Ted Lasso

An American football coach taking charge of an English football club ought to be a short-lived joke. Ted Lasso makes it the basis of a workplace comedy about people who spend much of their time pretending they need nobody else's help.

Jason Sudeikis gives Ted enough persistence to make the cheerfulness more than a catchphrase. The dressing room, the coaching staff and the club's management provide different kinds of resistance, and the supporting characters gradually become as important as the man on the touchline.

Football supplies the setting and some of the stakes; you do not need to follow the Premier League to understand the relationships. The sentiment is considerable, so viewers who prefer their comedy merciless may want something sharper. Its best moments earn their warmth through small changes in how people treat one another, rather than through the result of a match.