2020 will be remembered for its months of apocalyptic disasters. In between the failed leadership and murder hornets, entertainment served up a few bright spots worth remembering and let’s not forget the name “Grogu” in the years to come. There was one show that proved to be what we all needed in 2020, a win wrapped inside a loss.
Ted Lasso on Apple TV is the latest story about a fish out of water. Or in this case out of the pond. It stars Jason Sudeikis as the title character, a hearty midwestern American College Football coach by trade who gets hired to become the coach of a professional futbol club in England, AFC Richmond. Lasso is innocently caught in the plan of the club’s owner to tank the team as a way to seek revenge against her dirtbag ex-husband. The vindictiveness of its premise might steer towards drama but at its heart, Ted Lasso is about who people can be.
Jason Sudeikis character is something you don’t see written in the modern world of grit and anti-heroes, someone who only wants everyone to be the best versions of themselves. With an entire futbol obsessed country that sees him as a “wanker”, Ted’s motivation is so pure that he isn’t striving to prove people wrong. That’s a rare thing in writing television, to have a character so see through and one-note actually work. You can’t help but love this character and want to see those he’s trying to help succeed. In this case, team owner Rebecca Welton, over-the-hill veteran player Roy Kent, hotshot selfish superstar Jaime Tartt and more. Characters who are written to be unlikeable at first get rooted for by the audience because you want the power of Ted Lasso’s positivity to win.
In 2020, a year filled with things to be depressed about, Ted Lasso is what we all needed. A look at what winning is. Not at all costs, not because of some huge sacrifice, but a win that just comes from the belief that people will rise to any challenge if you give them a chance. It shares similar DNA with shows such as The Good Place or Unbreakable Kimmy Schmitt but this comedy created by Scrubs Bill Lawrence is different. There’s no roller coaster of suspense or feeling of perill to be found in the first season of Ted Lasso. Even when it tries to create it. In one of the later episodes, Lasso has a white knight moment over a game of darts with Rebecca’s ex-husband. To save his boss’s dignity he needs to win and throughout the sequence, we never doubt that he will. We believe in Ted and are rewarded by the show without question. Even in his last round’s speech, Ted Lasso tells us his methods aren’t about overcoming what others think him to be, but instead just knowing you’ve done the work to be the best version of yourself.
We all could have used a win in 2020 and I hope at least on some small scale you got one. Ted Lasso is the perfect show for the year because it doesn’t strive to vicariously give you a win, it wants you to know that losing is okay if you don’t lose yourself.
