Everybody Loves New Season of Ted Lasso

More than 40 critics are unanimous: season two of Apple TV's Ted Lasso rocks. The first season of the show about an American football coach hired to revamp an English soccer team was a surprise hit with audiences and critics alike, prompting Emmy nominations for best comedy series and best actor in a comedy series for Jason Sudeikis. The follow-up season, premiering Friday, has a 100% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, with some saying it's even better than the first.

• The Guardian's Lucy Mangan gives it five stars, describing a "broadening and deepening" that must've seen risky "in a show predicated on bringing light comic relief to viewers." But "it's paid off" thanks to a new foe—a sports psychologist played by Sarah Niles—who "is the catalyst for growth in Ted in ways that stay true both to him and to the show’s comic, tender spirit." Plus "all our favorites are back," some with their own storylines.
• "One of the biggest strengths of the new season is that the supporting actors who portray the soccer players are spotlighted," writes Kelly Lawler at USA Today. For her, season two "establishes the staying power of Lasso, and then some. Funnier, deeper and more ambitious than the inaugural outing," the new episodes "significantly up the physical antics" while "the writers double down on mining comedy from silliness and optimism."

• The show keeps up its "blend of smartly structured comedy, enlightened bawdiness and humane insight," but "star Jason Sudeikis and the ensemble around him shine brighter than ever," writes Maureen Ryan at Vanity Fair, highlighting Brett Goldstein's turn as retired pro player Roy Kent. He's "the source of many large and small moments of pleasure,” but overall, there's more screen time devoted to the show's "burgeoning array of endearing goofballs."
• Daniel Fienberg took in eight episodes of the 12-episode season and "the returns are, like Ted Lasso himself, unreasonably positive," he writes at the Hollywood Reporter. The show "follows its protagonist's example and enters every room with the thematic equivalent of a carefully wrapped box of homemade biscuits," he adds. "It's sweet, hopeful and obstinately corny" and "nearly every episode climaxes with the sort of emotional uplift most shows would save for a season finale."

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