The Lasso Way
If the above sign doesn’t immediately flood your brain with a warm fuzzy feeling, accompanied by the image of a visor and mustache and the sound of a folksy Kansas twang, I’m both sorry for you and deeply excited for you because that means you have yet to embark on the delightful adventure that is Ted Lasso.
When I first heard about the Apple TV original, described as a show about a fish out of water football coach hired to direct a premiere soccer league in London, I couldn’t have been less interested. I am not even remotely sportsy, and that very basic plug did nothing for me. After hearing Brené Brown bring it up several times and hearing an interview she did with the show’s co-creators, I decided to give it a shot.
After one episode I was intrigued, after two I was hooked, and after three I was both obsessed and furious with Apple TV’s marketing department. I mean seriously. There has never been a description that has more completely failed to do justice to a show.
But then again, they were given an impossible task. Summing up this show in 1-2 sentences is impossible. The rather forced sounding premise is a platform for such incredibly inspired and inspiring writing. The characters, who all seem so very cartoonish and cliché initially, are actually quite complex and go through such nuanced development. The ones you hate in S1 E1 end up winning you over completely while others fall from their pedestals in such beautifully realistic and human ways. The plot is never as predictable as you think it’s going to be and yet takes you in directions that couldn’t be more perfect. It stops just short of the saccharine 1950s sitcoms, actively battles the toxic masculinity that inhabits most sports shows, and deals with important issues without the viewer even fully realizing it. Oh, and did I mention the show has one of the most gender balanced writers rooms in TV? This show somehow makes you all warm and fuzzy while also making you feel and think deeply. It is a balm for these cynical times. There is nothing else like it.
In case you couldn’t tell, we’re diehard fans in this house. (Not the 6 year old. The language and some of the content is a bit more than we’re ready to expose him to. Just wanted to clarify that in case you thought it was full on family-friendly. ) My husband drinks his coffee out of a Believe mug and has the Ted Lasso Rules for Living hanging in his office at work, we quote it at each other, and randomly and spontaneously discuss theories about characters or plot without any context. I’ve even learned to make the Ted Lasso biscuits (though I have not yet cracked the recipe).
Another amazing thing about the show is that they role it out old school, one episode at a time. We’re so used to binging TV these days, that it’s actually nice to have to anticipate and discuss what is likely to happen next. I have to stay off Facebook entirely today because the west coast has already experience S2 E8 and I do not want it spoiled.
Yeah, I really need to cut the Apple + marketing team some slack. I still feel like I haven’t done justice to this show, but hopefully I have at least convinced you to give it a chance on this dreary day. It is only on Apple TV, but it’s worth the $5 a month. Or you could wait for season 2 to finish and binge it during a free trial.
I suppose that it is possible it might not be your cup of tea, but I think that it’s far more likely that “[you’ll] feel like [you] fell out of the lucky tree, hit every branch on the way down, and ended up in a pool of cash and Sour Patch Kids.”