Hope, belief, and why you should be watching Ted Lasso
Christopher Tremoglie
Life is tough. It can be cruel, mean, and nasty, even before you start interacting with people. But through all this misery, what if one believed in the positive and treated everyone kindly? Those are just some of the main philosophies of the hit show Ted Lasso, and it’s just one of the many reasons people should be watching the Apple TV+ production.
I stumbled upon Ted Lasso after ending a romance with a woman I started dating during the pandemic. It was an unexpected breakup and a bit painful. I was looking for a funny show as a distraction to help with my despair. I had heard nothing but good things about the show, decided to check it out, and was hooked after watching the first few episodes. Incidentally, two main characters were dealing with heartbreak as part of the plot, so the show became very relatable.
Ted Lasso centers on the titular Lasso (Jason Sudeikis), a college football coach who unexpectedly gets hired to coach soccer at AFC Richmond, a (fictional) English Premier League football team. While the comedic aspects of the program focus on Lasso’s unfamiliarity with the sport, at its heart, it’s about the power of hope and the emotional connection he builds with his team (and the audience). Through his constant optimism, hope, and reassurance, Ted Lasso emerges victorious.
But whether it is heartbreak, a menacing soccer opponent, or any of the numerous obstacles life throws at you, Ted Lasso always has one message at its core: Believe. It’s the main theme throughout the series and a core tenet of the titular character’s coaching philosophy for his (fictional) English Premier League football team, AFC Richmond. And it’s a lesson many of us could use right now — inside and outside the soccer field (or pitch, as they call it in Britain).
Intertwined with a show about an unlikely soccer coach are stories about love, divorce, adversity, perseverance, and mental health problems (most notably, anxiety and panic attacks). Soccer acts as a symbolic representation of the characters’ ups and downs and other challenges. But instead of wins and losses, the show focuses on improvement, not as players on a field but as human beings.
In an era when entertainment glorifies gore, violence, sexual promiscuity, nudity, or features the technological wonders of CGI, Ted Lasso is a plot-driven, emotionally charged dramedy. It focuses on believing that everyone has value and worth. It teaches us that in a world where wins or losses determine success, the greatest victory is believing in oneself. Ted Lasso is a 21st-century show with old-school values. It’s quite a different take on the usual sports program that, at its core, isn’t a show about sports at all.
Incidentally, unbeknownst to the audience in the pilot episode, this theme is foreshadowed in Lasso’s conversation with his boss, team owner Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham). While giving Lasso a tour of his new stadium, Welton tells him how many locals believe the stadium is haunted.
“Do you believe in ghosts, Ted?” Welton asks.
“I do,” Lasso responds. “But more importantly, I believe they need to believe in themselves.”
With optimism (and humor) like that, how could anyone not be hooked?
Tune into Ted Lasso on Wednesdays on Apple TV+, and you, too, will start to “believe in hope” and “believe in belief.”