Some notes about the end of Ted Lasso.
To reset, S had never watched the show before, so in April we watched together from the very first episode. We got caught up three weeks ago, watching the final three episodes on the nights they were released. After binging 30 or so in about 20 nights, I hated going old school and having to wait seven days for the next one.
I don’t think my general thoughts about season three are too original. I didn’t read many episode recaps during the season, nor any post-finale think pieces after Wednesday’s finale. But I believe consensus was that season three was uneven and had too many plot lines that were either unnecessary or too lengthy. Until the end, when things just kind of worked out. How Ted Lasso.
For example, did we need both Colin coming out/being outed and Keely having a relationship with a woman at the same time? I thought doing both seemed redundant and marginalized what could have been more powerful storylines had only one been used. I’m sure that got the right wingers worked up. Maybe that was the point.
I think the macro view of the issues with season three are pretty typical of an ensemble show like this, especially one blessed with such good writing and acting performances. There is an effort to squeeze something good in for everyone and, in the process, the focus that made season one so magical gets lost.
I kept making one comparison in my head. While the shows were very different, both Lasso and Stranger Things progressed through their runs in similar manners. Each were introduced via a season one that was amazing and affecting, a set of episodes that can be watched over-and-over. Both offered season twos that, while losing some of the brilliance of their premieres, expanded on that base and were, in some ways, even better. And then each show got off its rails a bit in season three as their universes expanded.
There are plenty of other shows that have had similar issues, but that was the one that struck me the most.
Back to season three specifically, I didn’t buy the whole Nathan Shelly plot line at all. He turned, with terrific vengeance, on the man who believed in him and helped him rise from kit man to assistant because Nate’s dad didn’t tell him he loved him? I know this show had daddy issues deep in its DNA, but that did not work for me. Even if the scene when Nate and his dad finally air their grievances was very affecting. Nate’s redemption seemed awfully easy after that.
Sam, who was such a big part of season two, sunk to the background this season. I get that you have to cycle through which secondary characters get the most attention. His experience with racism and hate are a perfect example of how interesting things get lost when a show’s world expands. That really could have been a huge, impactful part of the season, but was isolated to a couple episodes early on and then never revisited.
I was glad the Sam-Rebecca thing pretty much got dropped, other than a few looks of longing.
I hated how Roy Kent went from one of the great characters in recent memory to kind of an afterthought. At times he was almost a parody of the Roy we loved in the first two seasons, his gruff comments feeling somewhat forced and lacking in bite.
Another story line that I think deserved more attention was the change in Jamie’s dad. All we saw was a shot of him in, presumably, rehab and then he and Jamie sitting together smiling in the finale’s closing montage. For a relationship that was so powerful and difficult to watch in season two, I think it deserved more time to show the process James went through and how he and Jamie reconciled.
One thing I found very interesting about the show was how it was, overtly, a very politically progressive show. There was nary an episode without a reference, subtle or overt, either supporting a left-leaning political stance or decrying a right wing view. Which, again, I’m sure pissed off plenty of people. You know, the people who decry “cancel culture” when asked to stop being racist and then ban books they don’t like, protest because Target has rainbow t-shirts, or focus on men wearing dresses instead of the fight against bigotry and child abuse those dude in dresses stand for. Some might call them snowflakes.
Yet, from a higher level, Ted Lasso was strongly rooted in traditional values. It was all about having a strong connection with a parent, and the troubles that can develop when that parental connection is not available.[1] It was about taking care of people you are close to. For accepting responsibility for your actions. About being proud of your little community, whether it is a locker room, a soccer team, or the neighborhood of the mega city it occupies. About how you play the game being more important than the final result.
I’ll chalk all that up to Jason Sudeikis’ Midwestern upbringing. Although the empathy for people who live different lives than our own that Ted Lasso was so famous for is rarely present in the leaders who represent those of us who live in flyover country.
Sudeikis gets most of the credit for Lasso. Not enough is said about Bill Lawrence. I have no idea what the split in creative energies has been throughout the series, but Lasso is another notch in what has been an amazing career for Lawrence. He wrote for Friends and The Nanny, among other shows. He helped to create Spin City, Scrubs, and Cougar Town. Then he was involved in Lasso. I’ve heard Shrinking is pretty good, too. That’s a pretty solid CV.
Rupert becoming the #1 villain was both predictable and highly satisfying. While all that family/community stuff is nice, the show’s willingness to tear down the rich white dudes who think the world should bow before their every whim because they have money was almost as big of an organizing ethos.
And yet Edwin Akufo’s return showed that rich Black guys can be menaces as well. At least Akufo was hilarious. The scene in season two when he erupts after Sam turns down his offer was one of the best of the show’s entire run.
Another terrific element of the show’s DNA, especially for old guys like me, were all the references to Cheers. From having characters named Sam and Rebecca, to the picture of Sudeikis’ uncle (George Wendt, aka Norm) hanging in Roy’s favorite kebab joint, there were many scattered throughout the series. I’m sure I missed some of them along the way.
There was a wonderful final callback in the Lasso finale’s closing minutes. In case you missed it, Mae reaches up to shift a picture of Geronimo hanging from her bar’s wall that had gone askew. It was a smaller version of a picture that Nicholas Colasanto, aka Coach from Cheers, kept in his dressing room. After his death in 1985, the cast moved the picture onto the set. In the final episode of Cheers, Sam pauses to straighten it before he leaves the bar.
And then they cut to Trent Crimm signing books for his fans, saying “Cheers” to them.[2]
I also loved how there was always the Will They/Won’t They element to Ted and Rebecca’s relationship, something no show has ever done better than Cheers with Sam and Diane. I thought it was great how the writers only ever hinted at that angle, and kept Ted and Rebecca as friends but never lovers.
And then they open the finale with them clearly having slept in the same house and Ted asking if Rebecca wanted to talk about it. It took less than a minute to reveal they, in fact, did not sleep together. That was a nice way to wrap up that part of the show’s history.
I haven’t even talked about the soccer. I liked how soccer was always a huge part of where each season headed. Whatever the final result on the pitch was, it was always outweighed by what was going on with the characters.
OK, the players all pulling pieces of the destroyed Believe sign from their belongings was kind of hokey. But I loved it.
I’m guessing there wasn’t much acting in all the tears shed in the finale, especially from Hannah Waddingham in the airport scene. She seemed a right wreck, to attempt to put it into words she would use.
I will miss seeing her. She is an absolute Greek Goddess, surely carved out of marble by the sword of Zeus.
Other things I will remember/miss about Tedd Lasso:
Ted’s unwavering belief that people are good and deserve love and respect. We can tell ourselves we should behave in a similar manner, but so much of today’s world pushes us to be cynical and suspicious. Ted gives us hope we can all be better.
Roy Kent, fucking feminist icon.
The love between almost all the female characters, but especially Rebecca and Keely.
Jamie Tartt’s transformation.
Sam Obisanya’s moral compass and innate goodness.
Trent Crimm’s (of The Independent) hair.
The lads in the pub.
Sassy’s sassiness.
Ted Lasso will go down as the first great show from AppleTV+. Only an uneven season three keeps it from being an all time classic. It offered us some tremendous characters, lots of laughs, perhaps as many tears, and 30-some episodes that always had at least one moment that would affect you. After rewatching them all, I give season one an A+, season two an A-, and season three a B+, with an overall grade of A.