I was 22 years old the first time one of my friends made me watch Clone High, we were in his crappy apartment in Carol Stream that he shared with his awful girlfriend. I had no idea that shows creator would help me through some pretty difficult times in my life.
If you’ve never seen Clone High it’s fucking hilarious, picture Dawson’s Creek but the protagonists are historical figures from throughout time and dropped into puberty and high school. It’s hilarious, and creative and basically perfect. Little did I know that the creator had another show airing at the same time that absolutely changed the way I looked at TV shows.
Scrubs was on at a time in my life, where I was struggling to find out what I wanted to do with my life, where I wanted to be, and what was in store for the future, I really only cared about $1 beers at Hogs and Honeys on Weed St on Thursday nights, White Sox baseball and the big tittied girl I worked with at Best Buy that I was absolutely in love with. I grew up with JD, and Turk, and even Dr. Cox. I didn’t figure out what I wanted to do with my life by the time Scrubs ended, but I felt like I had friends.
The spring of 2020 Bill Lawrence changed my life again, I was stuck at home like the rest of the world, cut off from interaction with people and my job that I loved, just me and my wife in a bedroom and a half apartment on the far north side of Chicago, my friend Jeff Bear introduced me to a show called Ted Lasso. I’ve never really struggled with depression, I didn’t have anything to be depressed about, but unable to socialize, I fell into a pretty deep state of sadness, until I saw Jason Sudekis move to London.
Ted Lasso is based on a short from NBC Sports, where Ted Lasso a college football coach from Wichita State picks up and moves from Kansas to London to coach soccer. Its funny, its heartwarming, and it’s genuine, all things you can’t fake.
Between my hundredth rewatch of The Sopranos, I was searching for a new show to watch instead of Pine Barrens for the umpteenth time, Shrinking takes place in Los Angeles and is about a widowed Jimmy Laird a character played by Jason Segal trying to balance his personal life and his professional life. I can’t speak highly enough of this show, it makes you run the gamut of emotions and I adore it.
Bill Lawrence has this crazy insane ability to write characters you care about and can relate with, from the Animated Abe Lincoln, to JD and Turk to Ted Lasso. It sounds stupid but Ted Lasso may have saved me.
Shrinking is wrapping up its 1st season on Apple TV+ and the 3rd and final season of Ted Lasso starts tonight on Apple TV +.