Trailer "Ted Lasso" Season 3 (Apple TV Plus)
Early in Ted Lasso's life, Jason Sudeikis — the main star, character creator, co-creator of the series and the showrunner only in season three — stated that it was pre-planned with an arc of only three seasons. Since these words were said, the good-hearted comedy-drama has become Apple TV Plus' most successful and watched series, a goose that lays golden eggs and prizes. It's clear, then, why Apple wasn't quick to announce the fate of the series — even now that the season has ended — and equally the cast members avoided explicitly saying in interviews whether the series is over or not, even though they have hinted quite a bit that this is the case. Their bottom line, also articulated by Sudeikis himself, was this: The third season will bring the current story to an end and leave no loose ends. The latest episode, which premiered Wednesday on Apple TV Plus, confirms this.
These extremes created a collision. On the one hand, at the end of stories the tendency is to convene the events. On the other hand, such success cannot be given up and it is clear that at least one daughter series will be born from it, so it is worth preparing the way for it. And so, just before the end, "Ted Lasso" expanded more and more the circles associated with the main character, developed entire worlds of their own for the supporting characters, visited other places and introduced us to new characters. Accordingly, the length of the episodes in this season swelled unreasonably - from a series of half-hour episodes, the duration of the episodes this time kissed most of the time to a full hour and even exceeded it.
At first, "Ted Lasso" seemed to cleverly combine the need to finish with the desire to keep going. At the end of the second season, Nate (Nick Muhammad) left for West Ham, the team acquired by Rupert (Anthony Head, forever Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, though he is excellent here as the villain), Rebecca's villainous ex-wife (Hannah Waddingham), who still desperately wished to defeat him. Keeley (Juno Temple) started her own PR firm with her own employees. And the new season accompanies her in the new adventure. And all this in parallel with the friends we already knew, those who populate AFC Richmond – Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein), Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster), Sam Obisanya (Tohib Jimmo), etc. – and this time several others in the group, like Colin Hughes (Billy Harris), and outside it, like Trent Cream (James Lance) – got their own storylines.
And while all this is happening before our eyes, Ted himself seems like someone whose heart is no longer there. In the first episode of the season, he wondered why he was still in England, so far from his separation (Andrea Anders) and especially from his son, and this feeling only intensified and consumed him as he found out about things happening in distant Kansas while he was in London.
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She dropped her grip on her own initiative. "Ted Lasso" Season 3 (Photo: Apple TV Plus)
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These parts seemed to complement each other: the series made up for Ted's decline with more screen time for everyone else. We have a healthy animosity here between one side that includes Rebecca and Ted, the other side that includes Rupert and Nate, and everything can be resolved on the court in the familiar cordial and humane manner of "Ted Lasso." After a second season that itself started all the problems we see now, this time there were signs of rebuilding what it was so lacking – conflict. But as the season progressed, and as the episodes became longer and longer, it was evident that "Ted Lasso" was losing ground. More precisely, she dropped it on her own initiative.
In the sixth episode of the season, right at the halfway point, an idea flashed in Ted's mind as he sat alone in an Amsterdam pub under narcotic influences: Why not apply to football the familiar basketball system, the one that allows players to contribute in both defensive and offensive roles? So, where Dutch Total Football had practiced decades earlier, Ted Lasso had the same idea in mind.
This is quite clearly a metaphor for the entire third season. Ted, the pioneer of the series named after him, took a few steps back this season to allow others to get to the front of the field. Just like Jamie on the pitch, Ted is the focal point that receives the balls and passes them on, while also attracting defenders to him and allowing his teammates to play with wider areas. But here's the thing: Total Football requires tremendous talent, the kind who shine when given the opportunity, who have the ability and skill to put the ball in the net. It soon became clear that "Ted Lasso" was not Holland, Ted himself was not Reynolds Michels, and Keeley and Knight were definitely not Johan Cruyff and Johnny Rapp.
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Did anyone really think this was a reasonable storyline? "Ted Lasso" Season 3 (Photo: Apple TV Plus)
Just as Richmond Football Club's players were confused and stray on the pitch when Ted pitched the idea, that's how this season felt, only without the essential part of a consistent climb up the table. This is a season that threw everything she could think of, without hierarchy, without legality and without internal logic. Everything everywhere at once with a five-pound hammer on our heads. Some of this did produce magic moments like in the first season, such as that trip to Amsterdam, one of the few episodes this season that was really good as one piece, and like a host of scenes throughout it (the Chelsea crowd cheering for Roy, the reconciliation between him and Trent Cream, the rapprochement between Jamie and Roy, the way Jamie says "pooh-pa", the sign in the last episode, and so on).
Indeed, there was no shortage of great moments, but they were small islands in a sea of archaicism, scattering, saccharine and didacticism, maximum sentimentality with minimum sensitivity. Ironically, as the series progressed, it became apparent that Ted Lasso's talent for turning anyone and everything from the chairs in the intro to the team's players, management, owners, and fans into the best version of himself had passed over the series starring him.
Keeley's new PR firm looked like a potential playing on the familiar contours of "Ted Lasso": a unique leader in a place whose character seemed the opposite of hers. But her employees remain statistical, and the only one who has really gained volume, the butt-clenched financial accountant Barbara, is an outrageous waste of the tremendous talent of the wonderful Katie Weeks (from the equally wonderful "Ghosts"). Instead, we were supposed to be interested in Keeley's relationship with her financier, Jack (Judy Balfour), without even seeing what connected them.
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Responsible for some of the good moments. "Ted Lasso" Season 3 (Photo: Apple TV Plus)
Even more puzzling: we are required to forget Nate's disgust and ingratitude and focus on the relationship he develops with Jade (Adita Budnik), the hostess at his favorite restaurant, a character devoid of any personality and no explanation why she is interested in him at all. At the same time, Nate's return to light is just like his descent into the dark side: off-screen. In the second season, we didn't see what caused him so much rage that led him to shut up Ted, tear up the sign and leave in Abha, and this time we don't see what exactly causes him to be redeemed and what causes the members of the group - those he abused in the most disgusting ways when he was in Richmond, those who had murder in their eyes after seeing the incriminating video - not just to forgive him without any initiative on his part, but to implore him to return.
This is all the more outrageous considering that this season's episodes are as long as the length of exile, so it wasn't that there was no shortage of time to devote to describing Knight's dilemmas and progress. There's no shortage of time to turn Jack and Jade into more than a cardboard-deep scripted function. There's no shortage of time to show how on earth Sam got into the Nigeria national team. One can only speculate that "Ted Lasso" does not believe in plot and personality processes or developments. She marks goals and skips over them, and does so consciously and carelessly. We'll squeeze in another joke about men who love romantic comedies, wrap it all in mountains of cotton candy and be forgiven.
This applies even to the hero of the series. Ted's immersion in the background, apparently intended to accustom viewers to doing without him, made him an anemic and dull character even in the moments when he was at the center. This was the case, for example, in confrontations with his mother ("I love you/Go fuck you") or even in his farewell moments with Richmond. Moreover, even in his case, which was planned three seasons in advance, the development was lacking. Isn't he coming back to his son all this time because he's afraid he'll leave him too? What? You've had years to think of a slightly more compelling reason.
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Fading away. Jason Sudeikis, "Ted Lasso" Season 3 (Photo: Apple TV Plus)
What began as a comforting and focused TV hug at a time when we all needed one, has turned into a task to overcome in season three. Instead of setting the stage for sequels, rather than creating a desire for more, what "Ted Lasso" has proven in the last dozen sloppy episodes is that it has acute problems with its ability to tell a story, set conflict and develop characters. Despite its good moments and still-huge popularity, at this point the attitude toward "Ted Lasso" inevitably involves forgiveness, a guilty pleasure. At least we will always have the common loathing of tea.
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