“Ted Lasso,” Apple TV+’s latest original comedy, is
kind of like a hybrid of the baseball comedy “Major League” and those
folksy “aren’t Brits delightful” comedies of the late ‘90s like “Waking Ned
Devine” and “The Full Monty.” It gets most of its initial mileage
from the affable charm of its star, Jason Sudeikis, who finds a way to
turn the title character into someone who is genuinely likeable instead of
merely playing aw shucks heartland stereotypes. The show is undeniably slight,
but it’s quite simply a comedy that goes down easily, a piece with optimism
about the human condition that feels honest instead of manipulative. It may be
light on originality, but Ted Lasso himself would argue that it’s big enough on
heart to win the game.