Ted Lasso

‘I believe in believe.’
-Ted Lasso

The kind, lovable man that left America where he coached football, goes to England to coach soccer.

Ted Lasso (Season 1 – Apple TV) is the story of a man named Ted. It starts with an English Premier league team called AFC Richmond that is in the middle of an ownership change. Rebecca who is the former wife of the owner, finds herself as the new owner and operator for the club after her divorce. She is hurt and she wants to burn the club to the ground. Rebecca she fires the coach and brings in Ted.

From the start of the story Ted finds himself in deep conflict. He takes a job on the other side of the world, and it is NOT received well from the fans, media, or team. His opening press conference goes very poorly, nobody likes, or believes in him, and the owner thinks he will help her tank the team.

The story starts to take shape when we get to know Ted and the way he does things. He conducts himself in a very disarming and kind way. He builds relationships with Rebecca, the team, and fans. It still isn’t easy as they don’t treat him with the same kindness.

This is where the emotion of the story starts to show itself. You feel for Ted as he is very misunderstood at the start. You see his intentions and you see how it’s met with people who have hard hearts towards him. 

But as the story unfolds and the team starts to soften to his methods you start to see a change. He asks everyone to submit anonymously any problems they have with the team. Only a few serious notes are received but he corrects them and some take notice.

This shift starts to shape the middle of the story as it’s the turning point. People start to begin to understand Ted. Rebecca set up a journalist, named Trent Crimm, that was fully against him taking the job to shadow him for the day, and Ted wins him over. Rebecca thought he would write a story about how terrible of a coach he was but instead shaped it that he was a thoughtful man, although in over his head, but is full of good and refreshing qualities.

The most memorable scene is when Ted and Rebecca are confronted in a pub with Rebeccas ex, Rupert. Rebecca is noticeably uncomfortable and Rupert challenges Ted to a game of Darts . He Ted wins, he has to stay away from the team. If Rupert wins then he gets to come to games and make coaching decisions. Ted wins and it absolutely created a shift in Rebecca, causing a weight to come off her and relief to flood into the room.

As the team starts to win and the culture changed, you see what Ted has been able to accomplish. The story is memorable because he overcomes his conflict. His resolution is in what he was able to accomplish. He changed the team and the people. He has a yellow sign that says Believe and he often says he ‘Believes in Believe’ because he believes there can be change and success.

There is a season 2 and 3 but for this blog I decided to stick to the story of the first season as it stands alone and can be expanded on.

No matter what was thrown at Ted he was able to overcome it and come out the other side. The characters are extremely well written and relatable, the atmosphere in London is amazing, and the parts of a beginning, middle, end, conflict, resolution are all very solid. It’s funny, sad, fun, and meaningful.