Web Series: Ted Lasso
OTT Platform: Apple TV
Seasons: 2 (but I must admit I have only watched so far)
IMDb: 8.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
I realised that there’s a reason why Ted Lasso is so loved by viewers who watched English serials during the 1990s and 2000s. Because it leaves one feeling light and fluffy, a little teary-eyed but happy, and most importantly, optimistic about life, even when fully acknowledging that life isn’t easy, nor is meant to be.
Ted Lasso, like Doogie Howser, MD, Wonder Years, Different Strokes, even Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Dharma & Greg, Everybody Loves Raymond, Home Improvement, and many other similar sitcoms, is a do-good, feel-good, make-good 10-episode (Season 1) web series on Apple TV that hits all the marks that my generation grew up on.
Jason Sudeikis plays, well, Jason Sudeikis, and perhaps needed the least bit of acting to be a pitch-perfect Ted Lasso. The supporting cast is, like most British actors, superb. The writing is par excellence, and so on the money that even without knowing about its 20 nominations and 7 wins at the Emmies, you can tell this is a quality product.
I must admit though: parts of it are a bit kitschy and sometimes, it stretches my willingness to suspend disbelief, but all in all, a great watch.
I recommend it highly. At the end of the day, even if it is slightly unrealistic (as were the sitcoms we grew up on in the 1990s and 2000s in India), I’d rather be unrealistically happy and optimistic than unrealistically violent or unrealistically tragic and pessimistic any day. What say you?
Trivia: Many of the actors playing the characters were involved in the writing.
