The best Ted Lasso replacement is already streaming on Apple TV, and four seasons are available to watch now. When Ted Lasso premiered in 2020, it was praised for its pitch-perfect balance of humor, heart, and emotional depth, as Jason Sudeikis’ titular football coach moved from Kansas City to London to start his life anew after a messy separation from his wife. Following a more divisive third (and seemingly final) season, the show’s upcoming fourth outing is a welcome prospect, focused on Ted’s new job as the AFC Richmond women’s soccer coach.
While traditional network sitcoms are still the prevailing format for television comedies, Ted Lasso paved the way for more so-called dramedies, with shows like fellow Emmy-nominated Apple TV hit Shrinking — co-created by Ted Lasso’s very own Brett Goldstein — taking up the torch as the sports comedy’s spiritual successor. However, years before Shrinking arrived on Apple TV, and even a few months before Ted Lasso graced the small screen for the first time in August 2020, another Apple Original series premiered on the platform, one that, with its British sense of humor, is an arguably even better replacement for Ted Lasso: Andy Wolton’s Trying.
Trying Is One Of Apple TV’s Most Underrated Shows
Despite a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score of 96% (higher, incidentally, than both Ted Lasso’s and Shrinking‘s current Tomatometer scores), Trying remains one of Apple TV’s most underrated shows. The series follows Londoners Jason (Rafe Spall) and Nikki (Esther Smith) as they embark on an arduous yet ultimately rewarding journey to start their own family. When it becomes clear they’ll never be able to conceive, Jason and Nikki decide to adopt, but the process ends up being a lot more difficult than they were anticipating.
|
Apple TV Show |
Rotten Tomatoes Critics’ Score |
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score |
|
Trying (2020-Present) |
96% |
91% |
|
Ted Lasso (2020-Present) |
90% |
86% |
|
Shrinking (2023-Present) |
93% |
88% |
Supported by their friends and family, including distant sisters, meddling parents, strange in-laws, and curious social workers, Jason and Nikki navigate their lives together as best they can before welcoming brother-sister duo Tyler (Mickey McAnulty/Cooper Turner) and Princess (Eden Togwell/Scarlett Rayner) into their little family. The show was inspired by creator Andy Wolton’s own experience of being adopted, presenting an at-times brutally honest but ultimately rewarding perspective on what that process looks like — especially when adopting older kids.
Much like Ted Lasso, Trying certainly doesn’t shy away from discussing the emotional toll of family life, but it never veers too far off course, either, striking that perfect balance between the show’s emotional stakes and its laugh-out-loud comedy. Throughout its four-season run, Trying explores what it means to be a family and how people can become the best versions of themselves with the help of those closest to them. Surely, that’s something Coach Lasso would approve of.
Trying Season 5 Is Already In The Works
Luckily, four seasons and 32 episodes of Trying are available to watch on Apple TV now. The fifth season, which has already wrapped filming and is expected to premiere later this year, will consist of another eight episodes, making it one of Apple TV’s longest-running shows to date. Some big names are joining Trying for season 5, including The Thursday Murder Club and Bridget Jones’ Diary legend Celia Imrie, and Merlin‘s Colin Morgan (via Deadline).
One of the reasons Trying has quietly managed such a relatively long streaming run on Apple TV is because of the way the show reinvents itself each season. Every batch of episodes presents a new challenge in Nikki and Jason’s adoption journey; first, they have to accept that they can’t conceive, then they have to undergo the time-consuming and painfully personal process of being approved as potential parents, and finally, they have to learn how to actually be parents, especially to young children who’ve already faced grief in their lives.
Between seasons 3 and 4, the show beautifully utilizes a six-year time jump, allowing Trying‘s leading couple to face new obstacles as parents to teenagers — teenagers with questions about where they come from and why they were left behind. The way the characters’ relationships develop is so honest and natural that it becomes impossible not to root for them, just like it was impossible not to root for Ted Lasso‘s AFC Richmond squad. With Ted Lasso season 4‘s summer 2026 release slot a good few months away, there’s no better time to try out Apple TV’s Trying.