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Nowadays, people in the United States hate an ever-growing list of things – maybe especially each other.
But even with negativity seemingly as high as ever as the Covid-19 pandemic spans a 19th month, America’s aversions of football and conversations about mental health have continued to subside, with two subjects entering the mainstream in ways once unimaginable.
This allowed a multi-million dollar bet on a streaming football show and the often hidden depression and anxiety experienced by athletes to become a cultural phenomenon.
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The success of Apple TV + ‘Ted Lasso, which aired the Season 2 finale on Friday, likely sparked additional football interest and greater emotional awareness, yes, but it also simply served as a barometer for know where the United States is in terms of accepting these topics.
The first season recently won seven Emmy Awards. The second season, while not quite capable of reaching the heights of the first, will surely be live for further recognition the next time the Hollywood TV elite reunites for the handover show. prices.
“It was important, it just seemed necessary [to focus on mental health]», Lead actor Jason Sudeikis said to PA. “It’s a big thing that’s going on in the world these days. You know, we’ve had some great examples recently, even at the Olympics with (American gymnast) Simone Biles.
“It doesn’t just happen on TV, it happens to the people we work with, with whom we carpool. It just seemed honest and stern and to the point.
Indeed, research suggests mental health disorders are on the rise, with anxiety and suicidal ideation on the rise during a pandemic that has dealt severe psychological blows for more than a year.
For those who haven’t watched, Ted Lasso follows an American football coach hired to take over fictional Premier League side AFC Richmond. While the football aspect informs the arc of the larger plot, the show follows off-pitch relationships between staff, players, the press and locals more closely than the matches themselves. .
In season 1, Richmond suffered relegation to the championship. In season 2, the club vie for a return to the top flight.
But sanity, not the charge of promotion, runs through the second season: Lasso, Richmond’s head coach, is grappling with a divorce that has left him feeling isolated in England as well as the lingering pain inflicted by his father’s suicide when he was a teenager.
Lasso suffers a panic attack during a game and worries about how the audience might perceive the incident.
For those who haven’t experienced an episode like this in a sold-out stadium, it’s a terrifying and disorienting experience, and the head-spinning camera work in the scene portrays the feeling well. Take it from someone who’s been there before and whose bathroom cabinet is a haven for drug bottles with fancy names to treat less fancy conditions.
It should be noted, however, that there are some dark places Ted Lasso chooses to avoid. Aside from a newspaper article written about Lasso’s panic attack, which leads to a discussion on primative TV shows about his leadership abilities, he really doesn’t need to face too much public criticism. The season ends with morale.
This contrasts with some of the experiences of real athletes this year. Biles was destroyed for dropping out of the Olympic events in Tokyo and tennis star Naomi Osaka was targeted for dropping out of the French Open due to depression. They had the support of their fellow athletes, but unlike Lasso, they didn’t have a journey from depression to contentment that only took a few months to resolve.
Maybe a show that thrives on the genuine warmth of its main character isn’t ready to go all the way down that road, and that’s understandable.
Either way, Ted Lasso conveys serious messages, addressing issues that the American population is only beginning to embrace.
Season 3 has already been confirmed with a new deal allowing producers to use Premier League logos, club kits, archived footage and the league trophy in the episode. Gambling on football and emotional vulnerability as things people in the United States would embrace has paid off for Apple as Ted Lasso is now the cornerstone of its programming.
Twenty years ago this could never have happened.
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