#ted lasso season three

[ceruleanwhore]

In my soul, I feel disgusted and betrayed by this finale and I am shocked that the same writers who were able to give us such a truly wonderful show somehow came up with such a terrible ending for it. This episode directly opposes the very nature of the show more than any other episode in such a way that then calls into question the rest of the series. This episode feels every bit as hollow and sad as Ted himself seems to be throughout the finale and makes me wonder if we ever were actually supposed to believe and to hope at all in the first place, even though I thought that was the point of the series. 

The first of many issues I have with the episode is how they handled Rupert. The whole show is about belief, but specifically believing in others’ capacity for good and ability to change for the better. It’s about believing in redemption and reconciliation, which they actually could have done for Rupert even this late in the show. The scene in episode 10 where we get a glimpse of the inner child that’s still tucked away somewhere inside him showed us that even he still had this potential, up until they did what they did for the finale. While I, personally, tend to be more like Sassy was in that scene — gleefully cheering for the downfall of an odious scoundrel — it felt completely wrong for this show in particular to include that kind of public humiliation, which we the audience are all supposed to be cheering for, and in the middle of Ted’s last game ever with Richmond.

Where we actually could have used a side bit about a scoundrel getting his comeuppance is with Ted’s ex wife and their ex therapist. I think it’s absolutely terrible that they went and set up Rupert’s downfall the way they did while Jake apparently gets off scot free and never gets his license revoked or anything. There also is never really any acknowledgement of just how wrong what he did was, how he should have his license revoked, and how his actions call into question every bit of therapy Ted and Michelle got from him. No one ever questions ‘Oklahoma,’ never mind the entire divorce, relative to this man’s breach of ethics and it bothers me to no end that the most we get is his absence at the end from scenes with Ted, Michelle, and their son. We didn’t need Rupert dressing up like Darth Vader and physically assaulting someone, we needed Michelle realizing how completely wrong her whole relationship with Jake is, dumping him, and reporting him.

The next issue is Ted himself. Obviously, he was in a gloomy sort of mood throughout the whole episode, but I think it’s really important to point out how that didn’t actually clear up once he got home. I do believe he was happy to see his son but, from the plane ride onward, it’s like he’s just hollow. We see him coaching little league soccer for his kid and yet there isn’t any of the heart and soul in it that we’ve seen him put into his other coaching. It’s like he’s depressed, which is understandable because he just left a whole incredible, supportive community to come to Kansas where, like Odysseus at the end of the Oddyssey, he’s a stranger in his own home. He goes from having a whole city around him to support him to seemingly having nothing and not even being a welcome member of his own family since he’s still divorced. Also, as others have pointed out, that montage that seems to be a dream sequence when he’s on the plane ride home is all about him writing himself out of the lives of everyone he just left behind. He’s decided that it’s better for everyone there to just forget about him and move on with their lives as though he was never there and he’s literally dreaming about how happy they’ll be to do that. 

This is a major thematic issue for this series because one of the main points of the series is the idea that everyone can change for the better and, more importantly, just about every character does. Ted spends all that time in England working on his own shit like everyone else, and even gets over his aversion to therapy in order to seek help for the first time ever, just to throw all of that away at the very end because apparently he’s just back on his bs and that’s it. This is where it would maybe be alright if there were another season after this one to address and fix this, but there isn’t. In the very last episode of the whole thing he’s throwing away his entire community, dreaming about how happy they’ll be without him, and there’s nothing and no one there correcting that. To me, this is like if right at the end of the last episode with no room left to fix it, they just had Beard go steal another car and then act like the audience is supposed to be okay with it.

The other thing, going off of that, is how they handled some of the relationships, and I specifically want to start off by talking about Ted and Rebecca. They have the distinction of being the only ship to truly be baited, more than once, and very unnecessarily so. The bait scene at the start of the final episode contributes nothing to the plot, the characters, or their relationship with each other — all it does is mock the members of the audience who were foolish enough to believe they ever could have been together. This, to me, also goes against the core values and themes of the show, because ship baiting like that is inherently mean-spirited and Ted Lasso at its core is meant to be kind. There is nothing kind about essentially dangling something over someone’s head, playing keep away with it, until you finally just chuck it in the river and laugh at the person for being so foolish as to think they were ever going to get it. It’s mean for the sake of being mean and again, for the umpteenth time, it contributes nothing.

So then let’s get to Roy, Jamie, and Keeley. Jamie and Roy are another example of a strong relationship that’s developed beautifully over the course of three seasons regressing at the very end because oh no, people ship it and we can’t have that. I do think that Keeley turning both of them down was necessary but Roy and Jamie literally getting into a fistfight over her was completely unnecessary and detrimental to their individual characters. By this point, they both are mature enough and respect Keeley enough that it’s genuinely ooc for them to be fighting each other about who gets to date her while she’s not even there. Season 3 Jamie and Roy would’ve been leaving the decision to her without reverting back to macho Neanderthal crap. 

To me, this is also about the creators recognizing that people in the fandom have ships and, for whatever reason, feeling the need to try and shut that down rather than just leaving well alone. If, instead of getting in a fight like they did, Roy and Jamie had a conversation about their shared experiences of wanting to be with Keeley but not knowing where they stand with her and recognizing how hard it is for each other, then it could end up contributing to the further growth of their relationship and, along with it, shipping and oh no, we can’t have that. Just like with Avatar: the Last Airbender, the presence or lack of romantic relationships is not the issue here, the problem is with writers accidentally setting up an incredibly compelling ship and then being like “oops, we didn’t mean to do that,” and trying to ctrl z it in the finale, at the detriment of the whole story. Why oh why do writers keep feeling the need to sacrifice the quality of their whole story for the sake of trying to get people to stop having opinions?

So then last up is Ted and Trent. As many others have pointed out, that bit where Ted’s reading the book and makes that comment about the ‘laugh police’ in response to Trent’s excitement and anxiety is extremely out of character. Ted “but he’s our dork” Lasso would never say that and I was horrified to hear those words come out of his mouth. However, this goes in with the destruction of his entire character arc and every bit of growth he’s done throughout the past three seasons all in this one episode, because that was him actively pushing Trent away because, as previously acknowledged, he’s back on his bs.

One issue with this is that Ted then never has a proper goodbye with Trent and the closest thing to that is the note he left asking Trent to change the title of the book. It’s not that I necessarily think he needed individual goodbyes on screen with every other character but Trent in particular was hugely important for Ted, like how Rebecca was. Do you really mean to tell me that Ted wouldn’t actually say goodbye to the journalist who wrote what, coming from him at the time, was essentially a glowing review when he was actually hired with the intention of destroying Ted’s career? Do you mean to say he wouldn’t get a proper goodbye with the man who threw away his whole career over him? The man who then decided the first thing he wanted to do after leaving said career was to write a book about him and his team? Seriously?

The other thing with Trent is that, where Ted’s ex wife and even Rebecca have felt the need to use ‘Oklahoma’ with him to get him to tell the truth, Trent has a talent for discerning the exact truth from Ted regardless of what he does or does not say. It would have been perfectly in character for him to go talk to Ted like Rebecca tried to but then actually succeed where she failed because he would be able to clearly read Ted’s signals and throw that all back at him. Unlike Rebecca, he could directly call out how much Ted didn’t actually want to leave.

That is actually the biggest issue this episode had — cowardice. The only reason I can think of why they wouldn’t even consider doing something like what I just described is because, like with Roy and Jamie, they are perfectly aware of the chemistry between those characters and how they have set them up so it reads like they’re in love with each other, and a scene like this would be just about impossible to do without coming across as romantic. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Ted and Trent would’ve already been snogging by the start of the season if one of them were a woman. This show did the thing where they’ve decided that they can have a couple gay characters, but those characters can only get with specifically devised side characters because God forbid you just have your two existing characters of the same gender kiss a bit. Between the pairings of Ted and Trent, and Roy and Jamie, there is enough textual evidence of mutual attraction and the potential for real, romantic relationships that one could write over a hundred pages about it, and that is not an exaggeration. When I look at this finale, one of the things I see is the titular character being destroyed because they decided that was better than letting people think that he could maybe not be straight.

The last issue I have here is that there really were no goodbyes. Rebecca showed up at the airport and that’s it and I thought that was very weird and, again, very much not in accordance with the entire rest of the show. Even if they didn’t have the entire team show up at the airport to say goodbye, it didn’t make sense to not even have just the Diamond Dogs show up for that. Where tf was everyone? Because just from watching the whole rest of the show, I think it would be impossible not to expect the team, the dogs, the folks from the pub and maybe also Shannon from town. It was a cold, empty departure far from fitting for the show at all and it left me coming out of that finale feeling cold and empty from the crippling disappointment. They had a whole show centered around interpersonal relationships and support and then had the coldest, loneliest ending anyone there could have devised.

My final thought here is that this is not an ending and the only way to salvage this wreckage is with another season. This feels like something they’re doing to drum up attention and interaction so that it’ll be successful when they do come in and announce that they’ve changed their minds and there will be another season, like an encore at a concert. However, if this really is the end, then I am absolutely disgusted and feel very betrayed right now because this show told me to believe and taught me that maybe hope isn’t actually a bad thing that’s out to get me, just to turn around and crap all over that. This show didn’t just apparently waste hours of my time, it was actually helping to get me to move on from past pain and start to accept hope as a good thing, until it shattered mine. They desecrated the very art they created and then expected the audience to applaud such disrespectful destruction, and I am disgusted by it.

[asexualenjolras]

I love how Trent Crimm's character arc went from him staring at Ted Lasso with uncertain confusion about why this man intrigued him so much in season one, to him staring at Ted Lasso with a genuine fondness and admiration in season three.

Look at this man. Look at that development.

Ted Lasso really made Trent Crimm believe he was a better person for knowing him. And taught him to be more trusting of the unknown. And I think that's beautiful writing and acting.

[ohtedlasso]

Richard Montlaur, my favourite slutty frenchman!!! 🇫🇷🥖👨‍🎨

[ragingstillness]

Finally getting around to watching the newest season of Ted Lasso and I’ve just finished 4-5-1, where we first meet Zava and I have thoughts.

I’ve seen spoilers for the whole season but everything I’ve seen about him indicated that he was a 2D character. A sort of, Jamie if Jamie had no soul, sort of character. But I never should have underestimated the Ted Lasso writers so he’s deeper than that.

Before anyone says anything, this is not me stanning Zava, I still think he’s an asshole and doesn’t deserve to be on the team, but I find his character fascinating.

He gives me the vibe that if this show was a different genre, he would be the main character. If this was a sports movie about a superstar no one saw coming, with unusual ways of getting into the zone, and how he copes with fame, Zava would be the main character and no one else would be even a little important.

But that isn’t the genre we’re in, so he comes off as out of place. Like he’s been plucked from a different story and dropped into this one and refuses to adapt. And that’s clearly on purpose, we’re supposed to feel like he doesn’t fit.

But he still has some of the characteristics of a sports movie protagonist. In that first meeting with the team where he stands in front of Ted over and over he says he’s about to address the most important person in the room. Everything we’ve seen of him up until this point implies that he’s about to talk about himself. But no, he says the kitman. Will, who even the team has ignored in the past. And think about the contrast between this proclamation and the way Nate was treated when he was the kitman. Objectively, this is a nice thing for Zava to do. There’s no asshole connotation, he certainly seems to mean it, and it makes Will happy.

When Zava first meets Ted he asks Ted to mold him. From what I’ve seen, I do think Zava is being sincere here. He’s just not a very socially aware person. His version of “molding” is different from everyone else’s. But he’s not saying it to be ironic, or sarcastic, he genuinely means it. This coupled with the forehead touch to Higgins, it’s all strikingly sincere, if not socially aware. He’s so full of himself that other people don’t really exist. His actions are performative, he is the only person who judges himself and he judges every action to be good because he’s that arrogant. It’s the kind of mindset that is sort of healthy and sort of not. If Zava was taking part in an individual sport, like long jump or diving, this mindset would be more healthy. It’s because he’s playing a team sport that it isn’t.

Even his acknowledgement to Keeley that his actions have made her job harder, while it feels more deliberately manipulative in wording, it’s still relatively sincere.

He’s doing the “right” things for the wrong context.

Kicking from the halfway line and not including any of his teammates in his success: right action for an individual sport, display of talent, not right for the context of a team sport.

Stealing the goal from Jamie: display of talent, extra assurance the goal is going in, an action focused on winning above all else, not right for the genre.

It’s so fascinating to me that he’s not necessarily malicious, he’s just wrong.

And the fact that it comes off that way is brilliant writing and acting. Even without Jamie and Roy beginning to look at all of this askance, I’d recognize that something was wrong from the way the character was written alone.

It’s a brilliant writing choice, to introduce a character that is simultaneously sincere, honest, dedicated, arrogant, ignorant, and unaware.

He reminds me a little bit of Izzy from OFMD (nobody kill me for this comparison) in that he’s just not genre savvy. He’s in the wrong genre, wrong context, so while he’s not technically wrong, he still is, within the story.

Anyway those are my thoughts, feel free to weigh in.

[tedsasso]

i made another ted edit but tiktok won't let me post it bc of sound copyright which BLOWS bc upside down is so ted coded. anyways enjoy mwah (dont re-upload anywhere without asking)

[ghost-of-diogenes]

They can't put this on the Ted Lasso home page and expect me to be normal about it

[crows-and-cookies]

Jamie's suitcase...it was just filled with socks guys. Just socks

[safflowerseason]

Phil Dunster continues to be the MVP of Ted Lasso.

[keeley-jones]

I think the main issue with season 3 is that there are a lot of great moments/individual scenes, but the dozens of plots going on at once aren’t as strong or cohesive as they were in the previous two seasons.

Like we’ve gotten amazing parts, but the whole is just so messy and aimless. I know we still have a few more episodes to go but I’m truly baffled by so many of the choices made so far.

You’d think with so much more runtime per episode, character arcs would be fleshed out more and we’d get more plot relevant moments but so far it feels like the opposite has happened. Take Keeley and Roy; breaking up your show’s main couple OFF SCREEN and then having them not even interact for 4+ episodes is bizarre. Neither one has even the growth necessary for them to get back together where both of them are in a better place than before. It just feels like they’re wasting screen time yet doing nothing all at once.

I don’t know, I’ve just never been so disappointed in a final season in so long. These are characters I truly love, but now all I feel is apathy at best and exhausted with them at worst.

[trentcrimmapologist]

Roy Kent: Best thing you can do with bullies is ignore them. Then you sneak into their house at 4:00 a.m., which, statistically speaking, is the hour people are least prepared to defend themselves. And once you’re standing over them, as they sleep in their bed, you start to beat them. With a thick, heavy rope soaked in red paint. Pummeling them over and over until they wake, confusing the paint for their own blood. When they beg you to stop, you laugh as loud as you can, for as long as you can. And then you start to beat them again.

Trent Crimm:

[filmmarvel]

ALSO I’ve seen a couple posts about how friendship was the priority, it was never about romance, and the ambiguity of the ending is just how life goes sometimes. While I don’t outright disagree with any of that, the finale still didn’t feel right. Just because romance was never the priority doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a focus on it across certain storylines. Just because romance wasn’t the priority doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for it in the show- there have been numerous romantic arcs. And I think that’s also kind of overlooking how much they’ve teased everyone. I don’t really think it’s fair for them to make us believe that there’s going to be a satisfying ending to these couples, only to rip the carpet out from under us, just to make a point about friendship. And as for the whole, ‘life is ambiguous’ thing, I don’t disagree! But a lot of good shows use the final episode to give viewers a sense of where these characters will end up, as a way to leave everyone satisfied. And I believe that the BASIC duty of a finale is to wrap up the storylines. So while I don’t disagree with those general points, it was just lazy for them to let so many things go unresolved. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk

[shitslikethis]

about to begin my complete rewatch of ted lasso that i have perfectly timed in order to watch the finale with the maximum emotional impact of a three season binge watch. surely this will have no bad consequences for me.

[couldoneimagine]

Anthony Head's acting in this new Ted Lasso episode AHRRGGHHHHHH ITS SO GOOD

[jessicawhitlysimp]

i just want to say say i feel like ted lasso missed a trick calling the next episode mom city instead of mam city

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

can u say more about how the writing in ted lasso changed this season? i’m tryin to put my finger on just why it feels so off…. i read a review on NPR that season 3 was relying on too many outside stories for an already sizeable ensemble cast, which i definitely felt was true for the first half of the season, but that’s less the case now and it still feels stilted to me. i’m sure this season must be someone’s cup of tea but it’s not mine!

I think there are a lot of things that are off, and I fully admit I'm gonna regurgitate some stuff I've absorbed from reading other reviews and Ted Lasso think pieces. Also, I'm gonna keep watching the show. I don't like hate it.

First of all, Bill Lawrence stepped back on the show to work on Shrinking, leaving Jason Sudeikis alone in charge of the writers room. And I'm sure his extremely ugly and public divorce is affecting his focus on portrayal of Ted's divorce. Can we leave the "dating the marriage counselor" trope behind, please? And he hired a PI to stalk his ex-wife through Paris and we're acting like that's OK?

I think the biggest thing for me, though, is that it's just not funny the way it used to be. There are whole storylines and subplots and even episodes that are completely laugh-free (for me, YMMV) and kind of go nowhere. Was Rebecca's fling on the Dutch houseboat funny? Did we really learn anything new about her character or did she grow and change afterward?

The show has also, imo, crossed the line from wholesome to saccharine, with little to know internal conflict about the social issues that arise. The reaction to the leaked nudes in the locker room was basically lecture. The reaction to Colin's coming out and Sam's restaurant being vandalized were just telegraphed "aww" moments that didn't feel earned.

I'm not entirely sure what Ted contributes to Richmond anymore... Roy seems to do all the coaching and Ted's basically a life coach and somehow in all this time has still failed to learn anything thing about football? I do think they're building to firing him or him returning to the US voluntarily. Also, he should have gotten to do real drugs.

WTF is going on with Nate? His girlfriend is a cardboard cut out and he was from creepy borderline stalker to getting the girl extremely rapidly. They've basically abandoned the evil Nate plot. I'd rather know how he fares coaching on his own and how his aggressive style evolves without Ted to push against than watch him make a diorama to flirt or assemble a faux Diamond Dogs to talk about his very underwritten girlfriend.

Keeley is off on her own and "love-bombing" is a form of abuse and cult recruitment not your rich girlfriend buying you a lot of presents. I guess they're pushing her back to Jamie now?

Give Trent a storyline!

Sry for rambling I guess?

[tedsasso]

no because it's the "coach wanna walk home together" "no i have plans with my partner" "ok goodnight coach" *enter the new boy in the club at the end of a long day, with a gentle smirk on his face upon seeing ted* FOLLOWED BY TRENT WITNESSING TEDS TENDER CARE FOR HIS DEAR FRIEND ROY AND THEN THE NICKNAME AND THE BANTER AND THE EYES AND THE TENDER SILLINESS AND THE MOMENT OF TENSION BEFORE "goodnight"s ARE EXCHANGED AND THE ROMANTIC SONG PLAYING OVER IT ALL WITH TED LOOKING OUT AFTER THEM AND HAVING A MELANCHOLIC MOMENT and its the "not yet" and it's the way that roy just became single and has always been a quitter when it got rough but he doesn't have to be that way and ted has never been a quitter only quitted on and hasnt found his way up yet but he may soon and its the way that they SO ALLUDED TO THEM WALKING HOME TOGETHER AND IT DIDNT HAPPEN and its the divorce narratives and the trying again and the living again and the fate and the Not So Much fate bc you Try and the team and the family growing and the new families and the . the ted lasso of it all. i am just. i love this show and moreso i really feel like im getting played with rn because the ted trent tension isn't in my delusional mind anymore. can anyone tell me im wrong