Ted Lasso's Jason Sudeikis Relinquishes Any Credit To The Show's 'Believe' Theme
This post contains spoilers for "Ted Lasso" season 3, episodes 5 and 7.
On "Ted Lasso," Jason Sudeikis' titular coach doesn't just inspire his team with down-home locker-room speeches. He's also been known to post the word "BELIEVE" in all-caps on a yellow sign above his office. And woe betide the rogue kitman-turned-assistant-coach who would dare to tear up that sign on surveillance video.
For players of the fictional association football club, AFC Richmond, "believe" is a word that has become an ethos. In the past, Ted's team has tapped the sign for good luck the way someone might rub a statue, and they've also freaked out whenever the sign fell, as if it meant the universe was aligned against them.
When not tying private parts together, "Ted Lasso" season 3, episode 7, "The Strings That Bind Us," takes that one step further by having Ted briefly acknowledge a higher power, saying, "Sometimes you gotta leave space to let God walk in the room." In an interview with Collider, Sudeikis, too, acknowledged that the global popularity of the "Believe" slogan was bigger than him:
"Religion is big, so we didn't coin the term 'believe.' I know people have an instinctive desire to want to believe, whether it be in ghosts and love and magic, and the inverse and opposites of those lovely things too. No, there's no way to anticipate the way people have responded to the show, or specifically to that sign and that word. It was just a thing I saw in my head and typed into our first draft of the pilot, and it's something else. I think we all are shocked and flattered. And yet, at the same time, I have to relinquish any control of it because it's just a powerful word on its own."
Do you still BELIEVE?
What the above Jason Sudeikis quote essentially boils down to is the newsflash that "Ted Lasso" does not have a monopoly on the word "believe." Now more than ever, that's a good thing to keep in mind, since the belief of some viewers in the Emmy-winning series has faltered a bit, leading to the sentiment that something is wrong with "Ted Lasso" season 3.
By now, what started out as a simple half-hour comedy in season 1, with Ted encouraging people to "be a goldfish" because of their 10-second memory, has long since ballooned into a series where episodes regularly hit 50 minutes or even exceed a full hour. It's as if the show's self-described "rom-communism" has spread itself across a few too many subplots, to the point where it's exploring the love life of every other character.
This is neatly encapsulated in the montage that accompanies Ted's locker-room speech and voiceover after he himself rips up the "BELIEVE" sign and trashes it for good in season 3, episode 5 (appropriately titled "Signs.") As Ted pontificates aloud, "What about the belief of hope? Yeah? That's what I wanna mess with," the show cuts away from his players to check in on the romantic state of other characters like Nate, Keeley, Roy, and Rebecca.
It's moments like this that have led us to question, "Is 'Ted Lasso' really a comedy?" Or is it just a relationship dramedy, like "Sex and the City" with a mustache? Add to that, new characters like Zava (Maximilian Osinski), old sidelined characters like Dr. Sharon Fieldstone (Sarah Niles), and an ever-growing list of AFC Richmond teammates with speaking parts, and it starts to feel like "Ted Lasso" season 3 has spread itself thin, even as Ted's own profundity — draped in cheeriness if not cheesiness — wears thin.
'Can't nobody rip that apart'
Ultimately, while "Ted Lasso" may not be as refreshing from a creative standpoint in season 3 as it was in season 1, that doesn't negate the value of some of the life lessons Ted seeks to impart. In the locker room, Coach Lasso still delivers some useful words of wisdom, observing as he rubbishes the BELIEVE sign that, "Belief doesn't just happen 'cause you hang something up on a wall."
"To believe in yourself, to believe in one another, man, that's fundamental to being alive," he continues. "Can't nobody rip that apart."
After episode 7 this week, there are now signs (no pun intended) that Ted may have devised a winning strategy with his "Total Football" pivot, inspired first by the triangle offense that Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls once employed in basketball. Even journalist Trent Crimm, formerly of The Independent, is giddy with excitement over Total Football.
That said, it's probably too much to hope that AFC Richmond will top the Premier League, since the ever-expanding world of "Ted Lasso" has given us nothing to indicate that this is the kind of underdog sports tale where the team will beat the odds to win it all in the "Rocky" or "Mighty Ducks" tradition. It's enough just for AFC Richmond to score a single goal in episode 7 so they don't get completely shut out and lose by three points instead of two.
For the moment, though, "Ted Lasso" has overcome the crisis of faith and any nagging doubts that Ted is merely a bad coach. Credit Total Football, which restores a little belief in the possibilities of AFC Richmond's future, with or without that BELIEVE sign to nurture their locker-room superstitions.
New episodes of "Ted Lasso" stream every Friday on Apple TV+.