Ted Lasso season 2 review: TV phenomenon we happily welcome back

Hot off the back of a record 20 Emmy nominations, the return of a favourite TV series is something that couldn’t come fast enough.

The first season of streaming comedy Ted Lasso arrived at exactly the right time.

With half the world in lockdown, its inherent decency was the hit of kindness and generosity we all needed. A year later, season two couldn’t come soon enough – and Ted Lasso is about the only 2020 phenomena that we merrily welcome back.

A cheery, optimistic American gridiron football coach transplanted to a fictional team in the English Premier League is a flimsy fish-out-of-water premise and Ted Lasso could very well have faded into obscurity with its seemingly archetypal characters.

But the cliches it exploited – the cheesy American, the laddish football player, the ice-cold team owner, the WAG, the grumpy veteran, the overlooked kitman – were twisted and deepened to be much more than stereotypes.

Ted Lasso returns for its second season. Its first season had 20 nominations.

With its intricate plotting, smart writing and compassionate performances, Ted Lasso’s first season proved to be a real lesson in character growth, in how one person can bring the best out of everyone around them.

We should all be so lucky as to have a Ted Lasso in our lives.

But that doesn’t mean the show is a one-note, saccharine affair, incapable of nuance and shading. Ted (Jason Sudeikis) has a level of pain and complexity that one of pop culture’s great optimists, Parks and Recreation’s Leslie Knope, wasn’t burdened with.

It may have fly-by jokes such as dog shelters called Barkingham Palace or Roy’s obsession with Dan Brown books, but there’s a lot going on beneath that chipper surface, even though it’s often only in hindsight you realise that under its seemingly effortless vibe is sophisticated storytelling.

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Juno Temple as Keeley on Ted Lasso.

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Jokes and story beats are layered episodes in advance so that when certain points come to pass – and we’re being vague so as to not spoil some intriguing events for season two – it doesn’t jar as much as you’d expect, because the show has done the work and earnt what would otherwise be an eyebrow-raising choice.

After AFC Richmond is pushed into relegation at the end of season one, Ted, Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt), Nathan (Nick Mohammed) and the team can’t seem to break its streak of ties.

Roy (Brett Goldstein) has retired – only from the team, not the show – spending his days coaching his niece’s school team and watching with his yoga mum friends reality series “Lust Conquers All”, which Jamie (Phil Dunster) happens to star on.

Keeley (Juno Temple) wants to help Roy find purpose again while Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) is back in the dating pool. Meanwhile, Higgins (Jeremy Swift) gives up his office for Sharon (Sarah Niles), the new sports psychologist hired to help one of the players with a case of the yips.

New characters this season includes Sharon, a sports psychologist.

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Sharon’s arrival unsettles Ted, who claims to have a “midwestern scepticism” about therapy. She’s a character who could have easily been set up as an antagonist but instead, even though she seems at first inured to his charms, she becomes integral to the story dynamic.

It’s the perfect example of how Ted Lasso takes a banal starting point and ensures it really earns its existence in the show.

It’s what the series did so well last year in establishing the core characters – whose performers have all gone on to be nominated for Emmys – and to play them against type. Something unexpected like Keeley and Rebecca’s friendship works because the series took care to build out that alchemy. It doesn’t cheat.

Side characters such as Sam will have a bigger role this season.

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This season also takes time to explore some of the side characters in the show, Richmond players such as Sam (Toheeb Jimoh) who headlines a particularly strong and resonant third episode that is guaranteed to make you cry – not in a generic sad way but a mix of poignancy and hope.

And hope is the foundation of Ted Lasso, the idea that people will do the right thing when challenged. It’s why the show’s blend of kindness, compassion and decency hits so perfectly, at any time, but especially now.

Ted Lasso season two starts on Apple TV+ on Friday, July 23 with new episodes available weekly

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