LIGHTER TOUCH
‘Lasso’ bad boy Jamie to be less Tartt-tongued
The title character of “Ted Lasso” is still the star, but the show’s new season is more about the trickle-down effect of his folksy niceness and the gradual thawing of the stiff British upper lip.
Returning Friday for a second season on Apple TV+, the comedy series about an American college football coach hired by a Premier League soccer team in England finds its characters still fighting to stay above the fray.
Then there’s Jamie Tartt, king of the fray, in what actor Phil Dunster described as a “quarter-life crisis.”
“In the first season, Jamie was brash, being Jamie Tartt,” Dunster told the Daily News. “This season is Jamie Tartt with his tail between his legs, hat in hand.”
The bad boy is a common trope. He’s rude, sarcastic and mean. He acts solely for himself, with little to no care about who he hurts. Jamie fits all of this. But thanks to Ted (Jason Sudeikis), he might just be headed in the right direction.
“We’ve seen that he represents this toxic masculinity and he continues to do that, but I think his journey is a sort of lotus flower coming out of his emotional swamp,” Dunster told The News.
The 29-year-old English actor, who joked that Jamie is his “alter ego,” recognizes that this transition is neither easy, nor smooth. For Jamie, it’s two steps forward, one step back, at best. But he’s trying.
“We see someone even as selfish and greedy and arrogant, but also damaged and hurt, somebody who’s coming to terms with who they are and the status that they have and the burden that that gives them,” Dunster said.
“It’s really fun playing a (jerk) .. .but it doesn’t happen in a vacuum,” added the actor. “There’s a reason he is like that. It’s all the more satisfying to play those moments when he’s a real ass when I know, deep down, this is because of a relationship he had with his parents or the pressures that he’s under. And sometimes it’s letting loose and just being like, ’Well, he’s just a d—k.’”
The second season of “Ted Lasso” spends more time with its secondary characters, keeping the jovial coach as its leader but spending more time with the players of the fictional AFC Richmond team, along with its employees, including the team’s new sports psychologist Sharon.
Sam Obisanya, Danny Rojas and even Higgins get their own unique storylines as the “Ted Lasso” world expands. Keeley, Rebecca, Roy Kent and Coach Beard continue their own growth.
Ted remains the focus, with his self-deprecation, puns and pop culture-laden motivational speeches.
“Ted Lasso,” which premiered last August, became a show to cling to during the pandemic, one of the few that broke through the overcrowded market and seeped into every corner of viewership. Dunster said he’s even had a few fans show off their themed tattoos to him.
“It came out at a really difficult time for the world,” he said of the show. “The world needed kindness, it needed a place to relax and switch off for a moment. But also I think that one of the things it showed as well was a leader of a club or an organization who listens and promotes kindness and empathy.
“It’s this comedy that is not pitting people against each other and hoping that they fail.”