Why Ted Lasso is a lightning rod for criticism in Season 2

The Ringer

"For a show that’s all but synonymous with positivity, the Apple TV+ hit has bizarrely become the subject of intense criticism in its second season," says Alison Herman. She adds: "Many critiques of Season 2 have coalesced around what naysayers view as a lack of conflict. That’s the gist of (Daily Show writer Daniel) Radosh’s tweets: that the show’s writers, which include star Jason Sudeikis and Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence, haven’t come up with a cohesive concept to match Ted’s assimilation, nor the attendant obstacles. The resulting lack of friction comes far too close to manifesting Ted’s so-called rom-communism. After all, the Ted Lasso cast are attractive people with interesting jobs. (We don’t see much of their apartments, but the house where staffer Higgins hosts Christmas looks pretty cozy.) Does Ted Lasso want to show an endless cycle of things working out for them? And if so, how is that supposed to hold our attention through Season 2, let alone an already guaranteed Season 3? I’d argue that the season thus far isn’t missing conflict so much as failing to capitalize on the thus-far-minor ones it’s already introduced. The distinction may seem trivial, but it also partly explains how passions have risen so high. It’s one thing to wish for some hypothetical version of a show that doesn’t exist. It’s another, and far more frustrating, one for a show to introduce tantalizing threads like the withdrawal of an already cash-strapped team’s primary sponsor over an act of moral protest, then simply ignore them for weeks on end. Ted Lasso may be averse to conflicts within its cluster of protagonists, a group that now includes onetime villains like Rebecca and striker Jamie Tartt. But wouldn’t pitting that group against an outside force—one that calls into question whether Ted’s idealism really helps more than it hurts—be a perfect alternative?...Defenders of Ted Lasso argue the show does interrogate Ted’s relentless insistence that the glass of Gatorade is always half full. The season’s most significant serialized plot, for instance, follows Ted’s start-and-stop journey into therapy, a reluctance that shows his sunny outlook for the defense mechanism it obviously is. (You don’t have to talk about your childhood when you’re busy making dad jokes.) But Ted Lasso’s flirtation with Ted’s darker side comes off as just that: a flirtation. In an early episode, the emergence of Ted’s rageaholic alter ego 'Led Tasso' gets treated as a throwaway gag. Still, shouldn’t it be a source of intrigue, if not concern, that Ted Lasso’s central sage has such a deep store of anger he can access at will? Ted Lasso has half a season left to answer questions like these, which it very well might in satisfactory fashion."

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• Ted Lasso Season 2 is fine, but it's unsurprising that the show's popularity is starting to breed negativity: "Society loves nothing more than to give oxygen to the killjoys, allowing them to continue their pattern of arson, burning down all the things that people love," says Kevin Fallon. "Success and adoration turns anything beloved into a target, and here is a show that received almost unparalleled acclaim, is about to win a truckload of Emmys next month, and, more, did all that with the audacity of being about niceness. Everyone involved might as well have poured gasoline over themselves and handed the inevitable haters their match. It’s all very predictable. Popularity breeds negativity. It happened with Schitt’s Creek. It happened with The Office. I watched it happen four different times over the course of 20 years with Friends, most recently surrounding the reunion mayhem. (Smugly announcing that you don’t find Friends funny is not a personality trait, and never has been.) There are those who can’t stand a show because of who its protagonist is, what story it is telling, and, more pointedly, who its protagonist isn’t and what stories aren’t being told. Agency, inclusivity, and pragmatism should be constantly on our minds as pop culture consumers. But sometimes shows should be allowed to be the shows that they are, and not whatever version some of us have in our heads of what TV should be or needs to talk about. The thing about Ted Lasso season two is that it is exactly what Ted Lasso season two should be."
• Ted Lasso has excelled in Season 2 with its portrayal of anxiety: "Lasso’s adult-onset anxiety, a breach in his perceived constant happiness, humanizes him even further, and is a central selling point to watch Season 2," says Michael Frank. "He’s still the same mentor from the show’s initial episodes, but he’s dealing with more—or in this case, unable to deal with all of the rest of life’s emotions and complications. Somewhat shell-shocked, Sudeikis’s well-meaning coach doesn’t know what to do, and so he turns to therapy to start on the right path. I know that therapy isn’t the end-all be-all, and might not be for everyone, but the show’s inclination remains towards bettering ourselves. That’s what makes it such essential television amongst a sea of murder mysteries, rich retreats, and period dramas. At its best, Ted Lasso brings warmth to its audience through character improvement—seeing someone turn from selfish to giving, from scared to confident, from half-hearted to passionate. And seeing Ted Lasso, a seemingly impenetrable force of positivity, struggle with anxiety and therapeutic reluctance has been cathartic. Other TV series and movies certainly do a more complete job of exploring the effects that anxiety can have on a person’s life, but Ted Lasso has hit me like a wrecking ball on this subject. Like Lasso, I didn’t seek out therapy after my panic attack. I trudged forward, noting it as an anomaly, a perfect storm that likely won’t happen again. We were both wrong."
• This week's "The Signal" is a reminder Ted Lasso masterfully portrays mental health struggles: "One of the many things Ted Lasso excels at is showing how effortless it can appear and how utterly exhausting it can be to act fine when you're emphatically not," says Nicole Gallucci. "Writers nailed the unveiling of that elaborate ruse in Season 1, and again in 'The Signal.' So while the new batch of episodes may have seemed overly positive and smooth to start, when we get glimpses of just how broken Ted was through all the jokes and joy we can look back at the overabundance of cheer through a distinct, poignant lens. If you choose to do so, you'll see the reality of a broken man who was working overtime to appear whole."
• Brendan Hunt pushes back on the notion that Ted Lasso isn't as upbeat in Season 2: "I mean, there is a sense that the show is inspiring and positive," he says. "But people have always been going through shit on the show. We’ve referred to The Smurfs, but we’re not actually doing The Smurfs. We’re not doing anything that we weren’t already doing, we’re just exploring it a little more."
• Hannah Waddingham used to be annoyed by the "drip feed" of scripts: "It used to irritate me because I used to think, 'How can I work out what her trajectory is?' But then I thought to myself, 'Well, none of us in real life know what’s going to happen tomorrow,'" she says. "So, yeah, as long as I’ve got time to learn the lines—which, let me tell you, is also rare—then I’m kind of good to go."
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