Imagine the thoroughly British Richard Curtis making a TV series about American Football. Now flip it, and you have Ted Lasso (Apple TV+). This is a fish-out-of-water comedy that has cleaned up at the Emmys for two years’ running. Ted (Jason Sudeikis) is an American Football coach from Kansas with no knowledge or understanding of the English game – the only football players he has heard of are Ronaldo and “the fellow that bends it like himself” – but who is hired as the new manager of a Premier League club. Unbeknown to him, his hiring was a plot to run the team into the ground. Except that’s not how it turned out, because Ted’s down-home charm and essential goodness make magic happen.
People love Ted Lasso the show, because Ted Lasso the character is charming and kind-hearted. It’s a sunshine-y series that will make you smile if you have a high tolerance for schmaltz. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s a show about football. If you’re a football fan, it will make you wince.
The team is AFC Richmond, so Ted walks to work every day past lovely Richmond Green, which is always bathed in sunshine. The supporters are well-behaved. All of the dialogue is aimed at Americans who don’t have any knowledge of the English game either, so British characters will say: “Everyone is predicting we’ll be finishing last!” instead of saying “relegated”; instead of talking about buying players or making reference to the transfer window, they seek to “update our roster”.
The appeal of Ted is wearing a bit thin now – there’s only so long that a moustache can be funny. His folksy dialogue will also drive you around the bend. “Expectations for us are as low as a rattlesnake’s bellybutton, and my hopes are as high as a giraffe’s top hat!” he says about Richmond’s chances of staying up this season. Ted takes the team for a trip to a sewage tunnel (something about them creating “an internal sewer system” to get their communication flowing) and tells the guide: “My friend, why don’t you help these fellas with some fun facts about this here faeces factory.”
But series three is saved by Nick Mohammed as Nate, once a lowly kitman at AFC Richmond and now newly installed as the “Wonder Kid” coach of West Ham United. Nate has established himself as the show’s villain but with enough vulnerability to make his character genuinely interesting. There are other little gems to be found here and there: the stoned team-bus driver who says: “It’s a good rule of thumb never to ask a hippie to come in on his day off”, or the humourless assistant coach who tells the squad at training: “Just because my name is Disco doesn’t mean we have to party.” At the moment, the show works best when Ted is on the bench.
On Apple TV+ now
Source: telegraph.co.uk