I’m watching Ted Lasso, and I like the show. It’s entertaining, the characters are likable, the humor works, and the optimism is part of what makes it enjoyable. But the farther I get into it, the more the progressive political and cultural messaging keeps standing out.
It hasn’t reached the point where it has ruined the show for me, but I keep wondering why any of it needs to be there in the first place.
Ted Lasso did not need an episode built around refugees, racism, and immigration politics. Sam, the Black Nigerian player, publicly criticizes the government for turning away migrants arriving by boat. He is then flooded with racist abuse, and his Nigerian restaurant is vandalized by people angry about immigration.
That is a pretty heavy political storyline for a comedy about a soccer team. And, predictably, the issue is presented from only one side. We see the compassionate pro-refugee position and the racist backlash against it, but we don’t see any serious acknowledgment of the legitimate concerns surrounding illegal immigration, uncontrolled borders, or poorly managed refugee policies.
Then there are the other political jabs that get slipped into scenes that have nothing to do with politics.
Early on, there’s a joke about wearing a red baseball cap — an obvious MAGA reference — to a Planned Parenthood fundraiser. Why did a simple joke need to drag both MAGA and abortion into it? Couldn’t the writers come up with something funny without turning it into another political statement?
The media references lean in one direction too. There’s a joke about not watching Fox News and another about the Daily Mail constantly getting things wrong, while CNN is treated as the normal, reliable news source that characters turn to.
There’s also an earlier storyline involving Sam protesting a team sponsor connected to Nigerian oil corruption. The entire team eventually stands behind him, while the “shut up and dribble” attitude toward athletes getting involved in politics is clearly portrayed as the wrong position to take.
The progressive cultural messaging extends beyond politics.
Keeley is confirmed to be bisexual and has a relationship with another woman that includes make-out and sex scenes. Colin gets an extended storyline centered on being gay and closeted within professional soccer culture.
The female characters are also frequently portrayed as promiscuous, with plenty of explicit sexual dialogue. Keeley has multiple sex scenes and openly talks about kink, masturbation, and multiple partners.
Rebecca Welton, the team owner, also hooks up with multiple men throughout the series, including a much younger player on her own team and a stranger she meets in Amsterdam, while regularly making blunt sexual comments.
The show also takes occasional shots at White men, adding to the feeling that the political and cultural commentary almost always points in the same direction.
Off the top of my head, these are just some of the examples that stood out to me — and I’m sure there are others I missed.
None of this has made me stop watching yet. I still enjoy enough about Ted Lasso to keep going. But the messaging is becoming harder to ignore because it shows up again and again in a show that doesn’t need it.
I haven’t watched the newest season yet — the one involving the women’s soccer team — but I have a feeling I already know what direction some of the storylines will take. If the political and cultural messaging becomes even more prominent, that will be disappointing. This is supposed to be a feel-good comedy show.
I watch TV and movies to be entertained and to get away from politics for a while. I don’t need writers using characters and storylines to constantly push their political and progressive views.
At the very least, if writers are going to bring politics into a comedy, they should be willing to joke about their own political views too and fairly show more than one perspective. Why does the commentary always seem to come from the same ideological direction?
And apparently this isn’t limited to shows made for adults. A friend of mine who has three young children tells me he notices the same kind of political, LGBT-related, and cultural messaging showing up in kids’ shows too. There’s a difference between including gay characters and repeatedly making sexual orientation, identity, or discrimination central themes.
And then there’s the drinking. Everyone on Ted Lasso seems to be drinking alcohol constantly.
Trust me, I’m no prude, but it would be nice to see something a little more original and fresh for once instead of the same tired “I’m a heavy-drinking, promiscuous mess with a pile of personal problems” character over and over again.