Ted Lasso (2020) Review: Optimism as a Game Plan

Is Ted Lasso worth watching?

Yes. Ted Lasso is a genuinely funny and unexpectedly moving comedy that makes decency its central subject and gets away with it, thanks to sharp writing and a terrific ensemble. Its first two seasons are near-perfect feel-good television, grounded by real grief and anxiety beneath the jokes. The reservation is the third season, which is longer, looser and more sentimental, and dilutes some of what made the show special.

What is Ted Lasso about?

Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) is an American college football coach from Kansas with boundless optimism and no knowledge whatsoever of the other kind of football. That does not stop Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham), the new owner of the struggling English Premier League club AFC Richmond, from hiring him as manager, for reasons of her own. Ted arrives in London with his loyal, laconic assistant Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt), a folder of motivational slogans and an unshakeable belief that he can make people better.

The players, the press and the fans are initially baffled or hostile. Among them are ageing club captain Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein), cocky young star Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster) and Jamie’s girlfriend Keeley Jones (Juno Temple), who turns out to be far more than the tabloid celebrity everyone assumes.

Ted Lasso was created by Bill Lawrence, Jason Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt and Joe Kelly for Apple TV+. It is an American production in English, set and filmed in England. This review covers its original run of three seasons and 34 episodes, from 2020 to 2023; a fourth season began in August 2026 and is not covered here.

Kindness with a hidden edge

The show’s cleverest trick is a bait-and-switch. It opens as a fish-out-of-water sitcom, with Ted’s folksy puns and ignorance of the offside rule as the joke, and gradually reveals itself as something more thoughtful: a study of how people, especially men, avoid dealing with their pain. Ted’s relentless positivity is not presented as naivety but as a choice he has to keep making, and the series treats his struggles with anxiety seriously, without turning them into punchlines.

That sincerity arrived at a moment when audiences were hungry for it, and the show won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series twice. It deserved the attention not for being nice but for making niceness dramatically interesting.

The supporting cast makes it sing

What keeps the sweetness from cloying is the grit supplied by the ensemble. Brett Goldstein’s Roy Kent, a gruff, sweary former star who communicates mainly in growls, is one of the great sitcom creations of recent years, and his scenes with Juno Temple’s warm, shrewd Keeley have real romantic spark. Hannah Waddingham gives Rebecca a steely grandeur that gradually softens into something more vulnerable, and Phil Dunster makes Jamie’s transformation from preening villain into something more complex surprisingly affecting.

The locker room provides the show’s best comedy. Running jokes accumulate into genuine affection, and the players, the kit man and the club’s hapless director of football become a found family viewers are sorry to leave.

Where the magic thins

The third season is the weak point. Episodes stretch well past the tight half-hour format of the early days, subplots multiply, and some characters get arcs that feel either rushed or repetitive. The show’s reliance on speeches and emotional breakthroughs, charming at first, starts to feel like a formula. It remains enjoyable, but the discipline of the first two seasons is missing.

Who should watch Ted Lasso?

It is perfect for anyone who wants warm, character-driven comedy, and you do not need to know or care anything about football. The first season’s ten half-hour episodes make an easy entry point; later seasons demand more time. The language is frequently strong, which may surprise viewers expecting something gentler, and the show deals with divorce, panic attacks and grief.

Two good follow-ups:

• Cobra Kai for another underdog sports story that mixes comedy, sentiment and second chances.
• The Bear, a more intense workplace series that also explores grief, pressure and the families people build at work.

The verdict

Ted Lasso is the rare feel-good comedy that earns every good feeling it inspires. The third season overstays its welcome, but the first two are among the most joyful and humane television of their era, and even at its baggiest the show never stops believing in its characters.

Rating: 4/5