Ted Lasso: Another Gem from Apple TV

 

by Pa Rock

TV Junkie

As I mentioned in this space yesterday, I recently acquired a couple of new streaming services, and one of those is Apple TV.  My son, Tim, recommended it because he wanted to share the new horror-comedy "Widow's Bay" with me.  As I consumed those creepy, quirky, and funny episodes, I also began exploring the other programming that Apple TV had to offer.  One of my first stops was with "Ted Lasso," a show that was such a hit that even I had heard it referenced numerous times through casual conversation and within the wash of television and pop culture.  Armed with a shiny new subscription to Apple TV, I now had the means to check out the buzz regarding Coach Lasso.

"Ted Lasso" was created by (and stars) actor and comedian Jason Sudekis, a "Saturday Night Live" alum who grew up in the Kansas City area and went to high school at Shawnee Mission West.  Kansas City still appears to be his home base.   The plot line revolves around an American football coach (Sudekis) at a small university in Kansas who unexpectedly produces a winning football team.  The coach, Ted Lasso, is also going through marital difficulties of a sort that physically distancing himself from his wife for awhile might be of long-term benefit for their marriage.   When the owner of a football (soccer) club in Great Britain suddenly and inexplicably offers him the opportunity to come to Britain and coach her team, Coach Lasso, who has no soccer experience and very little knowledge of the game, accepts the challenge.

What the owner of the club, Rebecca, a statuesque blonde played by British actress Hannah Waddingham, fails to tell her new coach is that she hired him hoping he would fail at the job and her team would lose - as a way of getting back at her ex-husband who had a strong passion for "his" team.  But Coach Lasso is folksy, charming, and highly adaptable.  He slowly begins to turn the team, AFC Richmond, into a cohesive unit who "believe" they can and will be winners.  As that metamorphosis is occurring, Rebecca, the club owner, also undergoes a transformation, thanks again to Coach Lasso's people skills, and becomes invested in the success of her team.

The series ran for three years (2020-2023) for a total of 34 episodes.  Its baseline is comedy, but there are strong strands of drama and even romance involved as well.  "Ted Lasso" is an emotionally captivating show that gets better with every episode.  A fourth season, some of which was shot in Kansas City, has been filmed and will begin running on Apple TV on August 5th.  It involves Coach Lasso returning to Great Britain to coach AFC Richmond's new women's football (soccer) team.  This television junkie and AFC Richmond fan will be enjoying those episodes as they are released.

One final note of a personal nature:  The cast involves many young actors in their twenties and thirties, primarily as soccer players.  Most are not household names, but I predict several will be.   One of the cast members who is already an established star with a lengthy film resume is Juno Temple who plays the team's publicist, Keeley Jones, as well as the love interest of one of the team's players and a coach.

Juno Temple played the lead character, a young wife named Alice, in "The Brass Teapot," the first (of two) feature-length films that my son, Tim Macy, wrote.  Tim was on-set during the filming and knows Ms. Temple.  The other lead character in the movie was Michael Angarano who played Alice's husband, John.  The original story and script were written without Alice and John having a last name, but there was a script change during the shooting of the film in which it became necessary for the couple to have a surname.  The film's director, Raama Mosely, asked Tim for his thoughts on the matter and he told her that he had no preference for the couple's last name.  Then the director talked to the two stars and they told her that they liked Tim's last name - and thus the main characters became John and Alice Macy.

So not only do Juno Temple and I share one degree of separation, because we both know Tim Macy, we were, for awhile at least, damned near relatives!

And Juno Temple is a helluva fine actress, so I'm proud to claim her.   If you doubt me, check out "Ted Lasso" and see for yourself!

Go Richmond!