Last Monday, I sat down in front of my keyboard and started clacking out some words. It felt good. Better than good even which I’m sure constitutes as “great” or any other adjective that exceeds the word “good”. Such a boring word for such a wonderful feeling, but alas, I did not invent language otherwise there would be more weird noises and eyebrow movements. That particular Monday though, I was in a swell mood. The type of mood where you know you’re kind of rounding a corner and there is going to be some stellar content pouring from these fingertips. I love those weeks. Those are the best weeks. The weeks where you feel like you just want to call out of work and write all day filling this beautiful site with all types of word snacks for your eyeholes.

And then life happened…

Last week was a tough week. It’s never easy saying goodbye to friends especially when you didn’t expect to say goodbye to them in the first place. Unexpected news that came as quite the blow leaving my circle of family and friends of frozen. Personally, I was a boat just sitting on the water waiting for a breeze. And after a while, you have to start making your own wind or you’re just going to sit there.

In times like that, times where the emotions are heavy, you turn to things for comfort. Isn’t that what pop culture is there for? Something that’s familiar and makes you feel, for lack of a better word, safe. The Mrs. and I turned to the MCU, up to The Avengers in our re-watch, the Food Network, our continued quest with the Great British Bake Off, and The Mandalorian. All these comfort foods to help escape a little.

 Sometimes though you run out of content. You run out of those comfort foods before you expected the plate to be empty. The Mrs. and I have a Friday ritual of take out food, Bake Off, and Mando. It’s literally my favorite night. Except this week our viewing ended far too early leaving a good chunk of the night left ahead of us with nothing in store to be watched. Which had us scrambling. What do we watch? Do we have the energy to pick something new? Why are all these streaming networks so overwhelming? Should we just put on an episode of The Office? There is nothing worse than spinning your wheels trying to watch something when you’re banking on watching something to prevent you from having to actually think.

That’s when I just pulled the trigger. Called an audible. I grabbed the remote, looked at the Mrs., and said, “let’s try Ted Lasso, I hear good things.” I got the head nod of confirmation, hit play, and Geeklings, it was the best thing to happen to us this weekend… that and the Giants finally beat the Eagles but mostly Ted Lasso.

Ted Lasso the show and the character were exactly the hug we needed. What an absolute charming delight this show was. From the minute it starts you can’t help but fall in love with Jason Sudeikis’s goofy, unorthodox, treasure of a college football coach trying to teach professional soccer in England. A sport he literally knows nothing about. Nothing. Which helps in a lot of ways for those of us who live on this side of the pond and know very little of soccer. Listen, I get swept up in the World Cup just like any other sports fan and every four years I’m like “why don’t I watch more soccer.” Ted Lasso kind of gives off that same energy. A show that invites you to learn the game at the same time the head coach is trying to.

But at the core, Ted Lasso isn’t about soccer. No, this is a show about growth. About hope. About finding yourself and believing, which I know sounds kind of cheesy. Not on the same levels of cheese as something like Full House but Lasso leans in hard on the cheese because it wants to be uplifting. This show wants to leave you feeling good and in a year like 2020, I think we could use more programming like that. It’s okay to watch something and get swept up in the underdogness of it all and leave with a stupid smile on your face. Because both the show and the character find new and wonderful ways to leave you all warm and fuzzy without making it feel cheap. Everything is earned and fits the mold of a very well written television series. A television series that deeply cares about its characters and the direction they’re heading.

Plus, it takes place in Britain, so the cursing is on another level.

I needed Ted Lasso this week, we’ve probably needed him for most of 2020. I wanted a show and a cast of characters to cheer for. I want to believe that people can see and find the best of themselves. I want to get choked up because I’m silly amounts of happy, something that happened often during this viewing. I want things to play out in a way that sparks genuine emotion and doesn’t feel cheap. I want one of Ted’s biscuits and I want to try and talk him out of his opinions on tea.

Ted Lasso might just be the hero we need this year and while I’d love to tell you everything about this show, I think you should do what my wife and I did. Turn it on and let that smooth southern drawl draw you in. Fall in love with Beard, Nate the Great, Higgins, Roy, Rebecca, Keeley, and the rest of the gang. And when it’s finished start counting down the days to season two… and three! It’s already been picked up for both. Ted Lasso may be a fictional character but he helped pick me up during a pretty tough week. I’m grateful for that and I’ll be rooting for him each and every season.