‘Ted Lasso’ — A Separation Of Sports And Drama

Sports dramas have been popular with audiences for decades, and it’s no surprise why. People love sports. They are experiences of athletic triumph. Because of this, drama is inherently involved in the games and matches. Of course, the sports themselves have drama as teams struggle to win against immense odds. Yet these games are played by people who have drama in-and-of themselves. A lot of times, sports stories try to tie these two different dramas together by having them play out on the field. However, Ted Lasso found success by keeping them separate.

The show wasn’t without its sports drama, though. The team Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) coached had a roller coaster ride of ups and downs as they won games and lost games in equal measure. But since Ted Lasson was a television series rather than a film, it has a lot more screen time to fill and characters to explore. Much of these personal character dramas take place away from the soccer field and clubhouse. Characters have plenty of personal struggles going through love, family, and relationship. All of these storylines would exist with or without the inclusion of soccer.

And this aspect of the show makes a lot of sense from a storytelling standpoint as it’s what Ted tries to teach his players and embody with his coaching style. Tough soccer matches come and go, but win or lose, players still have a life to lead outside of the sport. They still need to carry themselves as decent human beings with kindness and compassion. And that’s more or less what happens. The team has a lot of drama, but the players try not to let it affect their lives off the field. They are always striving to do good regardless of how their professional lives are going. So the separation of sports and drama has a unique way of working for the popular show.

Ted Lasso is now streaming on AppleTV+.