Ted Lasso Is an English Sex in the City With a Football Backdrop. Ted Lasso - AppleTV Review

"Football is life"

I'm going to break this down season by season but first let's have a look at the football aspects of this series, however few they are. This series is promoted as being about an American taking the head coach job of an English Premier League team. Over the seasons football is an afterthought, and tv soap drama is the main focus. On the whole, they have the opportunity for many aspects of football to be dramatised. Relegation and promotion are two of the most dramatic aspects of football and here it doesn't get proper treatment. Dani Rojas is injured for half of the season, this could have been a great way to look at the mentality of a player going through rehabilitation. Roy Kent retires and that could be taken so many different ways. He retires and realises he's going to be broke soon because he lived a lavish life. He retires and becomes depressed because he'll never be able to do what he loves again. The very fact of his retirement should have been drawn out a lot more with a bit more fine detail.

There's another little issue with this series as a football fan. And I'm not talking about the fact they were supposedly in Liverpool to play vs Everton, yet shoot a scene of people walking into Craven Cottage, which is in London. Where are all the staff? How is a Premier League team operating with what seems to be 2 coaches and 1 Director of Football. For reference, this is the staff of one of the smallest teams in the PL. 21 members of staff, not including those working in I.T and/or admin roles. Everton apparently has 35 staff with 600+ employees.

Before we get into into breaking down the season I'm going to let you in on my feelings towards the characters.

• Ted Lasso - A lot of good qualities but is the epitome of how I begin to get sick of the show through the 3 seasons. Slightly annoying that he doesn't even bother to learn about the sport. Eventually got sick of him because he simply isn't funny. One thing I liked that he did was compliment people about small positive things, it's something people need to do more imo.

• Rebecca - She just isn't very likeable. I don't know if it was the actress or the way she was written but I could care less about her. Sassy was a way better character as far as rich upper-class women go.

• Roy Kent - Best fackin character on the show.

• Nate - Started off really likeable but pretty annoying how he became such a shitty person. Don't care for the reasoning he simply shouldn't have turned into a weasel.

• Keeley - Another of the best characters because of the actress, though the writing at times made her out to be a bit too, perfect? I'll elaborate under seasons 2 & 3.

• Rupert Mannion - Extremely boring writing and a character seen 1000 times in other shows.

• Other good characters - Sam, Higgins, and Coach Beard

Season 1

This is the season where Rebecca tries to destroy the team and get them relegated. Of course, they gave her a really good reason for wanting to do this, because her ex-husband cheated on her. So it makes total sense for her to destroy AFC Richmond, and remember that part about the staff earlier? As dramatic as it is, one of the main things about relegation in football is how it forces a team to downsize and cut staff. They lose a large portion of their money from broadcast TV deals, sponsors, and gate receipts. High earners will be sold off or loaned out. Many players will be released. In 2016 Aston Villa were forced to fire 530 members of staff. This is what Rebecca tried to do, all because her ex-husband cheated on her, so that makes it totally okay I guess.

I can see why people would enjoy this season. In a world that struggles with negativity cycles, Ted Lasso is refreshing in his lack of cynicism. In an ideal world, everyone would assume the best of one another rather than the worst as we always do.

An aspect of this season was Ted's aim to bring them together as a team, as opposed to having his focus be results-based. When it comes to people under 21, that is a great philosophy in life. You praise them for what they have done even if they didn't succeed, this develops their mindset to be about growth. The problem here is that their jobs are literally on the line in these matches. If you don't perform in football, you are let go from your contract at the end of the season. Locker-room atmosphere is important. Though, it is irritating to see Ted do nothing to actually become a better head coach and find a way to pick up wins. I suppose that's the downfall of this sickly sweet show.

Season 2

This is the season where the transition to becoming Sex in the City begins. One of the main focuses becomes Roy and Keeley's relationship. I can't lie, their relationship is pretty ideal. Although, I'm not really sure this is what I signed up for when I was told it was a series about an American taking over a football team. Another big aspect of the season was Rebecca and Sam's relationship (I definitely wanted a tv series about relationships). This one is extra weird because the guy I can only imagine is in his early 20s, and she's in her 50s/60s? Considering the clear politics they sometimes preach in this show, I'm going to assume they would be far from okay with a 50-year-old dude getting with a 21-year-old woman and playing it off as romantic.

Ted fades a bit from the front of the show for all these relationships and he goes through therapy. The entire team does actually. I don't think anyone cared to see Lasso go through that, those scenes were boring. I feel the writers were trying to say that everyone needs a little therapy in their lives, and I agree. I just don't think this is the show to get into it with. Much like when it tried to give its take on sponsorships being boycotted if they're immoral. It's around here that I felt the writer's heavy-handedness. It was further strengthened by characters constantly making confusing references to previous movies or musicals, as if the writers wanted to give some of their faves a shout out. Who remembers the member berries from South Park? Ooh I member. Well, Ted plays the role of a member berry quite often.

Keeley and Roy's relationship is one of him being trained by her. It follows the same pattern from season 1 with Keeley and Jamie, with her being mistreated and needing to teach her bf a lesson. I wouldn't mind this but she is presented as perfect, making no mistakes. I'm sorry, but Roy apologising to her for getting angry that she slept with her ex-bf is a bit odd? Is he not allowed to be angry, finding out the woman he just kissed went and slept with the one guy he hates. Is she really not even slightly at fault here for jumping into bed with Jamie because Roy was busy for one day? Then there was the issue of him not giving her enough space. I can 100% get behind that, but for her to go complaining about him to other people is a little bit shitty imo. She should just tell him straight up. But once again, Roy has to make it up to her and apologise for being around her too much. I love Roy, but I assume this is how simps act in their relationships.

Edwin Akufo had a short time on screen but wow his tantrum was perfectly suited to this show. Ted Lasso has a few things that made me smirk but this made me actually laugh. Even better when his assistant goes in for the handshake just to pull away like we did as kids ha.

Season 3

This is the season of girlbosses. If Keeley wasn't perfect enough already, she now ends up running her own PR firm. She also starts to date her 3rd partner, who is a woman this time. This here will make it exceptionally hard for the writers to decide who is the dumbo that needs to be trained. She also hires one of her friends which brought me back to that little comment from season 1 when she was hired by a friend and they said "Men do it all the time" apparently. Ironic.

There is one awesome thing worth watching here, and it's Roy and Jamie's relationship. The hug Roy gave him after the City game was the most touching in the entire series. From mortal enemies to good friends who end up helping one another was fantastic to see and likely the best thing about the entire show. The Holland episode with the team in the hotel lobby was great fun, and Dani pretending that he didn't write Tulips got another laugh out of me. I know that people generally think season 3 is the worst but it has the best humour, and that's due to Ted getting less screen time.

Zava, obviously inspired by Ibrahimović, was a good addition and an interesting character. But for whatever reason he completely disappears and that left me wondering what the point was for bringing him in. As if the football aspect wasn't dead enough, Ted Lasso apparently never considered triangles in football. This professional team really didn't know about Total Football? I hate how they portray everyone to be dumb and ignorant yet somehow play in the biggest league in the world. I'm not sure who the target audience is with this show. It's obviously a sitcom, though I don't think the football aspects are going to be appealing to women. And the girlboss relationship focuses aren't appealing to men.

Another criticism I see is it being "preachy" which I guess I can agree with, the first two seasons had a few political jabs throughout them. But damn, season 3 was throwing haymakers. I've never had such a strong sense of being spoken to by the writers before. You can kind of tell what their political beliefs are. I think politics can be good in a TV show and they should be used to tell a story like those in The Wire. A superficial silly comedy shouldn't be trying to teach me about migrant boats and the ethics of nudes being spread online.

This is what inevitably leads to me rating Ted Lasso a 5/10. Season one gets a 7, season two gets a 4, and season three gets a 4. There's a constant veneer of optimism over negativity which is fine. Sitcoms are built off everything being easier than it truly is, it isn't meant to be strictly realistic. The difference is they work because the focus is entertainment and jokes. Here they want to give you moral lessons, which of course is going to make me start thinking about very real things, taking me out of the immersion of the show. When you're out, it's hard to get back in. This combination of the Ted character becoming annoying over time, relationships taking up a bunch of screen time, and heavy-handed political lessons. Ted Lasso ends out as a dud in a football world that deserves a bigger spotlight.