Josh Reviews Ted Lasso Season Three!

Is Ted Lasso season three the end of the show?  It’s weird that we still don’t know!  If this is the end, I am very satisfied.  If it’s not the end, that’s good news as well, as I’d love to continue following the lives of this compelling cast of characters.  I think there are enough great characters to support the show for many more years, even if Jason Sudeikis’ lead character of Ted does not return.

Season three maintained and further developed many of the wonderful things I’ve loved about this show throughout the first two seasons.  (Click here for my review of season one, and click here for my review of season two.)  The show continues to be a near-perfect balance of funny and sweet.  Ted Lasso has a positive, life-affirming ethos that makes it so joyful to watch.  I love these characters, and this season allowed for us to get to more deeply know so many of this show’s ridiculously deep bench of supporting characters.  Seriously, Ted Lasso has so many supporting characters I know and love; it reminds me of The Simpsons in its prime.

This was a shaggier season than the first two, in my opinion.  Some of the storylines wandered a bit more than I felt was the case in those first two seasons, where the storytelling unfolded in more of a clockwork-like precision.  (I wonder if this was due to the lessened involvement of Bill Lawrence.  Mr. Lawrence is a veteran and highly-skilled show-runner — he was the mastermind behind Scrubs — and he developed this show along with Jason Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt, and Joe Kelly.  But my understanding is that Mr. Lawrence had much less to do with this third season than the first two, because he was off developing Shrinking.)  

Whereas most episodes in the first two seasons were a half-hour — a standard length for a comedy series — most of the episodes in season three were around an hour long; quite a few were even longer.  I’ve read a lot of complaints about that online, but personally I did not see the longer run-time of the episodes as a weakness.  The show has so many characters to pay attention to at this point!  I loved that we had extra time in each episode to give moments to the supporting cast-members.  As I already mentioned, I love these characters, and I was happy to get to spend more time with them.

Let’s dig into the season, shall we?  Beware SPOILERS ahead.

There’s so much discuss in this overstuffed season!  Let’s start with things I loved:

“Let Ted be Ted” — I loved the positive, self-deprecating way that Ted handles Nate’s bad-mouthing of him in the press-conference in the season premiere.  A great example of the show’s always showing the positive ripple effects of choosing to be nice over being mean.

Trent Crimm, The Independent — I loved getting to see lots more of Trent this season.  The device of his wanting to write a book about Ted, and this season of Richmond, was a great way to keep him around and deeply involved in everything that was happening.  I was happy to see this season really embrace Trent’s identity as a gay man; the way he was able to be a mentor to Colin was a lovely storyline.

Colin — speaking of which, I was happy to see Colin get a great storyline in which he has to wrestle with coming out as a gay man to his teammates.

Roy and Jamie — I could not get enough of the adorable bonding this season between these two formal rivals.  Watching them tool around Amsterdam on bicycles in episode six was amazing.

Rupert — I enjoyed seeing more of Rupert as a despicable villain here in season three.  Don’t think I didn’t notice the way his office windows resembled the Death Star windows behind the Emperor in Return of the Jedi.

Sam’s father — wow did I love meeting Sam’s father, Ola in episode seven.  What a wonderful character.  (“Forgive them… Don’t fight back, fight forward.”)  Nonso Anozie was perfect in the role.  I enjoyed all the stuff with Sam’s restaurant this season (though it did feel like Sam was pushed somewhat to the background this season, after he had so much to do in season two.)

The return of Edwin Akufo — However, I was thrilled by the return of Sam Richardson as Sam’s nemesis, billionaire Edwin Akufo, in episode 10.  I loved seeing Rebecca get the better of him in the end.

Ted’s mom — We’ve heard a lot about Ted’s fraught feelings about his father, who committed suicide.  So it makes sense that, before the end, we’d get to meet Ted’s mom.  I was thrilled to see Becky Ann Baker in the role.  (I loved her as Jean Weir on Freaks and Geeks, back in the day… and more recently she was great as Loreen Horvath on Girls.  She’s a great TV mom!!)

Episode 6: “Sunflowers” — this episode, depicting a series of anecdotes as the Richmond group scatters around Amsterdam, was a highlight of the season and the show for me.  So many wonderful, beautiful moments.  I’ve already mentioned Roy and Jamie biking around.  But there were so many other great moments.  I loved all the Trent-Colin stuff.  I loved Beard’s Ziggy Stardust outfit.  I loved the ending, with the team singing on the bus.  Just wonderful.

Isaac — There was some strong stuff for Isaac this season.  His story with Colin was interesting; his fight with a fan in episode nine led to some powerful emotional moments, and I loved that final scene of him & Colin playing video games together.

Jamie’s mom — We met a lot of parents here in season three!  It was nice getting to learn more about the families the show’s characters came from.  I love the whole sequence in which Roy and Keeley were following Jamie in episode 11, “Mom City,” and I did not expect the surprise that Jamie was going to visit his mom.  It was interesting to see this woman (so different from Jamie’s awful father), who clearly had him at a young age.  Also: Keeley and Roy in Jamie’s childhood bedroom was amazing.  I’m not sure if I laughed harder at the shot of the poster of young Roy on Jamie’s wall… or young Keeley!

Will as Coach Beard (in episode 7) — I rewatched that moment a LOT.

“Hey Jude” — I’m a huge Beatles fan, so I ate up all that great “Hey Jude” stuff in episode eight.  (Beard to Henry Lasso: “I know right now it feels like you’re in a sad song.  But you, young man, you have the power to take a sad song and make it better.”  I’m not crying, you’re crying!)

Roy Kent saying “whistle!”  — Never not funny.  Also amazing: Roy Kent’s press conferences — see episode 9.  Roy’s answer to the question about Isaac’s attacking a fan was a highlight of the season for me.  (I also loved the way Rebecca calls Roy out on his bullshit in that episode: “this whole ‘woe is me’ thing you’ve got going on is just fucking ponderous.”  Brilliant.)

Higgins dropping a hilarious Willy Wonka-related truth bomb on Rebecca in episode 10: “I hate to break it to you, Rebecca, but those children are dead.”  Might be my favorite moment this season.  Though it’s rivaled by another Leslie moment just a few moments earlier, when he spills tea on himself.  I rewatched that whole scene a LOT.

Beard’s origin story — What a scene at the end of episode 11, as Beard reconciles with Nate and tells the story of what he’s such a faithful partner to Ted.  And also, we learn his first name.  Wow.  As impactful as learning Grogu’s name.

What didn’t work?

In a season with as many long episodes as this one, I still felt like they rushed many of the storylines.  Too many important events happened off-screen.  When Zava was introduced, I was very curious to see how Ted would handle coaching this arrogant super-star.  But we never really got to see that!  Most of Zara’s time with Richmond unfolded in a montage of games, and we skipped over almost all of the locker-room stuff.  That was a bummer.  Later in the season, I was shocked that we didn’t get to see the moment in which Nate broke away from Rupert.  How could we not actually get to see this critical moment??  I’m still befuddled by that decision.

Speaking of Nate, I was underwhelmed by how his character was handled this season.  Season two was bold in how it took this beloved character and turned him evil.  In rewatching season one after seeing season two, I was intrigued to see that the seeds of Nate’s turn to selfishness and bitterness had been clearly planted.  There were a number of examples of Nate’s being cruel and mean in season one that jumped out on a rewatch (his insult-laden motivational speech to the team being a prime example).  So while Nate’s turn was a surprise while watching season two, I felt it worked very well with what had come before.  I assumed the show would take him on a redemption arc in season three, and I was very curious how they would handle that.  But frankly, I was unhappy with how it played out.  The show seemed to suggest that once Nate found love with Jade, he shifted back into being good.  But I felt it all unfolded too quickly.  Too much seemed to happen off-screen.  How did the team go from hating Nate so much they behaved like animals in the game against West Ham in episode four, to “unanimously” wanting him back when Colin, Will and Isaac visit Nate in episode 11?  How does one nice deed of setting up the locker room for Will erase all the abuse Nate had heaped upon him in season two?  I loved Beard’s scene with Nate at the end of episode 11, in which Beard forgives Nate — but watching it, I couldn’t believe Nate never said the words “I’m sorry”.  We do FINALLY get an apology from Nate to Ted in the finale, but to me that came far too late.  I wanted to see more effort on Nate’s part to rebuild and repair his relationship with the people at Richmond he had abused and betrayed.  I wanted to see more remorse from him.  (Another example of important things happening off-screen: I’d have liked to have seen the moment in which Nate agreed to go back to being a lowly kit-man — lower even than Will in the hierarchy — rather than a coaching position at Richmond.  Was that Nate’s idea?  Or someone else’s?)

I also did not really buy into the whole story of Nate’s relationship with Jade.  Jade behaved very shabbily to Nate in her previous appearances (ignoring him and his reasonable requests to be seated at a specific table), and I didn’t quite come along with the show when, this season, they seemed to want to audience to like Jade and be rooting for her and Nate to be in a relationship.  Jade is a rare example of a character on this show who I didn’t really like.

I understand the storytelling reasons to show certain characters growing and moving beyond Richmond, but I wonder if there might have been better ways to keep characters like Nate and especially Keeley more involved with the show than they were this year.  Nate’s stuff with Rupert was interesting (though, as I’d just noted, his storyline with Jade didn’t work for me).  But Keeley in particular felt like she was on a different TV series for most of this season.  I liked seeing Keeley learning to navigate the choppy waters of being a boss, and I liked how the show developed some of the new characters at her firm (especially Barbara, who starts out as something as a villain and, in the special way this show so often develops its characters, was someone I deeply loved by the finale).  But I missed seeing Keeley interacting regularly with the main Richmond gang.  (The story of her relationship with Jack was interesting.  I liked seeing For All Mankind‘s Jodi Balfour in that role.  But like so much this season, it all happened too fast.  Keeley’s suddenly being bi-sexual felt to me like it came out of left field, and I wanted more time to see the full arc of the rise and fall of her relationship with Jack.)

I also felt that for much of the season Rebecca didn’t have as much to do as I might’ve hoped.  I did not much care for all of the business with the psychic predicting her future.

I was bummed that they broke Roy and Keeley up at the start of the season, and I was disappointed that the season (and the show??) ended without their getting back together.  Over the course of the first two seasons, I’d been 100% hooked into the beautiful development of Roy and Keeley’s love story, and I was all-in on their wonderful family unit with little Phoebe.  So I was emotionally hurt when the show pulled them apart here in season three.  I spent the whole season hoping they’d get back together, and I was thrilled in episode ten when they did!  But then I was confused and bummed in episode 11 when it seemed like the show turned around and said they were not actually back together.  I did like getting back into some of the Roy-Jamie competition — that added some fun tension this season — but in the end, I wanted a happy ending for Roy and Keeley and I was bummed we didn’t get it.  (I do like the idea that strong, independent Keeley doesn’t need either Roy or Jamie.  I don’t think that was ever in question!  But when the show worked so hard to get the audience to invest in the Roy-Keeley story for two seasons, I think the writers made a mistake in pulling away from that here in season three.)

Frankly, I was surprised that the show offered so little resolution, at the end, to most of the romantic relationships that had been developed over its three-year run.  We spent so much time with Rebecca and Sam in season two, I was surprised they never circled back to that relationship in season three.  (I’d written in my review of season two that the show seemed to ignore the obvious power-imbalance between Rebecca and Sam, and that it felt inappropriate to me for Rebecca, the owner of the club, to be dating one of her players.  So I’m OK with the two of them not ending up together.  But why did we spend so much time on that relationship in season two if that story was not going to play into season three?)  I don’t think we were left with a clear understanding of whether Beard and Jane were going to stay together.  I thought there was some suggestion that perhaps Sam, if he didn’t wind up back with Rebecca, might get together with the chef at his restaurant, but that didn’t happen.  Ted didn’t wind up with Sassy.  (I did love the tease that Ted and Rebecca hooked up at the start of the finale!!  Great joke.  I’m so glad the show never went there.)  I’m also stunned that the final moments of the finale were so fuzzy on the status of Ted’s relationship with his ex-wife, Michelle.  The finale makes a point of portraying Dr. Jacob in a negative way (how dare he be bored watching the Richmond match! The show seems to suggest that’s a worst crime than his dating the woman he’d counseled in his professional role as a marriage therapist, which is weird…), and we don’t see him with Michelle when Ted arrives at her house.  Ted is walking in with his luggage… so what are we to make of that?  I find it hard to believe they’re getting back together — the show didn’t lay any groundwork for that — but Dr. Jacob’s absence and Ted’s walking into the house with his luggage seems to suggest they are… it’s weird to me the show doesn’t give us any definitive info on this!

Ok, moving on… let’s talk about the (very lengthy!) finale!

Overall, I was very satisfied.  It was a terrific episode, filled with lots of wonderful moments.  In general, I liked where the show left most of the characters.  (My main objection, as I wrote above, was that Roy and Keeley weren’t back together, and also I don’t understand why the show left things so fuzzy as to Ted and Michelle’s marital status.)  It seemed pretty clear to me that Ted was going to return to the U.S. at the end of the season (show?), and I loved that the “truth bomb” in the season’s penultimate episode was one from Ted to Rebecca this time — the news that he was leaving.  That was satisfying, as was the (sort-of) fulfillment of the plan Ted and Rebecca had made together back in the season one finale, that they’d return to the league the following year (which they did in season two) and then win it all (which they almost did here in season three).  Watching the final match play out was very stressful!!  It felt right that Richmond would win the match but still fall a little short based on the results of the other team’s game.  I liked seeing Isaac get a moment to shine (though his kicking the ball THROUGH the net felt a little too unbelievable for me).  It was of course satisfying to see Rupert finally get some comeuppance.  I’d been afraid that Nate would wind up head coach of Richmond after Ted left; I’m very happy that role went, deservedly, to Roy.  (And I was happy Nate was back as both a coach and a Diamond Dog by the end.)  Beard’s comments on Trent’s book, and Ted’s single comment, were both perfect.  (And I laughed a lot seeing “with a very brief forward by Roy Kent” on the book’s cover!)  I liked that Rebecca chose to keep ownership of 51% of the club (and that her sale of 49% has made her even richer than she was!!), and of course it was fun to see super-fans Bazz, Jeremy & Paul now owning a piece of the club they loved so much.  I was very happy to see the return of the Believe sign, finally.  (I’d hoped they’d just paint the word Believe up on the wall, to make it permanent!)  I loved the way Beard got off the plane.  (And I loved seeing the return of the mysterious “Red” woman, and her buff boyfriend, from season two’s “Beard After Hours”!!)  And I was thrilled at the Cheers callback, in which Mae straightens a picture of Geronimo on her wall, just like Sam Malone did in the Cheers finale.

There’s so much more to discuss… I haven’t even mentioned Dani Rojas has his brief turn to evil when playing on a different international team; or Zoreaux/Van Damme and his face-mask and name-changes; or our occasional glimpses of Dr. Fieldstone (who was such a major character in season two; she wasn’t needed for the story here in season 3, but I’m glad we got to see her pop up a few times)… and so much more!  I can’t wait to rewatch every one of these episodes.

As I wrote at the top: if this is the end of Ted Lasso, I’m satisfied.  But I’d also be happy to get to see many more seasons following the gang at AFC Richmond…!

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