Too Much TV

Ted Lasso

Josh and Jeff

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 31:37

We're mixing it up. No more House of the Dragon (for two years, anyway) — this week we're starting Ted Lasso.

I binged all three seasons in about three weeks and then went straight into the first two episodes of season four, so we spend the first stretch talking about what makes this show work. Jeff put it best: Ted Lasso the show has the same effect on you that Ted Lasso the character has on people. It takes a while to warm up to, it chips away at your defenses, and then it wins you over like almost nothing else can. We're both pretty cynical guys and it got us anyway. I got teary at the end of season three. There were also multiple scenes that made me want to look away from the screen. Both things are true.

We get into why a show this warm still feels made for adults, the Colin and Isaac episode, Ted distrusting therapy while functionally being everyone's therapist, and how nobody in this show is perfect but everybody handles their problems in a way we genuinely admire. Also a brief detour into how none of the soccer would ever actually work. Nathan becoming head coach of West Ham? Zero percent chance.

Then season four. Jeff watched the first two episodes twice and said the first pass felt like a fever dream, like why are we reopening a box that was so neatly closed? By the second watch he was warming up again. I'm nervous they had lightning in a bottle. We both think the show is smart to bring back the coaching staff without dragging the male players along.

The best material this season so far is Rebecca. She stands up and says "women are the future," and then Coach Chilton asks if she ever considered a woman for head coach, and Rebecca has to say no and swallow it. Watching a character discover her own bias on screen is exactly what this show does better than anyone. Was she wrong? We go back and forth and never really land, which is the point.

Plus: Roy Kent is based on a real player (Roy Keane, look him up), Rebecca and Keeley passing the Bechdel test in the best way, and a genuinely interesting tangent about ACL tears in women's soccer that turns into a bigger conversation about risk, bias, and why women's sports are still climbing.

Going forward we're covering two episodes at a time. Ted Lasso is lighter than House of the Dragon, so it's less about picking apart every scene and more about the overall vibe and what it's trying to say.