Is Ted Lasso toxic positivity or rosy optimism?
What do you think?
From the archives but still holds true. In light of Season 3 being upon us, felt nostalgic about this post and some of the core themes still being very much relevant.
Much has been made of Ted Lasso since it premiered last season and with good reason. It’s refreshingly entertaining and holds mass appeal - cross-cultural, generational, and gender.
The show has garnered 7 Emmys in this year alone and 2 Golden Globes anointing Jason Sudeikis to a level of commercial comedic success status of a former SNL-er, that isn’t easy to come by.
Ted Lasso started as a sketch comedy commercial in 2013 and was originally called An American Coach in London. At parity with the Ted Lasso premise, an American football coach is hired by an English team to coach soccer. The coach has no experience. In the case of An American Coach in London, Lasso joins a real team, the Tottenham Hotspur and with the current show, it’s a fictional theme, AFC Richmond.
The origin story of the show’s concept predates Sudeikis’ SNL years when he and Coach Beard (aka Brendan Hunt) performing together as part of Chicago improv comedy troupe in the Netherlands, formed an imperfect and some would say unholy alliance/union between soccer and AMERICAN football.
Hunt, a Chicago native, was naturally a Bears football fan. The lore goes that Hunt hated soccer vehemently but while in the Netherlands, as one is wont to do while abroad and the only sport playing on TV is soccer, he gained more of an appreciation for the sport and its culture. It was there that Sudeikis got Hunt into FIFA - not to be confused with the International Federation of Football Association’s governing body, but FIFA as in the online soccer gaming destination. The two would play together between shows and well, the rest is history. I mean if you can’t connect the dots between how these elements might have given way to a show about a midwestern American football coach hopping across the pond to coach a European football team, well, then, I’m out of ideas.
What is clear from watching this clip from An American Coach in London is that it’s very different in form and substance from our current day Ted Lasso.
It’s mockumentary-style like The Office or Parks & Recs which given that ‘10s period of comedy makes sense but it’s so drastically different it feels like an entirely new show.
Current Ted Lasso is much more of a dramedy. The character of Ted is a more 3-dimensional character with smoky undertones of sadness.
It would be hard to imagine Ted Lasso without a Ted Lasso at the helm but Ted’s only as strong as his supporting ensemble. Like any team sport, where its success rides on how well the individuals in the team play together, the addition of characters like Keeley, Higgins, Rebecca, Sam, Roy, and Nate give this show its oomph.
If you are as obsessed as me with Ted Lasso and that translates to going down Ted Lasso Google holes for minutes at a time, here are some recent cultural musings on the show that I recommend reading or perusing at your leisure. Whether or not you’re a committed, I will not entertain any criticism of the show. I just want to experience it type fan of you just like to think about what’s been presented and form opinions based on all of the things you read on the Internet, the themes below are worth diving into.
The Many Betrayals of “Ted Lasso” (Salon.com)
Nate the Great isn’t so great anymore. In fact, he’s terrible. Is Nate merely a cog in the capitalist cycle that makes underdogs feel like they need to attain success at all costs, even at the expense of close friendships. And to what extent does Ted need to cough up some responsibility for being MIA all season? Sure he’s dealing with his own personal demons, but really he’s checked out and that includes responsibilities like mentoring Nate and helping him deal emotionally with being a coach, which clearly the guy needs.
And it’s not like Nate is going to get that mentoring from anyone else on the coaching staff. Roy is usually just shouting expletives on the field and serving as a vehicle to remind Nate of his past on the team (former kit boy and laughing stock), though not intentionally. Roy’s very addition to the coaching roaster this season only further exacerbates an already fraught and fragile coaching staff dynamic. Nate is once again reshuffled to the bottom but from his point of view, he’s the one doing the work and formulating the plays. And he’s not wrong.
More than Nate’s narrative being about how much he’s underestimated (which is the villain trope creeping in), it’s about him being overlooked and perhaps that’s the ultimate betrayal. To what extent are the others complicit in this? Clearly choosing to ignore some of Nate’s red flag behavior (his horrific treatment of Will, the kit boy; and Colin, his handling of his success after coaching a winning game, and his tantrum on this past week’s episode at not being the one to get the credit for the plays and it all going to Ted), were concerning and while Beard attempted to put Nate in his place after the Colin incident earlier this season, it was clear that Nate needed additional help. Unfortunately I guess phoning in Dr. Sharon wasn’t an option here, but why not?
Perhaps Nate needs our sympathy more than our judgment but damned if this show makes that easy, even as he spits in the mirror at his reflection. That was pretty gross btw.
Ted Lasso: How a TV Show Can Help Transform Your Team (Forbes.com)
Ted Lasso as an archetype of the quintessential “everyman” leader who is easy to love
Ok, so full transparency: Every other day, Forbes publishes an article about the Ted Lasso effect. You know what that is - Kind, empathetic leaders who value the whole of the team and listen to everyone. They know how to boost morale and are just “good people.” They are focused on the long game and not short term glory, ego or incentives. The grind is real and they don’t sugar coat it (they do however often use phrases like “I won’t sugar coat this.” ) and bottom line is they are authentic and real with those around them.
If businesses could bottle up Ted Lasso-like leadership and infuse it into every employee, no doubt they would, but there’s only one Ted and he’s not a real person. He’s a character on a show, people. Still, we can learn from him and that’s the point which is why I continue to read and learn. Anyone else thinking they’d dig a course on Ted Lasso leadership? Happy to offer it on Outschool.com. Leave a comment and let me know.
The One where Ted Lasso goes to Therapy (Vox.com)
The mental health elephant in the room
“America’s preeminent “feel-good” comedy turns out to have been about mental health all along.” This is something I’ve been thinking about with Ted Lasso’s arc and his progression from isolated panic attacks and a full fledged mental health crisis. It feels honest and pretty realistic. Based on all the people in my life that I’ve known who’ve projected an exterior of “toxic positivity” it’s been more of a coping mechanism for past trauma. And in all cases, the positivity felt forced or dismissive, i.e. your feelings are inconvenient. In the case of Ted, he’s projecting a powerful optimism and that’s not the same.
How inclusive is the overall story?
The other element worth reading in the Vox.com article is about the handling of race in the show and if the more visible on-screen black characters, i.e. Sam and Sharon, are really well fleshed out or more treated as props to further the character and plot development of the predominantly main white cast. I haven’t formed a conclusion on this yet, but it’s made me think more deeply about it and approach it with more of a critical lens.