Happy Friday!
It’s been, for many, a relieving week, with much of the tension of the last few weeks (and months and years) finally starting to dissipate. But whether you’re finally coming out of your 2020 slump or you’re just as tightly wound as ever, few things are as effective a balm to the soul as some time with a feel-good TV show.
Sure, there are lots of classics, old and new, out there, and I love The Andy Griffith Show and Schitt’s Creek as much as anyone. But I’ve recently discovered a little gem of a series that’s fresh and fun and leaves me with a genuine, silly smile every single time I watch, and I want to share it with all of you.
In the second half of this newsletter, we’ll take a quick look at how WandaVision, which premiered last week on Disney+, is helping change the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I touched on this a bit in a previous newsletter, but now that we’ve actually seen a few episodes, we have a much better idea of what’s possible within the new-and-improved MCU, and I’m going to dive into that here.
If you like this newsletter, feel free to pass it along to anyone in your contacts who needs a little TV-related pick-me-up this week.
A Feel-Good Show That Will Actually Make You Feel Good
Image credit: Apple TV+
There are few onscreen genres I dislike more than sports movies, with a few special exceptions, and that’s largely because I can’t stand most sports and frankly don’t understand the obsession with them. I know that’s a bit hypocritical coming from someone with a whole newsletter dedicated to an obsession, but when it comes to sports, I’ve never gotten the hype, especially in that weird subgenre filled with manufactured inspiration.
Ted Lasso is something different entirely. Sure, some of the classic elements are here: embattled head coach trying to hold everything together, hotshot star athlete who doesn’t know how to share the spotlight, professional jealousies, and a series of personal issues that threaten to derail the whole team’s success. But, like the best sports movies (and there are indeed a few which qualify as “the best”), Ted Lasso isn’t really about the sport at all.
It’s a show about the simplest, hardest concept of all: decency.
A very charming Jason Sudeikis stars as the title character, Ted Lasso, an American college-level football coach who moves to England, with his trusty pal Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) in tow, to coach a Premiere League soccer team. Unfortunately, sweet Ted knows nothing about soccer, a fact which becomes immediately and, to the locals, horrifyingly clear pretty much immediately.
But a grumpy team captain, scheming owner, immature and selfish star player, and crowds of less-than-supportive fans aren’t enough to keep Ted down. He’s an optimist, through and through, and he shows up to everything in his life with a big smile, enthusiastic spirit, and usually a folksy anecdote that either annoys or delights its recipient.
On the outside, Ted seems like a clueless American who’s in over his head, but soon, it becomes clear that he’s much wiser than he seems. And though his methods may seem naïve, Ted’s emotional intelligence allows him to trust in other people to do the right thing, even if he has to gently poke them in the right direction.
Ted’s not the only one worth rooting for here, though. The team’s bumbling “kit man,” Nathan (Nick Mohammad), is hiding an encyclopedic knowledge of soccer behind a wall of anxiety. The aforementioned “grumpy team captain,” Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein), is an aging end-of-career player who has a much softer heart than his gruff exterior would suggest. And that “scheming owner,” Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham), is simply trying to regain control after a public heartbreak left her damaged and alone.
Loneliness is a theme of the series, but like most of the issues these characters face, it doesn’t linger. In Rebecca’s case, an unexpected friendship with model Keeley Jones (Juno Temple) is one of the more refreshingly uncomplicated female friendships I’ve recently seen. Here, two characters who could have easily been one-dimensional feel like real, complicated women who you have no choice but to root for as well — one, a middle-aged club owner who has grown cold and distrustful but has a not-too-hidden softness, and the other, a flirty young model who is clever and kind and anything but shallow.
There’s a beautiful earnestness to the show and many of its characters. And while it’s a sitcom (it’s very, very funny, with more and better jokes about ghosts than you’d expect), the usual annoying miscommunications you’d normally see from the genre are largely absent here. The characters take ownership of themselves and their choices, and resolve issues big and small in ways that are realistically, delightfully straightforward and mature.
Ted Lasso fills me with so much joy that even though I have two episodes left to go of its first season, I couldn’t wait another week to recommend it. If you’re looking for something to make you smile or believe in people again, look no further.
Ted Lasso is streaming now on Apple TV+.
How WandaVision is Transforming the MCU
Image source: Disney+
The first two episodes of WandaVision dropped last week, and as a longtime fan of all things comic books (did my last few superhero-themed newsletters give that away?), I was excited to see the MCU’s most dedicated foray into television. Sure, main storyline-adjacent series, such as Agent Carter, The Defenders, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., have happened before, but for better or for worse, this feels like the most concentrated effort Marvel Studios has made yet to bring the main MCU canon to the small screen, and it’s slated to be the first of many such efforts.
But is it any good? And if so, what happens to the MCU from here? Are the days of blockbuster Avengers team-up movies over?
First, as to whether it’s good: it’s too early to say. The series, which so far follows Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and the Vision (Paul Bettany) through a fantasy lifestyle non-reality, is to this point charming, funny, and heartwarming. But there’s a lingering sense of danger and sadness; we remember Vision’s dramatic murder at the hands of the villainous Thanos, and there are clues dropped even in the first few episodes that indicate that this doomed couple’s idyllic married bliss cannot last.
I’m interested so far by the visual style, which seems to drop the characters directly into their own vintage TV series. The first black-and-white episodes drew inspiration from old classics like Bewitched, but the color that seeped into the final minutes of the second episode showed that we’re heading into a new era. It’s fun to see Olsen and Bettany in these roles, playing not-quite-their-characters but nailing the vintage vibes.
My guess is that the series will, over time, devolve into something more like the catastrophic, big-budget movies we’re familiar with, but for now, I’m enjoying the throwback fun while it lasts.
The nice part is that this “throwback fun” can last a whole lot longer than in a standard movie. TV’s longform storytelling allows for different types of visual and character exploration than you might normally get from a two-hour movie, and these two characters in particular have never had much time to stretch their legs when all their appearances have been crowded into movies with the likes of Captain America and Iron Man.
Tackling these types of stories as TV series is its own kind of risk (the streaming landscape is crowded, after all), but it’s one Disney and Marvel Studios seem to be going all-in on, with several other such series slated for release later this year. And as a fan, I’m excited to get to spend more time with these characters, especially from the safety of my own home.
I think we’ll still see plenty of blockbusters in the MCU, and there are a few we already know are coming. But I see the future of the franchise as a blend of mediums, with some stories told on the big screen and some on the small screen, giving the time to the stories that need it and movie theater spectacle where it makes sense.
And sure, there’s always the question of whether the all-too-real Franchise Fatigue will eventually lose the interest of audiences. But I, for one, am excited.
Bonus Features
GLAAD’s Where We Are on TV 2020-2021 report, which provides detailed data on diversity representation on TV, is full of interesting findings, most of which highlight how far we still have to go in a lot of areas. This line in particular stood out to me: “Nearly one in every five LGBTQ characters appears on a series that is tied to one of just four creatives.” Those creatives? Greg Berlanti, Lena Waithe, Ryan Murphy, and Shonda Rhimes.
This guest column in THR highlights the increasing workload of reality TV’s struggling story producers, and how their jobs have gotten even harder while working from home.
From The Boston Globe: why so many TV adaptations are based on podcasts (and whether that’s sustainable).
That’s all for now! Thanks for tuning in.