When I look back on the critical and popular fervor for the second season of Ted Lasso — and remember that it came out in the first year of a global pandemic that filled the average watcher (myself included!) with a level of dread and despair that has, for most folks, not been experienced before or since — things click into place a bit. What the show lacks in traditional merit (a satisfying, interesting plot; consistent and believable characters; humor that builds over the course of a scene, episode or season; an internal consistency that rewards the viewer's loyalty and attention) it purportedly makes up for in positivity.

I don't think this is undue criticism of the show's faults, and indeed it seems to lean into its own Flanderization to a great extent. We float weightlessly through Richmond's ups and downs as a team (they begin the season 0-0-6, and then suddenly it's 4-4-6, and then suddenly they're on the top of the table, and we have watched maybe five minutes of actual football). I don't begrudge the show for leaning away from the actual mechanics of football — not every show needs to be Friday Night Lights — but it's symptomatic of any actual episode-to-episode stakes or drama. Things that certainly seem like they should be meaningful (a relegation team jettisoning their biggest sponsor) are never discussed or revisited; personal demons are exercised after a single therapy session; every character (for the most part, well-portrayed and lovable) floats pleasantly from one surface-level issue to the next.

This is not problematic on its own, except for one thing: the show is not very funny. There are some good one-liners (the Bill Lawrence touch!) but it lacks the Bob's Burgers / Azumanga Daioh DNA of "here are a bunch of wacky people you love doing very funny things", and it tries to keep one foot in the real world for serious depictions (at least the simulacra of serious depictions) of mental health.

The job of a piece of art is to enchant and transform us; I think Ted Lasso did that for a cohort of its die-hard fans back in 2021, and I begrudge neither the show nor its fans when I say that, removed from the pandemic, it shows little ability of either. Instead, it feels like a Lifetime movie given an Apple TV budget; pleasant, and mollifying, but certainly not great.

★★