A Bend It Like Beckham TV show would be the perfect follow-up to Ted Lasso

Salon.com

Gurinder Chadha's 2002 soccer-themed film, whose stars included Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Archie Panjabi, should really be made into a TV series in wake of Ted Lasso's success, says Kaitlin Thomas. "If there were ever going to be a TV adaptation of the film, now would be the perfect time for it to happen, as Ted Lasso — an Emmy-winning comedy about an American college football coach (Jason Sudeikis) who takes over as the manager of an English Premier League team — has captured the zeitgeist at a time when American interest in the sport is also on the rise," says Thomas. "Based on a character created for a series of promos in the early 2010s when NBC acquired the U.S. broadcasting rights to the Premier League, Ted Lasso debuted in the summer of 2020. It was a pleasant surprise, not just because it was the first Apple TV+ series to break through to the masses, but because it was a charming, good-natured and much-needed escape from the anxieties and dread caused by the pandemic. But for all of the appeal of Ted Lasso, a Bend It Like Beckham TV show could do something not even the all-mighty Ted could do: highlight diversity and multiculturalism, explore the global appeal of soccer, and put women and women's sports in the spotlight."