Ted Lasso (5 seasons)
With the new season of Ted Lasso having been released, which moved forward by a few years to bring back the beloved coach and cast in a slightly more different setup of coaching a women’s football team, Ted Lasso remains one of the most believed characters in recent years around the world. And it is not just Ted, but so many more characters within the show who are universally loved.
In a world that is growingly accustomed to the idea of the spectacle, Ted Lasso’s tenderness is a triumph of writing. The show never hinges on a moment of spectacle, but brings out so much emotion that underlies between the humour of it all. It is by no means not funny either, but rather, on the other hand, the show itself was born out of a joke, which turned out to have severe potential, and oh boy what potential it does have.
A show about a high school basketball team coach who knows nothing about football, pushed without a life jacket into the sea of football in the United Kingdom sounds like the most unrealistic idea ever, but it just works so very perfectly. As seasons progress, the show becomes almost like the most comforting hot chocolate one can sip on during a cozy cold night. This is owed to one of the most iconic teachers in the form of coach Ted Lasso, who with his goofy spirit embodies a persona that is ever so hard to dislike. He has a radiant charm of a golden retriever, and even then, he holds a restrained pain within him, which he must come to terms with, while never allowing a moment of demotivation for his team of players, all of whom have their own distinct struggles and challenges.
The show is an equally tender reminder of how every person has their own battle, and the second season of the show deals with a topic that has seldom been seen before, diving into mental health in sports. The teaching doesn’t just remain restricted to the titular character, but those around him. Whether it is an unexpected teacher in the form of an antagonist trying to do better, or even in a retired star player who can’t seem to speak without foul language, the show radiates positivity, which is what the world so very desperately requires right now. Each character is written with such care and love, that it becomes ever so difficult to find yourself rooting against them.
Without diving deep into each season with great detail, I will leave you to watch what I believe is a show that is beyond football itself, but rather uses the sport as a brilliant backdrop to set itself up as what is one of the most motivating and feel-good pieces of work in recent years, that anybody can sit through, and in this entire journey, one can find so many amazing lessons not just about sport, but of life itself. Above all, how can one ever forget what Ted Lasso always reminds his players to do? A singular word, an act that instills hope within ourselves, especially when we find ourselves in times of trouble: “Believe.” And in Ted Lasso and Richmond AFC we believe!
Chhoti Si Baat
Chhoti Si Baat is far from a film that gravitates itself around a teacher. In fact, it is a romantic comedy that evokes some serious nostalgia of the 1970s. A film that shows the city of Mumbai (then Bombay) in a beautiful manner, there is a subversion that the film arrives at through a key moment in the narrative, in the form of a teacher who remains so very unique till this day.
Basu Chatterjee was a filmmaker who was never quite entirely a commercial filmmaker, and nor was he an art filmmaker. So where neither side completely accepted him, he forged a path entirely distinct to his filmography, called the Middle of the Road cinema. His filmography till this day remains some of the most remarkable- They have simple characters with very realistic and often hilarious dilemmas.
Chhoti Si Baat is a film about a naive man who loves a woman, but can’t ever get himself to say it. Added to this, there also is another man who is in love with this woman, who seems far more confident than our protagonist. A simpleton by nature, Arun, played by the great Amole Palekar seeks the help of the retired Colonel Julius Nagendranath, played by Ashok Kumar in one of the most evergreen roles of Indian cinema. The colonel teaches Arun the ways of romantic flirtation, in what is an absurdly hilarious sequence of training one could watch- Which nearly leads to a comedy of near error.
The film begins with a wonderful introduction to the world it is set in, which feels almost like a handbook given to an audience before they attend a play in the theatre. Fifty years on, even till date, the film remains thoroughly enjoyable, and perhaps a very important film in the context of the rapidly shifting idea of “the nature of man” and “manliness”. In times of brutal violence, Chhoti Si Baat is a film about tenderness and respect, not of violence and crudeness. It is a film that has and will remain forever evergreen, and a lot of it is owed to the wonderfully colourful world that is Basu Chatterjee’s cinema.
The Holdovers
Keeping the timeline of the 1970s ongoing, now we finally step inside a school. The New England all-male boarding school to be specific. Angus is stuck back at boarding school with a handful others, with no option to go back home when his family holiday gets cancelled. With no other teacher available, Paul Hunham, an old and rather unpopular shrewd teacher along with the janitor Mary Lamb (who is instantly loveable) are assigned to supervise the remaining “holdovers.”
Alexander Payne’s film evokes visual nostalgia right from the get go, where we see an old logo of the production company, focus features, which funnily enough never actually existed in the 1970s. He builds on certain cliches, driving them forward, but attaches a feeling of antiquity to them, which then makes the film unique in its own stride.
The film’s dry comedy also holds so many moments of heartfelt human connection and understanding, with a wonderful breakout performance from Dominic Sessa. There is an emotional moment of coming to terms with loss, which is deeply affecting. It is a film that humanises those who work in educational institutions, beyond the classroom. Where Paul Hunham is a teacher who is concerned with academics and grades with an ill-temper, it is a film also about his emotional quotient being challenged throughout, and his human side emerging, almost like Scrooge from Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’. It is a film about building bridges and of letting go, and thus, about the necessity and capability of, and to change.
Published – November 12, 2026 10:00 am IST
