Ted Lasso confirms character’s sexuality in most sweet and nonchalant way – and fans love it
Fans of Ted Lasso are praising ‘nonchalant’ reveal of queer character Colin Hughes (Apple TV)
Fans of football comedy-drama Ted Lasso are praising the casual reveal of series regular Billy Harris’ character as gay.
The latest episode of the third season of the show features Colin Hughes (Harris) entering his kitchen – but he’s not alone. The man with him (played by Sam Liu) is casually revealed to be a love interest of some sort, as the two share a sweet conversation, a kiss and the question: “Sex when you get back from Dubai?”
The scene then follows Hughes, a young Welsh winger for Lasso’s team, Richmond AFC, as he gets into his car and tells himself: “I am a strong and capable man.”
Taking to Twitter, fans have shown their appreciation of the scene.
“Ted Lasso having episode three cold open, confirming in a very sweet and nonchalant way, that Colin is queer was so beautiful.”
While most viewers (or at least those with hearts) have warmed to the scene, that hasn’t stopped some bigots making themselves known in the comments.
Luckily, many more fans have been offering their support for the storyline, with one tweeter saying: “I started watching the show purely because of this and thank you.”
Another, somewhat excitable, fan added: “Ted Lasso queer rep, I used to pray for times like this.”
More have commented that the seeds for this reveal had been sewn in earlier series, after Colin made a reference to the gay dating app Grindr in season two.
“Hoping they’d address this since season one, so glad they did. It’ll be great to see the team’s reaction when they eventually find out and support him cuz right now he’s scared to say it,” said one viewer.
Ted Lasso co-creator and star Brendan Hunt has said that the character’s sexuality reveal was a very deliberate choice, meant to reflect the real world of football.
Speaking to RadioTimes, he said: “We’ve known for a while that Colin was gay. It was just a matter of when we were going to finally get to that. It’s still taboo in football, but there are more active players who are coming out.
“There was Josh Cavallo in Australia last year, Jakub Jankto in [the] Czech Republic this year, and Jake Daniels at Blackpool. It’s just part of what’s happening in football. We may be a fake football club, but we’re trying to show a little bit of football reality here.”
Later in the episode, Colin introduces his partner to his teammates as his “pal Michael, world’s greatest wingman”.
Hunt said that the creators of the show always planned to have some sort of queer representation in the series, and that it made more sense for that to come from a pre-established character.
“Before season two, it was like, ‘OK, well, should we cast that someone?’ Then we thought, ‘Oh no, actually, it’ll be better if that person’s already on the team and we’re not acknowledging it and they’re hiding it so well, but there’s been no hint of it so far.’ That helps demonstrate what this person is going through.”
He added: “When people go back and watch the show after this revelation, they’ll be like, ‘Wow, he was hiding that for so long. Colin has to go that long not being who he is.’
“I think that helps tell the story better.”
Ted Lasso is available to stream on Apple TV.
