“Ted Lasso” Can’t Save Us

The New Yorker says naturally, “Ted Lasso,” the picture of a Midwestern gentleman, introduces the lady first. In the opening scene of the series, which premièred last year on Apple TV+, Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) gazes at a Hockney on the wall of her new sky-rise office, oblivious of the activity taking place on the soccer field below. Rebecca has recently become the owner of AFC Richmond, an English Premier League soccer club, which she received in a divorce settlement from her cheating husband.

The plot is set off by Rebecca’s convoluted act of sabotage: she recruits the small-time American football coach Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) to lead Richmond, in the hope that he will steer the team—her ex-husband’s second-favourite plaything—to failure. Ted, who is from Kansas, has never been to England and knows nothing about soccer. His folk candour is immediately apparent: we meet him as he is exiting an aeroplane bathroom, on his flight to London.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/16/ted-lasso-cant-save-us