Warning: This post contains some favorite clips and passages so if you haven’t watched the show and are worried about spoilers, scroll past or come back again!
I’m a “late to the party” Ted Lasso fan. I remember the hype about the show during the pandemic when it first aired and being curious about it, but never got around to watching it.
Given what a difficult year 2020 was for the world, as well as the year or two that followed, I’m sure my mental health would have greatly benefited from the show. However, the past several years have been no picnic either, and in many ways seem more intense, but on a different level. I didn’t start watching until this year, but the dose of humor, positivity, and connection in each episode has been just what the doctor ordered.
In a world that drowns us in media whose only intent is to incite, divide, and induce anxiety, Ted Lasso’s examination of human nature in all its flaws, messiness, and charm is a welcome escape. And when I frequently see online conversations about how viewers adore this show for its consistent ability to hit them in the feels, it’s clear that many are hungry for such content.
This show grabs you by the heart in such a sincere and non-syrupy way you can’t help coming back for more. Some have complained that the plotlines have become too predictable and that may be somewhat true, but I’m okay with it.
Most TV shows and movies are predictable – it doesn’t matter the genre. There are only so many stories to tell, and even if the details change the formulas are often the same. So I will choose the comfortable predictability of Ted Lasso any day of the week over the predictable news headlines of corruption, wars, and mass shootings; or reading the predictable vitriolic comments on the average social media post.
I’m grateful for creators who are committed to making content that’s hopeful, kind, and inspires us to be better. My only wish is that we had far more of it.
When Death Comes by Mary Oliver
(Included in season 4 finale)
When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it’s over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.
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