Every single thought I have on Ted Lasso and why it's bad

Here are every single one of my raw and unfiltered thoughts on this show – though it’s more like a stream of consciousness that I need to document.

Juno Temple as Keeley Jones

When I was in fifth grade, I was entering the second year of my “gifted” and “talented” path after being sheep dogged into it with an aggressive recommendation from my third-grade teacher.

My class was assigned independent reading logs where we would write about our reading for the week. This was a month or two into the year and I was going above and beyond for every assignment. One particular week, my reading was so substantial that I didn’t even know how to start my reading log. So, I didn’t. I never turned in the assignment.  

We had a grid up on a wall with our names that lined up with stickers indicating if we turned in our reading logs (maybe I’ll come back to this twisted display of public humiliation later). As I braced myself to see a missing sticker under my name, there it was – a sticker.

I fully failed to submit the assignment and got full credit. How could this happen?

I didn’t realize it then, but I witnessed the first known example of the Ted Lasso Effect. I developed a reputation as a confident and unique student who could do no wrong. My first impression was my one and only impression. The general consensus was that there was no further need to critique my work – my grading from that point on was conducted by a feeling.

Everyone is stuck seeing Ted Lasso as the confident and unique student who could do no wrong. It’s likely they conflate Ted Lasso the character as being representative of Ted Lasso the show. There must be some literary device that highlights this, however, I am not an encyclopedia. (Edit: After some research, the term I likely should have used is “synecdoche.” But again, I don’t know).

I was a laggard in jumping on the show. I ignored its first year of wild success in the field of word-of-mouth marketing. Around the summer of 2021, I started the show with my girlfriend. We watched about three episodes before stopping out of boredom. Right before the Emmy’s, I convinced her to watch more for the purpose of research. We fell in immediately and finished the first and second seasons.

Finding accurate reviews on the show in its current state is impossible. I can only find opinions of how it once was and what’s in store ahead. I want to talk about what it’s giving right now.

I have a lot to say. And, of course, I will start with everything I hate.

My overarching gripe with this show is that while it has a kind and pure protagonist and a unique premise, I do not understand how it has become deserving of a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series.

There are far too many structural issues with this show. Critical problems and conflicts are solved far too quickly without substantial obstacles overcome to make sense. Conflict this easy grows boring. And speaking of boring – the fish-out-of-water trope can only be stretched so far. Obviously, this is a show meant for Americans. Still, the exploitative use of British “wankers” and whatnot is getting old. The juxtaposition of namedropping Billy Joel among questioning brits is simply not funny beyond one instance.

I have this feeling that the show aims to reach a point of ensemble show status where they achieve a homeostasis every episode. What else could explain the very random side stories? This cannot be episodic. With what it’s working with, this show is serialized. Yet it still wastes time going on meaningless tangents and side quests.

I see no real need for the Beard episode and the Christmas episode. Perhaps the Christmas episode is passable. Even though it is complete fan service, it does succeed in being so. I cannot emphasize how angry “Beard After Hours” made me. It invoked a visceral disgust that I haven’t seen in a long time. What was the point of seeing Coach Beard run around in this weird mythic quest? I wish I was warned to not waste my time with it. I have a huge problem with Coach Beard’s quirkiness anyway but I’ll get back to that. The fact is, this show has not been running long enough to have characters viewers will love unconditionally. “Beard After Hours” shows this perfectly. I simply do not care about Beard to watch this much of just him. On the same plane, the Christmas episode was more filler. Though, I heard that these two episodes were made to fulfill Apple’s order of two extra episodes in season two. If that’s the case, I can accept it. But I don’t think other viewers are as forgiving as I am.

The greatest downfall of this show is that there is ultimately nothing attractive about this storytelling. The only things it’s hanging on to are its Sudeikis reputation and the regular use of upsetting gimmicks – like the exploitation of trauma and mental illness.

Remember that big news story about Ted’s panic attack that was published in every paper and media outlet in the world of the show? Why? Why did this have to be conflated into something much larger than it needed to be? In the real world, a story like this would never become as pervasive and embarrassing. It’s incredibly unrealistic. The issue here is that the plot is driving the characters’ actions and feelings. It all just leaves you saying, “...okay? And?”

On the note of exploiting mental health – I hated the editing mashup of Ted and Rebecca sharing their experiences in completely different settings. I’m not sure why everyone loved this. An editing sequence like this can only really work when there is some logical connection between what is being shared. It’s just not there. Sure, it shows that they are both broken people – but we know that well enough already. It’s a perfect example of gimmicky editing that’s done for the sake of doing it instead of a real purpose. It feels like something I would have done for a short film in high school.

Tonally, the show is all over the place. It spends a significant amount of screen time jumping into the world of reality shows and live sports commentary programs and it just feels weird. Individual episodes feel like entirely different shows. The greatest divide here is that the show has a reputation for being sweet and cute and happy, yet at the same time there are far too many vulgarities to constitute it as a family show. Does Ted Lasso want to be a CBS sitcom or an HBO drama?

I also have deep problems with many of the show’s characters. It took me a long time to warm up to Ted and I’m still not all the way there. Honestly, I don’t feel that Ted works best on Jason Sudeikis. At least at the beginning, it felt too forced – especially that accent.

Roy Kent is a horrifically overplayed character archetype. Another hard exterior and maybe(?) soft interior type – we get it. And this isn’t inherently bad on its own because truly every show needs one. Ted Lasso just does it so blandly and so carelessly. Like... hahaha he swears so much! So funny! That’s Roy! Just another character that’s not believable.

Coach Beard is the token quirky character that is more annoying than he is lovable. I never understood his purpose from the beginning other than Brendan Hunt’s vehicle for screen time. I like Beard’s good heart at times but most of his quirks are a major distraction to the plot. Most times he just feels pretentious.

We never see the development of these characters to get to where they are. It just... happens? I find it hard to connect with any of them organically. That’s a huge problem.  

Keeley and Sassy are the only good and real characters in my opinion. They are authentic, funny, and add heart to the whole show. It’s an absolute shame we don’t get to see much of Sassy.

Lastly, I cannot stand the billionaire investor who wants to buy Sam out of his contract to play for his own football club. He is so rich and annoying with every “I rented out the whole museum and filled it with actors” and “I built this restaurant today just to impress you”. It was annoying.

My hate for the characters of course is nothing without my violent loathing of the relationships in this show.

Let me start by saying that THE REBECCA AND SAM RELATIONSHIP IS AWFUL ON SO MANY LEVELS! Why would it ever be okay for Rebecca, the owner of FC Richmond, to be in a relationship with Sam, a player and her subordinate? This is a clear abuse of power that leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. The age difference of 30+ years is enough to make a sensible person gag. I would go as far as to say this is one of the greatest downfalls of this show. How was this greenlit?

The ending of their relationship was even worse. At the very least, it should have ended with Rebecca acknowledging their unfair power dynamic and how they are and will always be at fundamentally different places in life. It should NOT have ended on the “maybe later” conclusion that it did. They are not the right characters to play the “will they/won’t they” relationship with. Plus – Ted and others soon learn about Rebecca and Sam and seem to be okay with it? Awful and gross. It is not okay just because Rebecca is a woman.

And then we have Coach Beard’s relationship with Jane. Absolutely awful. We learn that she is clingy and toxic and doesn’t let Beard be himself. The saddest part is when her toxicity became realized and Beard was ready to be freed from her and grow, he didn’t. They stayed together and her toxicity was accepted. What an awful storytelling decision that pushed regression instead of character and story progression.

The entrance of therapist Sharon Fieldstone was exciting – it was a chance for a new dynamic character to come in and shake up some relationships. It was great when she and Ted started out with some tension! They could have set up a very good conflict between them, however, their tension just disappeared and fell flat. Why? She was robbed and should have gotten more to work with. Also, after becoming good friends with Ted, she left the show too quickly. I did like their friendship but it was disappointing to see her exit via letter. Why was that letter hidden? Why can’t we see more of their relationship? It is so, so desperately needed.

Keeley and Roy are great together (mainly because Keeley is incredible and beautiful) but I can see the writers continually tried to mess with them throughout all of season two to try to pretend there existed some tribulation. It felt like they were pulling it out of thin air. I will say that their slight unraveling at the end of the season makes sense for their paths, but we know they will be fine. I don’t think the vacation gift by Roy at the end was necessary. It makes no sense and poses more questions than answers.

Now I’ll just briefly mention my own petty gripes and opinions because we’ve seen none of that so far.

I think that we as the audience should feel Ted’s grief about his divorce more. We see it more than we feel it.

The first season ended so horrifically and abruptly. It was just Ted and Rebecca sitting in her office saying they’ll try again next year. So weak.

Nate’s downfall as a friendly character (which I’ll talk more about) is made to overshadow everything else in the second half of season two. They smothered Nate hate down our throats to, again, feign some sort of real conflict.

Let me get into the things that I do like about the show to illustrate I am reasonable.

Nate’s arc is incredible. I think that Nate is the most interesting and complex character in the ensemble and they are using him correctly. He has developed phenomenally and will be the reason I’ll continue watching should there be a third season.

Another one of Ted Lasso’s greatest assets is Ted’s willingness to open up about his father’s suicide. This is the kind of pure and good and unique substance that makes a character lovable. We desperately need more of this. It provides necessary character building for Ted and humanizes him.

Again, I love characters like Keeley, Sassy and Rebecca at times. Higgins too. Roy and Keeley’s relationship is likely the only good one and I’m excited to see where they go.

Plus, this show’s social media presence is lovely.

If you’ve made it here, I’ll sum everything up for you.

I know it’s a great show to watch. I’m just trying to provide a critical analysis that I feel is missing from the Ted Lasso discourse.

They had everyone’s attention when the show’s premise was made clear in season one. Then, for some reason, the writers decided to stop doing good work. Moving forward, this show will need good structural conflict to stay afloat. Or, maybe not if people continue to not pay attention.

I believe that people don’t actually like this show, but rather the idea of it.

But, yes, this is a happy show that makes people smile and brings in very fun and unique jokes at times. It appeals to the general public. Hi middle America. Yes, I will likely keep watching. But this show is in no way deserving of its 95% Rotten Tomatoes rating or of the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. That should have gone to Hacks.

7/10