Is "Ted Lasso" in a Twelve-Step Program?

My new favorite television streaming show is Ted Lasso on Apple TV. It is my favorite show since Schitt's Creek. 

For those of you who haven't seen it, Ted is an American Division II college football coach who is asked to coach an English Premier League team. Ted is a mensch--a nice guy. Rebecca acquired the AFC Richmond through a divorce, and she wants to sink the team to spite her ex-husband. The show is both funny and endearing. I've only watched Season 1 so far. I am saving Season 2.

As I have been watching, I feel like this show is indirectly about a twelve-step program, where the themes and content are similar to those groups recovering from addiction. Ted and company hang out in pubs and drink a lot of beer, which is not necessarily in keeping with the Alcoholics Anonymous principles. Nevertheless, the show feels like recovery.

Some of you may be asking, what are twelve-step programs? For the easiest definition, I went to Wikipedia: they are "mutual aid organizations for the purpose of recovery from substance addictions, behavioral addictions and compulsions." While more than two hundred programs use twelve steps, Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon were the first two.

Back to Ted Lasso. [Spoiler Alert: I won't tell you how Season 1 ends, but there might be a few spoilers in here.]

1. "What's your name?" Ted asks Nate the Kit Manager (the equivalent to the equipment manager for an American football or baseball team) in the first episode. The first thing that happens in a twelve step meeting (in person) is group goes around the circle and everyone says their first name. This is the first time anyone from the team has asked Nate his name.
2. "I appreciate you." Ted is full of gratitude and expresses it freely. Gratitude is a major theme in recovery programs. I find gratitude to be a natural upper. For one of my birthdays, I spent two weeks thinking of why I appreciated everyone in my life and I wrote it all done. It was the best two weeks.
3. "That's stinkin' thinkin'" Ted tells someone on the team. This is a classic line from AA for when people use bad logic to justify bad behavior or feel sorry for themselves.
4. Fellowship: Most twelve Step programs call other members "fellows" where they share their struggles with each other. In Episode 8, Ted is recovering from an emotional bender in Episode 7. What does he do? He calls upon Coach Beard, Nate and Higgins to talk about his feelings. They form a group called the Diamond Dogs. The Diamond Dogs are a mini-fellowship where the guys can talk about their feelings.
5. Tradition 1: "Our common welfare comes first; personal progress for the greatest number depends upon unity." The show isn't just about Ted's growth. The show has an ensemble cast and many of the characters experience their own arc and growth, not just Ted.
6. Step 8: "Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all." Episode 9 is called "All Apologies." Rebecca realizes the harm she has done to Ted and Higgins, and she apologizes.
7. Step 9: "Continued to personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it." In Episode 9, Ted has to bench his team captain and aging star. Initially, Ted wants to keep Roy in even though he has been playing poorly. Coach Beard and Nate disagree. They think Roy will hurt the team's chances of winning. Ted concedes. He also reflects Tradition 1 in this moment, that the common welfare comes first instead of the welfare of one player. Likewise, in Episode 5, Ted has to pull a selfish and self-absorbed star player who is hurting the team.