In the second most bombastic scene in HBO’s depressing/overblown drama The Newsroom, Will McAvoy turns it down – because he’s time travel from the future by / Consistent with the prevailing media narrative following the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. He boldly proclaimed, “The doctors declared her dead, not the news!”
That’s what I say to everyone associated with Ted The feeling of Lasso hints that the show’s upcoming third season will also be its last. Sure, star and co-creator Jason Sudeikis might tell everyone they’re done with the story they set out to tell, but the football comedy feels like a
Apple TV+ is too valuable to go down without a fight, or at least promotional hype. Before the first ad said it was the “third and final season,” I thought there were talks going on behind the scenes. Ted Russo
Bottom line is bursting at the seams, for better or worse.
Broadcast date: Wednesday, March (Apple TV+) Cast: Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham , Jeremy Swift, Phil Dunst 2011 Brett Goldstein
, Brendan Hunt, Nick Mohammed, Anthony Head, Toheeb Jimoh, Cristo Fernandez, Kola Bokinni, Billy Harris, James Lance and Juno Temple
Creators: Jason Sudeikis, Bill Lawrence, Boo Lendan Hunt, Joe Kelly
Still, according to the four episodes sent to critics, Ted Lasso Definitely feels like the end of a show that treats this show as an end. It’s looking backwards rather than forwards, and the shape of the entire series’ narrative is becoming clearer. Meanwhile, the show continues to do what can be praised as expansive or criticized as bloated. These four episodes are in 50 and between minutes, when this is a 30 minute show, no from behind adjust their pitch or structural tempo. The result is clumsy, like a solid eight-episode season squeezed together with little regard for flow or repetition. The characters—too many, let’s be honest—the comfort of their return is enormous, and often enjoyed.
Insecurity, Sudeikis’ Ted leads AFC Richmond back to Premier League but Nate (Nick Mohammed) goes all out for Judah (or Darth Vader) and accepts Rupert’s (Anthony Head) offer The proposal to coach West Ham United.
Still, Ted achieves his basic purpose of coming to coach the team, and after dropping his son off to the airport in the season three premiere, he muses, “I guess I sometimes Do wonder what the hell I’m still doing. I mean, I know why I’m here, but I don’t quite understand why I’m sticking around.”
Regardless of whether the show is coming to an end or not, Ted Thinking that his place in the narrative is coming to an end, he wonders what the end will look like.
We start at the start of the new football season. All pundits have picked Richmond to finish last and thus face relegation. This has upset Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), mainly because West Ham, now owned by her ex-husband, are expected to finish in the top five. Will hope come in the form of mercurial striker Zava (Maximilian Osinski), or will a Zlatan Ibrahimović-style international move also opt for West Ham?
Many other things are going on. There are too many things. Tensions remain between Roy (Brett Goldstein) and Keeley (Juno Temple), but at least her new publicist is in the works. Ongoing player-focused storylines involving Jamie’s (Phil Dunst) maturation and Sam’s (Tohibjimer) new restaurant, alongside Colin (Billy Harris) and Thierizzo Critical and semi-critical new episodes related to Moe Jeudy-Lamour. The ultimate irony of the show would be if it ended right at the moment when I finally started to recognize and care about every single member of the team.
The problem isn’t that Ted Lasso spreads too thinly in extending his image to a one-hour comedy. Quite the opposite. It was spread too thickly. It stands to reason that Apple TV+ should have three or four related spin-offs at this point. We should have Ted Lasso: Even Keeley , about Keeley’s evolution from stereotypical WAG to full-fledged professional. There should be Ted Lasso: Player’s Club, a La Ronde style anthology where each episode is a separate profile of a different player. There should be Ted Lasso: Roy Story with Roy Kent and the Muppets, and Ted Lasso: Shrinking where Sarah Niles’ Sharon moves to LA and Join the cast of Shrinking for practice sessions. These are spinoffs that I really want. I don’t like Ted Lasso: Those Three Guys at the Pub or Sassy! where the great Ellie Taylor gets the spotlight she deserves.
On the contrary, Ted Lasso has become a show where every character feels worthy of being the star of their own show – something not seen in many series A landscape of characters worthy of hosting the show – everyone feels as if they’re only half-served. This is amplified because the show’s ostensible protagonist is in a rut that he partially understands, and the show, frustratingly, doesn’t.
After last season, how is Ted still going around asking other characters if he’s a mess? Wasn’t the whole point of season two to make both viewers and Ted realize that his wildly hearty attitude and unbreakable optimism were a mask for decades of repressed grief? I know it’s the part of Ted who realizes the premise of the series is that he’s trying to escape the trauma of self-denial, but the only person with real access to Ted is Sharon, and she’s been reduced to a Zoom/phone-only capacity.
Season 3 starts off feeling like it’s half setting up any or all of these possible spinoffs and half addressing Ted Lasso’s arc while emphasizing that Ted Lasso may have become the least Striking part of Ted Lasso. Everyone else has been involved for a long time, but Ted has checked out, whether he realizes it or not.
It’s not that I dislike Sudeikis’ performance, especially his emphasis on intense grief in season two. It’s just that I like supporting characters.
Just because we’ve seen Waddingham play Rebecca’s displeasure with Rupert before – Hyde, now a regular in the cast, is very money-grubbing – doesn’t mean watching her unhappy getting closer Her latest breakthrough.
Just because we spent two years watching Goldstein, or at least Roy Kent, swearing at men, women and children doesn’t mean the new season won’t feature some My favorite Roy Kent swear word. I offer “Fuck yeah, Princess Diaries” out of context as one of several gems.
Mohammed is awesome, Nate fought for what was left of his soul. Dunst continues to make Jamie’s hero more believable than it should be. After earning a well-deserved Emmy nomination for season two, Jimoh is an early forgotten man, but whatever material he delivers serves as a reminder of why viewers and Rebecca fell in love with his character. Cristo Fernández, Charlie Hiscock, Harriet Walter, Andrea Anders, Elodie Blomfield, Adam Colborne, Bronson Webb and Kevin Garry are just some of the long list of supporting characters willing to steal a scene or an entire episode given the chance. And don’t get me started on Allie Taylor. This season is not complete – Stranger Things – and I haven’t mentioned the new additions including Osinski (interesting but feels like there are too many characters in the show), always welcome Jodi Balfour and more.
This is a series full of seams. Die-hard fans are sure to feel that you can’t have too much of a good thing, and Apple TV+ is probably hoping that when those seams burst, they’ll explode into multiple standalone shows.
