NFL
By: Rick O’Donnell
It seems as if every time Apple TV+ puts out a new comedy, it will be instantly compared to its most popular one so far, Ted Lasso. At the same time, Apple may have high hopes that all their shows become as wildly popular as Lasso, but not everyone needs to pull from that formula. Yes, Stick is a comedy and does involve a sport, but the two shows couldn’t be more different, and that’s okay. Why are we even comparing the two?
First and foremost, the two main characters couldn’t be any more different than they already are. With Ted Lasso, your main character, Ted, is going through his life’s challenges, but he’s that wholesome father figure with a heart of gold that you couldn’t help but root for. It was his relationship with the team and constantly putting everyone else first that you couldn’t help but hope that karma came back to him. His story unfolds and you learn his history and he comes off as a guy who caught a bad break.
Then there’s Stick, where Pryce Cahill too, is going through his challenges, but there’s a different feel to this one. Nothing about his motives to date seems as if he has anyone else in mind but himself. He discovers a child prodigy and instantly wants to mentor him to be successful, but early on it doesn’t seem like he’s doing it for the kid, Santi, he’s doing it to regain his former glory. He’s out hustling guys at the bar for money and setting them up with his friend, Mitts. You don’t get the sense he’s just caught a bad break. It feels as if he’s in the position he’s in based on the dishonest choices he’s made throughout his life.
That’s not to say in future episodes we won’t get that same wholesome feel-good moment such as the ones we got in Ted Lasso, but with Stick it’s telling a different story. If you’re going to compare the latter to anything, it would be better understood with parallels to Happy Gilmore than Ted Lasso, and not just because they’re both about golf.
Ted Lasso is an amazing show, but it’s time for people to move on until it comes back. Comparing these two shows is doing them no justice while also deceiving your reader into thinking they’re one and the same. By calling Stick the next Ted Lasso, you’re setting fans up to be disappointed in a show that’s nothing even close. Let these shows stand on their own.
