![]() ![]() On the opposite end of the spectrum, disgraced soccer enfant terrible Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster) has a father who has berated him and treated him awfully his entire life.īeyond those two polar opposite examples, Ted Lasso has also woven a large tapestry of father-son stories, with almost every single storyline offering at least a hint of such a relationship. Rising soccer star Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh), for instance, has a great relationship with his dad, and the two are able to speak frankly when Sam does something that upsets his father, resolving their dispute in a way that keeps both men in each other’s good graces. The show’s second season has focused largely on the relationships between fathers and sons, both good and bad. AppleTV+Īs a critic, I’m impressed at how ably Ted Lasso has laid the groundwork for Ted’s big reveal. The build to Ted’s reveal is wonderfully crafted TV storytelling Ted and his fellow coaches reveal their darkest secrets before the big game, except several of them (including Ted) don’t actually reveal their darkest secrets. However, the series is also giving a lot of viewers occasion to look at themselves, if only a little bit, and wonder if there might be some old wounds worth treating. By making therapy a place where Ted finally has to look at himself and make an effort to heal, Ted Lasso is telling an engaging, emotional story. Ted’s reticence to go to therapy is the same reticence many people share, the same reticence that I felt until well into my adulthood. this is a worthwhile conversation to be having about mental health right now. It’s almost unbearably trite to say, “This is a worthwhile conversation to be having about mental health right now,” but. Lots of people who suffered horrible things in their childhood and adolescence have developed exactly the same coping mechanism. He’s not emotionally available to everyone because he’s done the hard work of healing old wounds he’s emotionally available to everyone because he doesn’t believe his own needs are as important. What I love about this story arc is the way Ted Lasso has taken something we know to be true about Ted - he’s very emotionally available to everyone - and flipped our assumptions on their ear. (One that occurred around the midpoint of Ted Lasso’s first season, when Ted yelled at a player, was the first sign we had that Ted’s whole deal was obscuring something darker.) In the face of a soccer season that’s shaping up to be a difficult one for Richmond, Ted is seriously struggling. He’s started having panic attacks, and every so often, he’ll have an angry outburst. His father’s death is something Ted won’t quite look at, and his refusal to so much as think about what happened to him has made him the folksy charmer he is, at the expense of his own mental health. Ted admits his darkest secret into the phone: When he was 16, his father died by suicide, leaving Ted and his mother alone. ![]() That development comes to a head in the series’ latest episode, “Man City.” A devastating loss on the soccer pitch for Ted’s team AFC Richmond, followed by the sight of a player’s abusive father “joking” with his son in a nasty way after the game, prompts Ted to finally call Sharon (Sarah Niles), the team’s therapist. Ted isn’t emotionally mature he’s emotionally stunted in a way that keeps anybody from ever looking too closely at him. ![]() Yet as season two has unspooled, Ted Lasso has made a compelling argument for Ted not as a would-be therapist who gives his players a shoulder to cry on, but as someone who lets others unload their emotions to him because he is incapable of doing so. A few think pieces about the show have even argued that Ted himself functions as a sort of ersatz therapist for a world filled with conflict and torment. Ted - the mustachioed underdog soccer coach for the soul played by Jason Sudeikis - seems like a progressive, modern man who is emotionally mature and pulled together. It’s an idea plenty of other critics and fans have raised. “He seems like he’d be in therapy constantly.” “I don’t believe Ted wouldn’t like therapy,” she said. Early in Ted Lasso’s second season, I was discussing a minor revelation from episode two with a fellow critic - a revelation she just didn’t buy. ![]()
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