Jonathan Zeller, writing at McSweeny’s about Ted Lasso:
Ted Lasso was the most surprising show of 2020. In its debut season, the plucky underdog sitcom delighted an audience tired of pandemic fears, political conflicts, and natural disasters. They retreated into a comforting world in which a single good person—Ted Lasso, an American football coach played by the charming Jason Sudeikis—overcomes the doubts and malign intentions of strangers not by destroying them, but by transforming them into better versions of themselves. As viewers, we felt a similar process take place in our own living rooms. Well, most of us did. Some detractors revealed their true nature as vessels for unadulterated evil who deserve pain because they can’t let us enjoy one thing on this awful planet, which got that way thanks to monsters like them.