ExploreCompareKidsFind Your IQMy TVITonightBlogAboutNewsletterHow We ScoreJoin Founding Circle

Shows Like Ted Lasso · Ranked

Shows Like Ted Lasso, Ranked by IQ Score

Feel-good prestige comedy that earns its warmth without sacrificing cognitive demand. Ranked by IQ Score.

Ted Lasso is the canonical Apple TV+ feel-good-prestige-comedy. Audiences responding to it typically want: optimism rendered without irony, character growth across multi-season arcs, and ensemble work where everyone's specific cognitive register is taken seriously.

Anchor picks: Schitt's Creek, the canonical 6-season feel-good family comedy. Parks and Recreation, Mike Schur's canonical optimistic-civic-comedy. The Good Place, Schur's ethics-as-actual-subject sitcom.

15 titles · ranked by IQ Score

  1. 1
    Call the Midwife poster, IQ Score 157/200, Stimulating tier

    Call the Midwife

    Stimulating drama, historical, medical

    Moving period drama set in 1950s-60s East London that illuminates postwar healthcare, poverty, and social change.

    157/200
  2. 2
    Slow Horses poster, IQ Score 155/200, Stimulating tier

    Slow Horses

    Stimulating spy, drama

    MI5 agents stationed in a dumping ground department investigate a conspiracy. Educational about British intelligence. Cognitive engagement from the political intrigue. Entertainment from the spy thriller.

    155/200
  3. 3
    Reservation Dogs poster, IQ Score 151/200, Stimulating tier

    Reservation Dogs

    Stimulating comedy, drama

    Chronicles Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma with formal sophistication, requiring viewers to parse humor, heartbreak, and structural nonlinearity without condescension.

    151/200
  4. 4
    Parks and Recreation poster, IQ Score 129/200, Competent tier

    Parks and Recreation

    Competent comedy, mockumentary

    Greg Daniels and Michael Schur's NBC mockumentary whose structural argument, that local-government work is meaningful even when unsuccessful, is more politically pointed than the comic register suggests. Amy Poehler's Le…

    129/200
  5. 5
    Only Murders in the Building poster, IQ Score 129/200, Competent tier

    Only Murders in the Building

    Competent comedy, mystery, crime

    Anchors cozy mystery in aging comedy actors investigating apartment building homicide, using podcasting as framing device for character revelation.

    129/200
  6. 6
    Somebody Somewhere poster, IQ Score 129/200, Competent tier

    Somebody Somewhere

    Competent comedy, drama

    Grounds character study in small-town Kansas context where protagonist navigates identity and belonging among conservative community.

    129/200
  7. 7
    The Good Place poster, IQ Score 129/200, Competent tier

    The Good Place

    Competent comedy, philosophical

    Builds philosophical comedy around afterlife ethics, where characters work through moral philosophy through escalating narrative twists.

    129/200
  8. 8
    Abbott Elementary poster, IQ Score 126/200, Competent tier

    Abbott Elementary

    Competent comedy

    Mockumentary format documents educational bureaucracy through ensemble character work; humor emerges from institutional absurdity and high-stakes pedagogy intertwined.

    126/200
  9. 9
    Brooklyn Nine-Nine poster, IQ Score 126/200, Competent tier

    Brooklyn Nine-Nine

    Competent comedy, police

    Dan Goor and Michael Schur's NBC/Fox cop sitcom anchored by Andre Braugher's Captain Holt and Andy Samberg's Detective Peralta. The structural commitment, police procedural rendered as workplace ensemble comedy at regist…

    126/200
  10. 10
    Welcome to Wrexham poster, IQ Score 125/200, Competent tier

    Welcome to Wrexham

    Competent documentary, sports, comedy

    FX's 2022-onward docuseries about Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney's purchase of Welsh fifth-tier football club Wrexham AFC. The structural commitment to letting working-class North-Welsh community specificity be the act…

    125/200
  11. 11
    Anne with an E poster, TVI Score 123/200, Competent tier

    Anne with an E

    Competent SEL 38/50 drama, children

    A reimagining of Anne of Green Gables with a more modern sensibility. Educational about 19th century Canadian life and the LGBTQ+ content is handled with unusual care. Amybeth McNulty's performance is exceptional. Better…

    123/200
  12. 12
    Detectorists poster, IQ Score 120/200, Competent tier

    Detectorists

    Competent comedy, drama

    Two amateur metal detectorists in Essex look for treasure. Mackenzie Crook's series is exceptional, the pace is deliberate, the tone is gentle, and the craft is extraordinary. Educational about English rural life, archae…

    120/200
  13. 13
    Sweet Magnolias poster, IQ Score 115/200, Competent tier

    Sweet Magnolias

    Competent drama

    Sherryl Woods's novel series adapted as Netflix Southern-women's-friendship drama set in fictional Serenity, South Carolina. The structural commitment to letting middle-aged-woman-protagonist storylines drive the propert…

    115/200
  14. 14
    The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel poster, IQ Score 112/200, Competent tier

    The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

    Competent comedy, drama

    The series constructs stand-up comedy performance as dramatic core, layering 1950s social constraint against protagonist's artistic ambition and family obligation.

    112/200
  15. 15
    Ted Lasso poster, IQ Score 111/200, Competent tier

    Ted Lasso

    Competent comedy, sports, drama

    The comedy-drama centers on cross-cultural coaching mentorship, emotional vulnerability, and team resilience, constructing optimism through character growth and relationship depth.

    111/200
Your IQ Score for this list
0 of 15 marked
Tap "+ Watched" on cards above to compute your score
--/200

Get the Saturday drop.

Every Saturday: 3 new TVI scores, 1 Brain Diet playlist, and the thinking behind what's worth watching. Free.

Questions about this ranking

What show is most like Ted Lasso?

By cognitive register, Schitt's Creek is the closest match, both are 6-season-or-less feel-good comedies where character growth is the actual subject. Parks and Recreation is the workplace-comedy version of the same fundamental tonal register.

How does TVI rank feel-good prestige TV?

Every show is scored on the same rubric. Feel-good prestige TV, when it earns its warmth without sacrificing cognitive demand, can score in the Masterclass tier. The genre's failure mode is sentimentality; the genre's achievement is rendering optimism without irony.

Founding Circle

Lifetime membership, one payment.

Founders get the monthly founders newsletter, quarterly deep dives with a 30-day founder-first window, two title requests a year, and a place on the founders wall. 100 lifetime spots at $99.

Claim your spot →
6-month full refund. No subscription.

Browse every ranked list on TV Intelligentsia

202 ranked-by-IQ lists, filmographies, decade hubs, year hubs, character rankings, streaming-platform lists, and editorial curations. All scored on the same published rubric.

See all ranked lists → Open the full database