Last week and this week I'm featuring TV episodes that have been nominated for 2021 WGA
awards.
I love it when a story is able to capture the essence of a character in a single line or description.
It's not easy to reach that point. Sometimes the fullest clarity only comes later; meanwhile the pilot uses Save the Cat-style moments to serve a similar purpose. The way a person helps someone, how they attack a problem or do whatever they have in order to meet their "cat"'s needs, can tell us so much about the protagonist's skills and personality.
But distilling who a person is down to a single gorgeous sentence or image, that's the white whale.
And the pilot of TED LASSO, teleplay by Jason Sudeikis & Bill Lawrence with story by them & Brendan Hunt & Joe Kelly, has a great example.
American football coach Ted Lasso has just arrived in England to start coaching soccer with his partner Coach Beard.
And we've just had an unusual kind of Save the Cat moment (pictured above). Ted asks low level staffer Nathan what his name is, then refuses to move on until the guy gets beyond his own sense of being a nobody to actually introduce himself.
(The pilot is rife with quiet moments like this that tell us everything we need to know about Ted. Another great one comes toward the end: Ted has put up a sign with the word "Believe" in the locker room. And the paper is actually crooked on the wall, but that's because Ted wrote diagonally across it. It looks fine.
Then Keeley, girlfriend of lead scorer Jamie, walks in, sees the crookedness of the paper and insists on helping Ted "fix" it. The end result is that the paper gets completely messed up. And Ted just smiles and lets it go.
Starting with people where they are: That is Ted Lasso.)
So, the single line: Walking Ted through the team's "hall of fame", owner Rebecca points to a photo of medical tents that were set up on the pitch during World War II. Some people, she says, claim they still see the spirits of the soldiers who died being treated there. "Ooh, that's spooky," Ted says.
This is what follows:
That last sentence captures everything you need to know about both Ted Lasso and TED LASSO.
First, that this show is going to be offbeat hilarious.
Second, that it's going to come from a place of authenticity. Ted looks like like a bit of a dimwit here, but really what we're seeing here is that Ted Lasso is not afraid to look dumb. In fact he's not really afraid of what other people think of him at all.
So in the scene that follows he's thrown into a press conference with no prep, no clue, and it is a total disaster. But afterwards rather than being stricken down by it he shrugs his shoulders and moves on. He's not the guy who sweats the small stuff; he's the one who shakes his head and laughs when it happens.
But more than anything what that sentence does is give us a Ted Lasso mission statement. Who is Ted Lasso? He's a guy who wants to help people believe in themselves. Dead people, nameless production assistants, the players -- sure, yes, all of the above.
There's no soccer played in the pilot. In fact Ted barely interacts with the players at all. But the heart of the show--a sweet, funny guy who wants to coach people into seeing and being their best selves--it's all right there in that one line.
TOMORROW: "TROUBLE DON'T LAST ALWAYS," EUPHORIA
