Ted Lasso review: A breezy and agreeable series that makes it hard for you to hate it

Breezy and agreeable, this new streaming TV show features the kind of character you would normally hate. But not this time.

Relying heavily on the charms of star Jason Sudeikis, Apple’s new comedy, Ted Lasso, is a breezy, agreeable series that goes down easily.

It’s surprising, really, because the overarching characteristic of Sudeikis’ Ted is he’s nice. Not just nice, but unfailingly nice, considerate and optimistic – usually the kind of character that would grate with his over-cheerfulness. But, here, it works.

Sudeikis has managed to calibrate the role so that rather than some insufferably earnest saint (yes, we all know someone like this), Ted is three-dimensional enough to be actually believable.

It helps too that Sudeikis has built a career on mostly playing affable if flawed everyman characters, from Floyd on 30 Rock to Kurt in Horrible Bosses, a history he brings to the series.

Hating Ted Lasso would be like hating Tom Hanks.

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You can’t hate Ted Lasso.

Adapted from a series of ad promos for American TV network NBC’s coverage of English Premier League football, Ted Lasso is a classic fish-out-of-water comedy about an American football coach trying to figure out English football.

Ted is recruited by Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), the new owner of AFC Richmond, a middling football team in London, after she notices a viral video of him celebrating with the players of a second-tier US college football team.

He is somewhat of a viral sensation, but, as even the least sporty among us knows, American football and English football are very different beasts. Not just the rules but the culture that surrounds it, from the lads and the WAGs to the rowdy fans and vicious press pack.

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That crowd behind them? They’re chanting ‘w*nker’.

When the homespun Ted is dropped into London, everyone expects him to be eaten alive, and chants of “w*nker” follow him from social media to the stands and the pub. The press pack starts to take bets on how long he’ll last – three weeks, one of them generously offers.

The club’s players, including hotshot Jamie (Phil Dunster) and experienced captain Roy (Brett Goldstein), want him gone, finding his American conviviality tiresome.

Though Ted does have a fan in the club’s kitman Nathan (Nick Mohammed), who’s chuffed someone bothered to ask his name.

There’s also Rebecca’s plot to contend with. She didn’t hire Ted because he’s a beacon of hope, she hired him so his tenure would destroy the club, a “f**k you” to ex-husband Rupert (Anthony Head) whose beloved team she won in an acrimonious divorce.

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Ted Lasso can melt the coldest of hearts.

But even ice queen Rebecca can’t resist Ted’s charms and resilience – or his biscuits (that’s not innuendo, they’re literally baked goods).

Because the thing about Ted is not just that he’s nice, he’s also likely some kind of genius when it comes to human psychology – not in an evil, manipulative way, but as someone whose EQ must score off the charts.

He’s incredibly astute about what people need to be the best versions of themselves, and that might sound cheesy as all hell but it’s what makes him such an easy hero to root for.

Ted Lasso also ensures there is depth to a character that could have so easily been written off as caricature, giving the audience glimpses of the challenges in his personal life, the wife and son he’s left behind in Kansas and the marital problems there.

Football lads.

Ted Lasso isn’t a super laugh-out-loud comedy. Most of the jokes in the first half of the season hinge on the culture clash between the US and the UK, including the vernacular (training versus practice, pitch versus field, Lynx versus Axe) and the fact Ted thinks tea is garbage water.

However, that premise is light and can only sustain for so long. The question that hangs over Ted Lasso is whether it can take that premise and eventually shift it into a more character-driven series over two, three or even four seasons.

For now, the experience of it is as affable as Ted himself.

The first three episodes of Ted Lasso will be available to stream on Apple TV+ from Friday, August 14 with subsequent episodes to be released weekly.

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