On the whole, I don’t subscribe to many streaming services. I’ll have something for a month or two when something I really want to watch is airing, but I need that push, that hook, to cave and check something out. When the Murderbot adaption started airing in May, I ended up using the AppleTV service for the first time.
Now, between writing, painting, and gaming, I wasn’t sure I’d get around to watching a lot of what the platform has on offer. I’ve been keeping up with Murderbot, of course. I’d heard no end of praise for Severance, so I watched that. Then, I had a friend and my brother both recommend Ted Lasso, and somehow this one about an old commercial character snuck in between all the rest and grabbed me.
I’ve never had much interested in sports (much less English Football), but this show firmly establishes that as its backdrop for the interactions of these characters and their arcs early on. They’ll show snippets of games, but how these people come to interact with football, their teammates, and the other people in their lives is what the show is really about.
And, it’s a damn good show. I wanted to hit on a couple of reasons as to why I think that is. Spoilers ahead.
Impeccable Characterization
If there’s a spectrum, this show sits more on the sitcom end than the drama end, but it’s still not entirely the former. Each episode progresses the overall story of this football club, and our characters don’t regress between the credits and theme song. They evolve (sometimes for the better, sometimes the worse) and retain that evolution unless they work to undo it.
None exemplify this more than our lad Jamie Tartt. In a show full of standout characters, I don’t think there’s anyone else who grows as much as this guy.
At the start, he’s a self-absorbed ass. He’s incredible at football and he knows it. During that first season, we see Ted slowly chip away at this exterior shell he’s built up, but just before we break all the way through, Tartt is transferred to another team. The reason behind this is unknown to our characters at first, and Jamie takes it personally. He thinks it was Ted’s choice to do this; that he’d been rejected, in the end.
Still, Lasso’s impact on Tartt shines through. If it weren’t for a last minute pass – something he’d never do before Lasso’s training, his new team wouldn’t score a goal that ends their game in a win against Lasso’s team, Richmond. (The kind of game that’s about to be called a 1-1 victory for Richmond.)
And that’s just his arc in the first season.
But, when it comes to this shows incredible characters, the stand out for me is the man himself.
Ted Lasso Is Superman
Now, I don’t mean that literally, of course. He’s not secretly extraterrestrial and flying around or anything like that. However, this character behaves the way Superman does in his best stories.
Ted Lasso has a nearly endless well of optimism and friendliness we seldom see break. He gives it is his all to inspire these footballers to be better versions of themselves, and he forgives them for their worst moments easier than they’ll forgive themselves. It starts slow, but we have no trouble believing how he manages to win all these people over – it’s the Lasso Way, after all.
There’s been a thread or two on reddit with viewers seeing the same thing about this character – and that’s not hard to believe. We have a handful of little things that make this sound more intentional than not: Lasso’s from Kansas, the team’s primary colors are blue and red, and a major supporting character’s surname is Kent. They even reference the Daily Planet within the first two episodes.
At a time when it’s easy to be cynical, it’s wonderful to have a little light shone. These stakes might not be high in the grand scheme of things, but that doesn’t make them any less meaningful for our characters.
Not All Sunshine and Rainbows
Naturally, the show isn’t just hopeful beat after hopeful beat. It’s got its share of drama and emotionality. Sometimes it’ll try to wring tears from your eyes just by showing you how far a character’s come since we’ve met them; others, it’s showing you how our characters got to where they were when they started, and asking implicitly how you think you’d behave under those circumstances.
Now, it can be a little overwrought at times. The show is rarely subtle and even more rarely restrained. On the whole, I think it earns most of its indulgent moments, but that might not be to everyone’s taste. I’d still recommend the show, but I wouldn’t fault anyone for washing out.
Luckily, the show’s primarily concerned with making its audience laugh and smile, so I never found it hard to watch.
So, that’s Ted Lasso. Consider this a secret Ben Recommends. As always, thank you for reading. Now to figure out what the hell “offsides” means …
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