'Unfiltered therapy': laughter to deal with grief

Since his wife died, Jimmy has never been the same.

He is dragging a duel that affects him both in his work as a psychologist and in his relationship with his teenage daughter, for whom his neighbor cares more than he does.

Ready to turn around, Jimmy makes a decision: he will become more involved in the lives of his patients and tell them what he really thinks, even if it hurts.

Among other things, he encourages a woman to end her marriage, hosts a war veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder in her home, and shows up in the middle of a date with another of his patients.

His new attitude will change the lives of others and, little by little, also his.

Apple TV + premiered this Friday (with two episodes in a row)

, a dramatic comedy starring Jason Segel (

), also co-creator of the series.

Its other two managers are Bill Lawrence, co-creator of

and Brett Goldstein, actor and screenwriter of the award-winning series starring Jason Sudeikis.

His new fiction inherits the combination of smiles and feelings that

handles so well and delves into mourning and sorrow mixed with comedy in a way that recent titles such as

(Netflix).

“We wanted to write a series about grief because we are in a world where everyone, at least tangentially, has dealt with some kind of grief or trauma in this post-pandemic world,” Bill Lawrence says in a video call interview in early December.

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It's something pure"

Lawrence has several decades of experience in television comedy and is the creator of series such as

or the aforementioned

.

"I've always loved writing about things that would usually be drama but with comedic undertones, because that's how I approach the day-to-day and how I manage to deal with those things."

That halfway tone between the emotional and the comedy was the main difficulty that this series posed to its writers.

Brett Goldstein, who parks his acting side here (he has already won two Emmy Awards for his role as Roy Kent in

) to focus on his facets as a screenwriter and producer, highlights this challenge: "You had to find the balance between being funny enough and also very sincere and real, and that the emotional scenes didn't leave you so sad that you didn't feel like laughing anymore. ”.

Next to him, Neil Goldman, also a screenwriter for

, agrees: “The tone was the biggest challenge.

The series may start off leaning towards the

but as it progresses and Jimmy begins to regain the light and true personality of him, the series also becomes funnier and more luminous.

But it's not linear, take two steps forward and one step back, that's how mourning works."

Screenwriter Bill Lawrence, at an event in Pasadena (California) on January 18.

ALBERTO E. RODRIGUEZ (Getty Images via AFP)

Series like

are not afraid to address topics that until recently were taboo, and even more so through comedy.

“The idea of ​​destigmatizing therapy and self-care is very appealing to me.

It's not the world I grew up in, but it's very inspiring.

It's one of the things in the world today that I really think is a positive among so many negative things,” says Lawrence.

The writers talked to therapists to try to portray those issues as accurately as possible.

“You're dealing with a subject that's not a joke, and it's not nonsense,” Lawrence explains.

Harrison Ford in television and comedy

One of the great claims of

is the presence of Harrison Ford in its cast.

Whoever played such iconic characters as Indiana Jones or Han Solo is not a regular on television or the comic genre.

At 80 years old, in the series he gives life to the protagonist's co-worker and mentor.

"I still can't figure out how we got him on our show," says Bill Lawrence.

“The best thing about a guy like Harrison Ford is that, in addition to being an icon and having so much talent, he is a gamer and loves new challenges.

If someone had told me that we were going to send Harrison Ford a script in which he's not the lead, he doesn't appear in all the scenes and we're going to ask him to do things he doesn't normally do, and I was going to say yes. I wasn't ready, I didn't have my next sentence ready, I only had the answer for when I said no”.

Harrison Ford plays Paul, a veteran psychologist in 'Unfiltered Therapy'.

Faced with pure comedy or the

traditional

delves into a genre,

, or tragicomedy, very fashionable in recent times.

When asked if pure and hard comedy no longer works, Brett Goldstein expounds a theory: "I read an interview with those responsible for the films

and

both very, very funny, with millions of jokes and very silly.

They said that they realized that the reason that

was much more successful than

It's because in the first one, without realizing it, there was an argument, an emotional plot, which was something as silly as: will the plane land and they'll get out safely?

There was an emotional involvement of the viewer in the midst of all those silly gags, while

was a nonsense story full of jokes.

You can do pure comedy without emotion, but it doesn't tend to stick with you."

For Bill Lawrence, making a comedy sound "emotionally authentic" is the hardest part of the genre.

“That the stories do not seem false or something that could not happen.

The shows I don't like are the ones I watch and say, 'This is not how a real person would deal with that situation.'

One of the great things about Jason Sudeikis in

It was that he knew from the beginning that he wanted people to think that Ted was a hick, an American goofball with a permanent smile, but gradually realize that he had a lot of shit inside him."

The future of

Ted Lasso

Before finishing the interviews it is inevitable to ask for

.

“I have no idea why people have connected with the show so much,” says Brett Goldstein, someone at the complete opposite of the grumpy footballer Roy Kent on the show.

“I have several theories.

One is that I think public discourse had become very unpleasant and we were living in a time where people were really mean to each other.

A series where people have to face things but try to be kind and better has been refreshing, ”says the actor and screenwriter.

Jason Sudeikis and Brett Goldstein, in the first season of 'Ted Lasso'.

The future of

is still up in the air beyond the third season that will premiere in the spring.

Just in case, the team has faced it as if it were the last.

Lawrence explains that the decision of whether to continue is entirely up to Jason Sudeikis.

“He is the creative engine in that series.

I took care of her the first two years and he has been in charge in this third.

He is

.

The decision of whether or not to continue is 100% his.

I hope he does because I love those characters and the world he's created and it's a great show.

But I will know the decision probably 10 minutes before you.

Jason has children, he has to move to London for work every year… It will be a combination of creative reasons and what is right for his life.

But we'll find out soon," Lawrence concludes.

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