If you’ve watched Chak De India, avoid Ted Lasso.
Shimit Amin’s memorable 2007 film—currently streaming on Netflix—starred Shah Rukh Khan as a hockey coach leading a ragtag and underfunded team of female athletes to glory. Apple TV’s smash hit Ted Lasso had said goodbye to its viewers after a bloated third season three years ago, but the relentlessly cheerful biscuit-baking coach is back for a fourth go-round, this time coaching a women’s soccer team. This is a fine idea, using a super-popular television show and ceding the stage to women, but Ted Lasso tragically feels too much like a retread.
The biscuits aren’t freshly baked. Every beat seems familiar, borrowed from underdog stories like Chak De when not derivative of its own early seasons. For me, the coolest scene in Amin’s film remains the one where the hockey players break into a fight at McDonalds, the girls finally coming together as a team in order to beat up loutish men. It is an iconic sequence, where women driven by righteous rage suddenly—and finally—find themselves on the same side.
That scene comes in the fourth episode of Ted Lasso, as the girls get into a fight at a pub quiz. (I may be asking you, dear reader, to avoid this show if you’ve watched Chak De, but it appears too late to ask the show’s creators to steer clear of that lovely film.)
The old gang is all there. There’s Jason Sudeikis, carrying on as Coach Lasso, humbly handing out homilies. “I love blunt people,” he says, “They’re like those maps in shopping malls, you always know where you’re standing.” Bluntly, then, Lasso’s presence now feels rather pointless. When the show began, Lasso had been hired to fail, an American football coach brought in to sabotage an English soccer team. As he gradually chipped away, he won over his team and his fans and his bosses, winning over the show’s audience as he hummed along. This was a worthy challenge but now, as a successful soccer coach, he feels like an also-ran. There’s nothing setting him apart anymore
“We can’t beat Chelsea, we aren’t good enough,” says Lasso’s stern assistant coach Chilton, played by Sex Education’s Tanya Reynolds. “Come on, Coach,” complains Ted, “How about a little positivity?” “Sorry,” says Chilton, rolling her eyes while rephrasing her statement: “They’re too good.”
Lasso smiles. This is a gag, sure, but it illustrates how the show’s undying commitment to positivity is basically just lip service.
I’ve watched five episodes of the new season, and the footballers aren’t compelling enough. There are a couple of characters who seem potentially interesting but the men were written better and moulded better, and felt more unpredictable. I’m sure these girls will get the chance to grow into memorable and loveable characters, but as of now they seem one note: a hothead striker, a fussy single mother, a goalkeeper who doesn’t wear gloves. We don’t know anything of them beyond that.
Meanwhile, Club owner Rebecca (the fabulous Hannah Waddingham) keeps messing up relationships, corporate work and even her clothes by constantly dropping barbecue sauce on them. Sure, a character can flail, but there is much to be said for Waddingham’s beautiful poise under pressure. As a woman in a male world, she exhibited not only steely resolve but also style and femininity while drawing up her own rules. Watching her confused and clueless—only so the character can doubtlessly find her groove again later in the series—feels like a disservice to a strong character.
The show retains some of its charm, make no mistake. As it happens with sports teams you’ve rooted for in the past, you keep watching in the (vain but vital) hope that things will suddenly turn around. Suddenly it’ll start winning. Suddenly it’ll become great. Against all odds.
We certainly need a truly great show about sportswomen. This one doesn’t seem to be it, though. This may be because Lasso and his crew are—at least currently—barking up the wrong tree. Sure, women need as many lessons in positivity and sporting spirit as their male counterparts, but the problem with women’s sport is less about the effort on the field and more about the empty seats. The show does talk about it, but maybe that’s the battle Lasso himself needs to fight in some way. Perhaps he eventually will.
As of now, he’s barely fighting. Sudeikis is consistent in his Ned Flanders-y persona, dispensing aphorisms and being super-nice to his colleagues, but I can’t help but compare him to Shah Rukh in Chak De, magnetic and gritty and inspiring. Sudeikis looks tired—both as actor and character—and his pep-talks don’t seem to have pep anymore. Mansplaining sport is a tiring job.
“Football is life.” This was a line made famous by the enthusiastic Mexican footballer Dani Rojas, played by Cristo Fernandez in the first three seasons. This year, when Dani’s sister shows up for trials, she disagrees when the line is thrown tentatively at her. “No, dumdum. Life is so much more than football.”
“True,” Lasso agrees. “Not as catchy, but true.”
The new Ted Lasso doesn’t feel catchy, or true. It feels like an own goal.
Streaming Tip Of The Week:
A much smarter series about women in sport is the underrated A League Of Their Own (Amazon). An adaptation of the 1992 film of the same name starring Tom Hanks and Geena Davis, the show feels clever and original and creates immediately memorable characters.
Raja Sen is a critic, screenwriter and columnist. His first play, a murder mystery called The Simla Affair, recently opened in Delhi. He is currently writing a horror film.