Ted Lasso
Women can be beautiful & kind, powerful & good
I’m not the first person to point out that Ted Lasso is a great show. Season 1 dropped in 2020, and I’ve been waiting for the right moment to get that AppleTV+ free trial and binge the show ever since. The right moment turned out to be this winter when my boyfriend was home on his off-weeks from work.
December’s show of the month for us was Ted Lasso, and even though it has plenty of accolades and reasons to view, I’m here to talk about the series’ Leading Ladies and why they’re an indispensable piece that makes the show so wonderful and positive.
While Ted Lasso is about a men’s soccer club in England, and an American football coach that comes to “manage” it, there are two leading ladies who are part of the team and absolutely deserve honorable mention — and more!
Rebecca is the club owner. She inherited AFC Richmond from her ex-husband, and her sole aim in hiring Ted, an American football coach, is destroying the club — the only thing her husband truly loved — in an act of revenge.
Rebecca is a commanding woman. She is the true definition of a “boss lady.” She’s tall, fit, and curvy, always adorned in flattering yet powerful dresses and blouses, glossy lipstick, and a perfect French manicure. Even though she’s gorgeous (something my boyfriend and I comment on at least once per episode), that’s not the point.
In fact, despite her beauty, her husband has left her for younger women (insane) and there’s a touch of sad loneliness about her. That is, until Keeley comes into her life.
Keeley Jones enters in episode one and makes a big scene in the locker room with the boys. She’s dating one of the players, and my initial impression as she flounces around the room, all eyes on her, is that she’s going to be some sort of Jessica Rabbit character. Instead she’s earnest, encouraging, and always has time for anyone who needs her, regardless of their social status.
Keeley treats every person the same regardless of age, gender, and perceived coolness. In Ted Lasso, and for Keeley, it doesn’t matter what you look like, where you came from, or how much social capital you have. She’s going to love you, help you, root for you, and excitedly greet you each morning. She’s even willing to help people (Jamie Tartt) who have hurt her, without first figuring out what’s in it for her.
Rebecca humbly wields her power as club owner, that is, once she gets over trying to take revenge on her ex-husband. She does not need to prove herself or control everything; she honestly wants what is best for her team and will do whatever she needs to do to support them. When Ted gets bad press, she texts him with support. When Ted has a panic attack, she is the first one to his rescue.
Rebecca befriends everyone, and is totally unthreatened by Keeley, a younger beautiful woman whom everyone loves and adores. She’s never demeaning to Keeley, and view her completely as an equal. There’s no competition between the two friends. They have a mutually supportive friendship. In the sweetest scenes, they pull their legs up on the couch in Rebecca’s office and talk about relationship problems.
A few other female side characters are equally as supportive and loving. Sassy is Rebecca’s long-time friend. They reconnect after a 13 year hiatus, which is Rebecca’s fault, and there’s no undue drama. They are friends again, no strings attached.
Sassy’s teenage daughter has a crush on a player. A player that Rebecca ends up having a romantic relationship with. And Sassy’s daughter, when she finds out, couldn’t be happier for Rebecca.
Rebecca’s mom is a wonderfully complicated lady who, in response to Rebecca’s anger, says she would rather have Rebecca’s “hatred” than indifference. She wisely and maturely lets Rebecca have her moment, and they end the day watching home videos together on Rebecca’s childhood bed.
I think these characters are worth celebrating and qualities worth noting because the most common trope in television, film, and literature is: if a girl is pretty or powerful (or worse, both) she is most often mean, shallow, insincere, self-serving. If a girl or woman is more plain and not as powerful, she is “good.”
Ted Lasso breaks the stereotype down: women can be beautiful & kind. Keeley can be a fashionista prepping for a photoshoot highlighting her as an up and coming business woman and she can be a friend helping Nate, formerly unpopular water boy and now assistant coach, buy a new suit. Women can also be powerful & good. Rebecca can run a soccer club, live alone, drive a Land Rover, and also make wise decisions about her business while keeping everyone else’s best interests as the top priority.
Both women are self-assured without needing to put others down to bolster their sense of identity and value. While there are certainly more mature themes and elements that make Ted Lasso an adult show, Rebecca and Keeley are the kind of women I would want my teenage daughters to see depicted on screen.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the newcomer leading lady to Season 2, Dr. Sharon Fieldstone. She comes to Richmond as the team therapist and she is a force that Ted has to reckon with. She’s also beautiful, commanding, and somewhat complicated (for example, when she bikes to work we certainly see another surprising side of her).
When people talk about Ted Lasso, descriptors such as positive, optimistic, and feel-good are thrown around. Before I watched the show, I didn’t know what that meant. Sometimes people love the show so much that they almost seem at a loss for words. How can a show about good people actually be good storytelling after the slew of anti-hero shows we watched in the 2010’s? Isn’t positive and feel-good just code for bad and boring?
Ted Lasso definitely proves that wrong. The writing is brilliant. Season 2 reveals more depth and complication in the characters; they are, after all, human. Still, Rebecca and Keeley remain bright spots for me. I can’t wait to see what they do next.
Season 3 of Ted Lasso airs on March 15! Watch the trailer here.