with her divorce. There’s Keeley Jones (Juno Temple) the happy go lucky model, who is dating Jamie and also making her peace with the fact that she isn’t as young as the other models on the current scene. Each character in the locker room is on a different journey and while they each have some kind of breakthrough during the course of the show, the story doesn’t fall into the happily ever after trope. That’s what makes it work.
In a way, Ted Lasso is about owning your traits, the good, the bad, and the weird. At no point does it get preachy, but it has its moments of warmness. One of my favourite quotes is Ted narrating how he got his positive attitude.
“Guys have underestimated me my entire life. And for years, I never understood why. It used to really bother me. But then one day, I was driving my little boy to school, and I saw this quote by Walt Whitman, and it was painted on the wall there. It said, ‘Be curious, not judgmental.’ I like that.”
If that doesn’t put into perspective how we as a generation consume content or behave online, I don’t know what does. Since the last two years, content length has been grown smaller and smaller, and we’ve grown used to it. I remember sitting down to watch Mughal e Azam the other day, and found myself mindlessly scrolling 15 minutes in. We’re quick to judge content in seconds now. And people. I can’t remember the time when social media wasn’t the judgemntal place it is now, with people quick to pass judgement on pictures, reels, videos or literally anything else.
But like all good, wholsome things, Ted Lasso isn’t flawless. In fact, it doesn’t quite improve over the course of two seasons on some things. One of them, is the way football is represented. The way Ted approaches coaching for a professional tier 1 football side, is quite amateurish. For the serious football fan, the lack of coaching staff, and tactics feels like a dagger to the heart. The team’s lack of preparation is laughable, and Ted not having an idea about some basic football rules feels frustrating at times. That’s one place where I feel the show steps away from realism.
However, despite this glaring issue, the show finds a way to your heart. One of the most endearing bits is how Ted’s character, his positive attitude can have the wrong impact at times. Early in the show, Ted’s failing marriage comes to the limelight, with Ted not being able to grapple with the fact that not even his positivity can help fix it.
Jason Sudeikis, who is also a writer on the show, and plays the main role doesnt quite bring his ego into the character, which is rare occasion for a writer actor to do. He introduces flaws right away, there is no glorification of the leading man. He brings a witty charm to his leading actor, and plays it out wonderfully.
You can watch Ted Lasso on Apple Tv Plus.
