“Ted Lasso” Tackles Mental Health in Deceptively Ambitious 2nd Season
Last Friday, AppleTV+ released the final episode of reigning Emmy champ Ted Lasso’s second season. After a sweet but slow start, the show unexpectedly built to a powerful crescendo in which it delved into several complex psychological themes.
[Author’s Note: The following article is packed to the brim with spoilers, particularly about the final episodes of Season Two. If you have not watched yet and plan toI strongly recommend you bookmark this article and return to it after doing so.]
The Journey to Season Two
AppleTV+, Apple’s streaming service, launched on November 1, 2019 with the all-star drama series The Morning Show. The Jennifer Aniston-Reese Witherspoon-Steve Carell scored awards and was renewed for a second season (which is currently in the midst of), but it did not quite become the pop culture behemoth Apple clearly hoped it would. Luckily for them, they got their breakout series a few months later when Ted Lasso premiered on August 14, 2020. The show debuted with relatively little fanfare but quickly gained buzz and fans. It proved to be an unexpectedly delightful series that defied expectations at every step of the way during its first season.
The setup seemed almost painfully cliché on paper — an American football coach named Ted Lasso…
