<em>Ted Lasso</em> and the Limits of American Optimism
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In the first episode of The Review, our Culture staff writers David Sims, Megan Garber, and Sophie Gilbert discuss the unlikely hit that is Ted Lasso. Its Emmy-winning first season—and its smart writing and heartwarming positivity—connected with pandemic audiences. As the sitcom’s much-discussed second season complicates the message, what is it saying about the merits (and the limits) of American optimism?
This episode was produced by Kevin Townsend and edited by A.C. Valdez and Katherine Wells.
The following transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity:
David Sims: Apple’s soccer sitcom, Ted Lasso, is in its second season. It didn’t win all of them, but it won a bunch of Emmys. And part of why I wanted to talk about Ted Lasso—besides it being a great, very interesting show—is that it’s kind of a strange phenomenon.
We’re in a strange moment in TV. We’ve got all these new streamers, a lot of them Big Tech–backed streamers splitting up audiences. There’s not a lot of macro culture or crossover hits anymore—watercooler television that everybody watches at the same time. But Ted Lasso has been a bit of an outlier. It has resonated. It has found a real audience.
Yeah, it’s interesting that it’s the Apple show that seems to have caught fire. When Apple TV+ launched, was the show with the big fanfare. And there was , which seemed to mostly be a joke, and , which people really loved, which was kind of a modern-infused take on the life of the poet Emily Dickinson.
