In the worst epidemic of the unfortunate 2020, between August and October, more than one and two (millions of people) people found healing refuge in the most unexpected place: without much exaggeration, a series came, “Ted Lasso” (AppleTV+) is about a football coach from Kansas who starts working for a casual football team in England..
Comedian Jason Sudeikis, a former “live on Saturday night” marvel, embodied the character in a series of ads on NBC Sports promoting Premier League games. Lasso was Tottenham’s new manager at the time and didn’t understand anything about the game, but the smug hadn’t made an effort to understand it either. The character in the series is different, more curious: “TV has been full of arrogant guys over the last two decades,” both creator and hero Sudeikis said at a virtual press conference. “We’ve had great creations like Don Draper. [‘Mad men’]Tony Soprano [‘Los Soprano’]Walter White [‘Breaking bad’]… If there was such a thing, we would not come forward. To quote my old high school basketball coach, it would be like spitting into the river. [risas]”.
Entering the scene with Lasso 2.0 unstoppable optimism, absurd aphorisms, and (decreased) ability to hide one’s own pain. Many of us, including the Emmy voters who rated ‘Ted Lasso’ best comedy in 2021 and 2022, are not shy about adopting him as ‘life coach’. His third and perhaps final season begins tomorrow, Wednesday the 15th. Will it save us if the story really ends here, as Sudeikis points out?
People who love each other and people who apologize
In the second part of the episodes, the writing team of ‘Ted Lasso’ surprised the team. shells of melancholy: for example, pretty much anything related to the hero’s panic attacks and his openness to psychologist Sharon (Sarah Niles). When I ask about the evolution of the style in this third season, Brett Goldstein (former Captain Roy Kent, also a writer/producer) talks about continuity: “It will be similar. It will be funny again, but it will also be very serious. and very sad.” Brendan Hunt (Coach Beard, who is also the creative mind of the series) wraps up the description nicely: “There are people who love each other, there are people who apologize, there are people who hit the ball… Everything we’ve ever done is still there… in different ways.”
We reunited with AFC Richmond. happy but complicated moment: Recently promoted to the Premier League, but is widely seen as the team with the best chance of finishing last in the standings. This ‘everyone’ includes their own players. “Statistically, most major league teams are relegated the following year,” recalls Dutch defender Jan Maas (David Elsendoorn) in an uneasy locker room.
Also, the entire club continues to digest the betrayal of assistant coach Nate (Nick Mohammed), who betrayed Ted and went to work for rival team West Ham United. Mohammed is charming by definition, so playing the villain wasn’t easy for him. “I haven’t had a scene most of the time with all these people who have become my family over the years,” the actor explains. He must have felt some remorse for what he did.
Women on both sides of the camera
‘Ted Lasso’ may take place in a world where the male figure is at least still ubiquitous. its writers know how to laugh at masculinity and give a rich, vibrant and charismatic femininity dominant space.. In this series, many women take part not only in the commentary part, but also in the script (Leann Bowen, Jane Becker) or directing (MJ Delaney, Erica Dunton). “We have a writers’ room that is staunchly feminist, and you always get that,” says Richmond owner Rebecca Welton, aka Hannah Waddingham. “It made me realize how much I have to struggle in other situations to have women’s voices heard. It doesn’t matter if the characters are in their forties like mine or in their thirties like Juno What Does. Is there a temple? [Keeley, exnovia de Roy Kent]: they give us a lot to work with. Even Rebecca’s mom is dating. Everything is so unusual.”
For Rebecca, beating West Ham is doubly personal: there’s Nate’s betrayal and, above all, the fact that her ex-husband Rupert (Anthony Head) owns the team in question. “Rebecca was a little withdrawn in season two, but we’re going to see her more touchy this season,” promises Waddingham. Hannah wants Ted to stop being so Ted and get tough. But he has a way of being and understanding things and of course his special ways to alleviate your players’ confidence crisis.
There will be lessons of love, apologies, kicks, optimism… Or, of course, ‘product placement’ whenever Apple wishes: Ted almost bids farewell to his son Henry in the second minute of the first episode of the season. (Gus Turner) tells him that he fills his iPad with movies so he doesn’t have to spy on neighboring screens on the plane. Sincerity brand ‘premium’.
Other series with football landscape
“Club of Ravens” (Netflix): The first Spanish-language Netflix original series released in 2015 was this Mexican drama-comedy series about two brothers struggling to inherit a football team, Cuervos de Nuevo Toledo. Luis Gerardo Méndez was Salvador Iglesias Jr., who was ready to make the club the “Real Madrid of Latin America”; Mariana Treviño, her sister Isabel, who doesn’t follow the rules.
‘home area’ (of the movie): This two-season Norwegian series is inspired by the real cases of Helena Costa and Corinne Diacre, former coaches (Costa for short) of French club Clermont Foot 63. The excellent Ane Dahl Torp plays Helena Mikkelsen. the first head coach of a men’s soccer team, the fictional Varg IL, has recently been promoted to the Norwegian first division.
‘Gentlemen’s game’ (Netflix): Julian Fellowes (“Downton Abbey”, “Belgravia”) co-created this mini-series about the early days of modern football in England. The defining roles of two actors are shown: the aristocrat Arthur Kinnaird (Edward Kinnaird), captain of the former Ethonians, and Fergus Suter (Kevin Guthrie), who secretly signed a contract for the team working at a textile factory in Darwen.