Ted Lasso seems to be subject to what I like to call “the mitski cycle”, in which something in pop culture that’s perceived to be both a relative underdog and is also fairly good gets a ton of fawning, effusive overly simplistic press coverage, which causes a counter reaction. People get sick of reading pieces like “this is the first show to acknowledge mental health” (or whatever) and just decide, fuck this, I’m not watching it because i don’t like the sort of person that very publically likes this (like Mitski and increasingly phoebe bridgers).
I kinda don’t like both these positions: ones that come from overly simplistic effusive praise are annoying to keep seeing. But so is the reflexively cynical post-90s above it all attitude that refuses to accept anything vaguely popular. And, yeah, its hard to overemphasize just how much these attitudes come from press coverage and stuff. Nobody would give a shit about commenting on the relative phenomenon of Ted lasso if people from the New Yorker or vulture or wherever weren’t talking about it in hushed, reverent tones. People who would have no desire to ever watch a Jason sudekis soccer sitcom suddenly find themselves seeing it mentioned 4 times an hour, and generally by people they don’t like. So they lash out and create a public image of this stuff Actually Sucking based on not seeing it.
