Pros: An incredible charge of cheerfulness and optimism that the characters of the series radiate; really good humor; playing on the cultural and linguistic differences between the USA and Great Britain; characters are not at all one-dimensional Cons: Many jokes lose their salt in translation; predictable plot Ted Lasso / “Ted Lasso”
Genre Comedy, Sports
Creators Bill Lawrence, Jason Sudeikis
Cast: Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso), Hannah Waddingham (Rebecca Welton), Brendan Hunt (Coach Beard), Jeremy Swift (Leslie Higgin), Brett Goldstein (Roy Kent), Phil Dunster (Jamie Tartt), Nick Mohammed (Nate) , Juno Temple (Keely Jones), etc.
Apple TV+ channel
Year of release 2020
Episodes 10
Site IMDb
Ted Lasso is the coach of the US Student League team in American football (did you know that Gridiron football is correct, although North American football is also possible?), who is invited to coach the English Premier League team in normal football. Yes, yes, we know very well that this is basically impossible, without the appropriate license in the UK even schoolchildren will not be allowed to train him, but calm down, this is still a movie, moreover, a comedy. Why the club owners need this will become clear at the end of the first episode, why Ted got involved in this – somewhere in the middle of the season. Ted Lasso gets down to business without even knowing the basic rules of football; moreover, his assistants are a chess coach and an intimidated kitman (an assistant worker responsible for the players’ uniforms and additional equipment). But incredible optimism, the ability to find a common language with people, motivate and guide them, helps Lasso gain authority among the players, team management, journalists and even fans, despite the very mediocre results that his team shows.
Ted Lasso’s cheerfulness and ability to see only the bright side in any situation are quite annoying at first. This is the same vaunted American optimism, raised to an absolute and multiplied by 100. Constantly smiling, making puns and friendly even when openly mocked, Ted Lasso seems like a ridiculous fool, an ideal scapegoat on whom all the club’s problems can be blamed. But the incredible optimism of the coach, behind which, as we learn later, lies pain, will help melt the ice, and by the end of the second episode you will literally fall in love with Ted Lasso, Coach Beard, the ostentatiously stern head of the club Rebecca, the frivolous (this, of course, not so) Keeley, shy Nate, cowardly Higgin, brutal Roy Kent and even selfish Jamie Tartt.
Most of the characters in Ted Lasso are very easy to read and even look primitive, but this is not the case, each of them is not at all what it seems at first glance. Keely is smarter and deeper than you think; Rebecca isn’t evil at all, it’s just how she experiences pain; Nate sees what others don’t; Roy can step over himself if it is necessary for the club; and even team-wrecking Jamie Tartt isn’t as uniquely disgusting as you first think. The merit of Ted Lasso is that he knows how to look under a layer of armor at the person who is hiding there and bring him out. And Ted is always underestimated, and even if he doesn’t know what a corner or offside is, he knows how to make people believe in themselves and give their best.
In general, it seems that Ted Lasso is an adapted game version of some kind of sports-themed anime that is so popular in Japan. For example, Captain Tsubasa or Haikyu!!. Often in anime of this genre, an underdog team in any sport, overcoming difficulties, solving problems of interaction and increasing motivation, achieves victory in a decisive match over its principal opponents. Well, Ted Lasso is tailored exactly according to these patterns. I don’t see anything wrong with this.
One of the creators of the series is Jason Sudeikis, who played the main role in it. An improv comedian and Saturday Night Live regular, he may be familiar to you from Horrible Bosses and We’re the Millers. Actually, the idea for the series goes back to Sudeikis’s old sketches, for which he created Coach Lasso, who jokingly explained the rules of European football to Americans. Well, now Sudeikis will be remembered exclusively as Ted Lasso, this character turned out to be so memorable and bright in the full-length series. So brilliant that Apple renewed Ted Lasso for a second season five days after its premiere. And this despite the fact that there is no cliffhanger in the finale; this is a completely finished story, although it leaves room for continuation.
By and large, the only serious problem with Ted Lasso, besides the incredible predictability (what can you do, the laws of the genre are inexorable) is the translation. The fact is that many of the jokes and puns in the series are based on the differences between American and British English. Naturally, in translation they disappear at best, and at worst they just sound stupid. So once again we recommend watching the series with the original track and subtitles.
There are only ten episodes in the first season of Ted Lasso, and now that they’ve come together (the series aired on Apple TV+ one episode at a time from mid-August to early October), they’re easy to binge in just one day. It looks very easy. Don’t make this mistake, stretch it out for at least a couple of days, this will prolong the therapeutic effect. After all, this series really charges viewers with positive energy and optimism. Ted Lasso is probably the best thing that happened to us in 2020. Don’t miss it.
Conclusion:
The kindest and most optimistic series of 2020
