My wife and I have been rewatching Ted Lasso lately — which has both made me more excited for its inevitable third season return, and has also made me appreciate the show even more. It's the rare show that can be refreshingly wholesome without sacrificing drama. The creators have smartly resisted so many of the easily-appealing shortcuts for high stakes storytelling. There's no cheap jealousy between Sassy and Bex when Rebecca introduces them to one another. Even the Bex-Roy-Jamie love triangle avoids ostentatious shock plot twists. It's exhilarating to watch a show where (almost) everyone is genuinely trying to be a good person and do the right thing, without shying away from the darkness of depression and toxic masculinity.
In our recent rewatch, I've been even more impressed with the writing of Wonder Kid Nate "The Great" Shelley. (Spoilers for the first two seasons). Nate's turn to the dark side wasn't exactly shocking on our first time watching the show. But it's been interesting to see all the clever seeds that were planted throughout the first seasons. While the AFC Richmond family accepts Nate for who he is, he's not happy with who he is. They don't expect him to be a toxic Alpha Male, and they like that he's not. But that's exactly what Nate wants to be. It's why he's so pissed when his "birthday suit" jokes fall flat at the charity ball, even though no one else is laughing at him. It's why he's so full of glee when he has a chance to turn his team notes session into a comedy roast. At first, it seems like harmless fun, until you realize that Nate is getting off on getting in this nasty digs.
The only thing that could make me more excited about the third season of Ted Lasso was if it somehow incorporated my favorite English folk-punk troubadour, Frank Turner—and sure enough, Turner's first big hit "I Still Believe" underscores this new trailer (above). While "I Still Believe" is technically more of an ode to the history of rock n' roll, the refrain has obvious resonance with Coach Lasso's own belief in, well, believing.
Ted Lasso returns to AppleTV+ on March 15, which gives me plenty of time to finally actually play that review copy of the Ted Lasso Party Board Game that's sitting in my living room.
