Owen Wilson’s ‘Stick’ Is a ‘Ted Lasso’ Replacement

For those who have been missing Ted Lasso, the good news is that the Apple TV+ original series will be returning for a fourth season, despite initial beliefs that Season 3 marked its end. But with shooting yet to start, there’s no definitive timeline for release. Thankfully, Apple TV+ has delivered a new sports comedy drama to fill the hole until then, and it does so wonderfully. Stick, starring Owen Wilson, will draw you in immediately, and you’ll instantly notice similarities between the two shows.

Centered around the world of golf with a premise that sometimes also mirrors Happy Gilmore, Stick offers up a wonderful balance of humor and heart, just like Ted Lasso. It’s the replacement you’ve been waiting for.

How Pryce Cahill Is Like Ted Lasso

Stick follows Pryce “Stick” Cahill, played by Owen Wilson, in what will likely be considered one of his best performances. He was once a revered professional golfer, but an embarrassing incident brought an end to his career. Now simply trying to get by in life, working as a salesman in a golf shop and privately coaching elderly players, he has completely lost his way. His ex-wife is adamant that she wants to sell their matrimonial home, but Pryce intends to stay, even though he hasn’t been taking care of it.

Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis), by comparison, seems far more put together when that show begins. He has a good job as an American football coach and a great relationship with his son, despite being separated from his son’s mother. This family dynamic mirrors Pryce’s in a way. Though for Ted, his sadness lies in the fact that moving to England to coach an English football team means he’s away from his son. Like Pryce, however, he’s also grieving the loss of his love.

Both men clearly still love their exes, but something has led to the breakdown of their marriage. Later in Stick, viewers learn that there’s more than meets the eye to what caused the outburst that ended Pryce’s career, and the reason he and his wife lost their way. Similarly, more is revealed about Ted as the show progresses, including the trauma he carries from his own personal life and childhood.

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Both men mask their heartache with humor; Ted is a more jovial soul with a signature Midwestern accent, and Pryce, with Wilson’s distinctive voice, is a lover of sarcasm and feigned enthusiasm. However, both men also find purpose in helping others. With Pryce, it’s the teenage Santi (Peter Dager), a young man he spots driving balls at a driving range. He sees something in Santi and believes this kid has what it takes to go pro. Pryce is desperate to coach him and finally finds his love for the game reinvigorated as a mentor for this young man.

For Ted, he didn’t need much coaxing to want to do his job. He rose to the challenge of coaching a flailing English football team, even if he knew nothing about the sport. But throughout the series, Ted also strikes up a fatherly bond with an arrogant young player, Jamie (Phil Dunster), in a similar way to Pryce’s budding relationship with Santi.

The Father-Son-Like Relationship Between the Main Characters

As Pryce tries to endear himself to Santi and convince the young man to pick up golf once again, he discovers the reason that Santi stopped playing in the first place. This is related to a fractured relationship with Santi’s father. Similarly, in Ted Lasso, Jamie, the team’s star player, felt pressure from his father to perform at his best, and shame and a lack of love when he didn’t. That led him to play selfishly, always seeking glory and never being a team player.

The fatherly instincts of the main characters from both shows kick in as they both try to bring out the best in their players. Most importantly, however, they want to help them feel like they’re more than just athletes whose affinity and talent for their respective sport define them.

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Both lead men draw from their own experiences, whether with their own fathers or in being fathers themselves. The reveal at the end of the pilot episode of Stick shows that Pryce has dealt with tremendous loss in his life, just as Ted has been struggling with the acceptance of the loss of his father, who died by suicide.

In terms of their relationships with the young men they eventually mentor, Pryce and Ted find that they need to help them get out of their heads, recognize their talents, and accept that they must work with others to succeed. They can’t do it all on their own. And they shouldn’t want to (or have to) either.

Why ‘Ted Lasso’ Fans Will Love ‘Stick’

Stick, one of the new Apple TV+ series debuting in June, shares a similar tone and feel to Ted Lasso, as it surprisingly combines both humor and heart. It explores emotional pain and trauma, illustrating how several characters navigate loss, heartbreak, and the search for self and purpose. Naturally, the sports element is at the heart of both shows, along with two men who find new purpose, both professionally and personally. For Pryce, it’s getting his life back on track after a terrible loss, a failed marriage, and an ended career. For Ted, it was childhood trauma, a failed marriage, and trying to be the best father he could be for his son.

Both men similarly wear masks, afraid to deal with their grief, which manifests in different ways. While most people see them as happy, joking individuals who always have a smile on their faces, they both have moments of self-reflection. For Pryce, he shuts down, drowning his sorrows in the bottle or spacing out from the world around him. With Ted, it’s panic attacks where he becomes completely overwhelmed, and unrecognizable to the people who had just started to get to know him, until he’s able to finally breathe and calm down.

Stick probably won’t get the same glowing reception that Ted Lasso did when it premiered. However, there’s an opportunity for the story to evolve, the layered characters to develop further, and the narrative to delve deeper into the topic of mental health, particularly among men.

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For those who love Ted Lasso and shows like Shrinking, Stick is a worthwhile follow-up. The series strikes a perfect balance, much like Ted Lasso, between comedy and subtle, dramatic moments that deal with the less flashy, more real aspects of simply being human.

The talented cast also includes Marc Maron as Mitts, Pryce’s former caddy and best friend; Mariana Treviño as Santi’s mother Elena; Lilli Kay as Zero, a young woman Santi befriends; and Judy Greer as Pryce’s ex-wife Amber-Linn. They all have their own stories, too, much like the supporting cast in Ted Lasso. It’s tough to find a single character you don’t want to get behind.

The two shows are peas in a sports comedy pod that give new meaning to what a sports story can look like on the small screen. Even though Stick tells a story audiences have seen time and again — eerily similar to that in Happy Gilmore — there’s a lot more to it beneath the surface. Like Ted Lasso, it will surprise with more dramatic and serious plotlines as the episodes progress. And like Sudeikis, Wilson will remind fans that he is a versatile actor who can play much more than the one-dimensional, silly, comedic roles for which he has become best known. Stream Stick on Apple TV+.