Ted Lasso Script Review

 

Ted Lasso – Script Review

Story by: Jason Sudeikis, Bill Lawrence, Joe Kelly, and Brendan Hunt

Ted Lasso (Pilot) is a comedy which follows the protagonist, Ted Lasso, a southern American football coach, who has taken on the challenging role of managing Greenwich Football Club. He must overcome the challenges (his antagonists) of fan disapproval, a difficult team, and his own lack of knowledge of football and England. 

Act 1 begins with Rebecca Welton, the new club owner, she won the club in her divorce settlement from her cheating ex-husband. She is openly talking about her divorce which gives the audience an idea of the tension within the club and foreshadows later event that occur. Rebecca fires the old team manager, George, a friend of her husband. This signifies a change within the club right before the inciting incident. Higgins (director of communications) asks Rebecca “Shall I prepare a list of candidates?” for new managers and she responds with “No. That won’t be necessary”.

The inciting incident is when Ted Lasso is introduced to the audience as the new manager of Greenwich FC through a SportsCenter commercial.  Scott Van Pelt makes it clear Ted has experience in American Football and how praises him for his team spirit. This is shown to the audience using a phone video of Ted celebrating with his old team showing their great connection. This makes the audience believe that Ted Lasso is a good manager for the team.

Ted Lasso is introduced to the audience on an airplane. It becomes clear he is on his way over to England. He is recognised by a young boy who doubts his abilities to coach football, Coach Beard also knows this is going to be a challenge for Ted, but he has confidence in himself and is determined to succeed. Ted’s lack of knowledge about football is further reiterated when Coach Beard is trying to teach Ted the names of English football teams. Each team Ted related them to an American team or something else to remember them e.g., “Dallas Cowboys”. This struggle is show repeatedly throughout the episode and is one of Ted’s main challenges.

Ted’s friendly and easy-going character is portrayed well, he treats the clubhouse attendant, Nathan, nicely and leaves him shocked when asking for his name as he is usually ignored, unnoticed or picked on by the team. This shows how friendly he is and how important teamwork is to him. His aim is to bring everyone together. Ted faces conflict when trying to achieve this as the team are not willing to work together more, they argue and have an ‘every man to themselves’ attitude which Ted is shocked to uncover in Act 2. He knows he has his work cut out for him when trying to reignite a team spirit amongst the team.

Ted and Rebecca meet for the first time in Act 2, there is a big difference in character between the two. Ted remembers to introduce coach Beard, but Rebecca forgets to introduce Higgins, it was more of an afterthought. This shows how much Ted values each person in his team whereas Rebecca is less appreciative. In Act 2 we also see Ted being sympathetic. He comforts Rebecca about her divorce and manages to get her to open about her emotions. This is shocking as she is normally portrayed as cold hearted and defensive.

In a scene, Ted is on a news conference and is repeatedly corrected about the rules of football e.g., two halves not four quarters and draws not just winning or losing.  There is a lot of doubt that Ted is going to fail as he lacks football knowledge. Rebecca publicly defends Ted, stating she believes in him to succeed, she makes it clear that the club is changing and from now on it is the “Ted Lasso way” this makes the audience realise that Ted may struggle but Rebecca’s confidence in him keeps a positive mindset as her team’s reputation is on the line and she has faith in him.

The mid-point is a plot twist, the audience learn that Rebecca has employed Ted to help destroy the club, her ex-husbands pride and joy. She is using Ted’s lack of experience to make the team fail in the league. The audience will be shocked as she just made a public statement about her support for him. Ted has been portrayed as kind and caring person and the audience wonder, why is she using him like this?

By Act 3 Ted is still adjusting to England and is making Nathan feel part of the team by involving him in the jokes instead of him being on the receiving end. He ignores all the doubt people have in him. The old manager is speaking about Ted on the TV, he doubts Ted and is annoyed he lost his job to him. This annoys coach Beard, but Ted just ignores his judgement, this shows how mature Ted is and how he doesn’t let other opinions phase him.

At the end of the episode, Ted in his new apartment, he is trying to call his family back home in America. Ted is homesick, his phone rings for a while, he become worried thinking they may not answer. Almost immediately the connection begins to fail which symbolises just how far away from home he really is. The conversation Ted proceeds to have with his son shows how much of a family man he is and how much he loves his family. The mood shifts when Ted begins speaking to his wife, he is very supportive of her work achievements and Ted is upset to find out they can’t come and visit him soon as he misses them, but he is understanding. When we hear Ted and his wife saying goodbye, he tells her “I love you” we can’t hear the other end of the phone, then Ted says “no, you don’t have to say it”. We learn that Ted’s marriage is struggling as his wife is reluctant to say she loves him. This is surprising to the audience as Ted has been presented as a very easy going, respectful, and funny character throughout who prides himself on being a team player. This makes them question, why does she not love him? This opens a new conflict within the plot to continue throughout the series. But also gives an insight to Ted’s world, he is not as happy and bubbly as he appears to be.