IN THE END, of course, three seasons was not nearly enough.
Apple TV’s much-loved comedy Ted Lasso bid its fans a bittersweet farewell this week, with plucky underdog AFC Richmond clinching second place in the English Premier League and with it, Champions League football for next season. Peace and harmony had broken out within the team, Roy Kent and Jamie Tartt had become besties and even the turncoat former-kit-boy-turned-coaching-wunderkind Nate was back in the fold. All incredibly feel-good stuff.
Except that Ted (Jason Sudeikis) was leaving. Moving forward, the team will have to muddle through without their unlikely and inspirational leader, the gosh-darned Midwestern aphorism-spouting Coach Lasso, for whom the pull of his young son back in Kansas City proved just too strong.
Not everybody gets Ted Lasso. For some it’s just too upbeat, too saccharine, too determined to tie up all the loose ends in a feel-good bow. But for this reviewer, it’s been one of the best treats on TV these past couple of years. The show is not just a love-letter to optimism, communication, love and reconciliation, it’s also a paean to shared sporting experience, to universal themes of redemption and forgiveness, and to Richmond itself, the local town which features so prominently in the opening moments of so many episodes, but especially the season finale.
When the show began three years ago, Lasso found himself the unlikely new coach at Richmond, hired only because owner Rebecca Welton wanted the team to crash and burn, to spite her former husband, (and the club’s former owner) Rupert. But despite ridicule from players, fans and pundits, Ted persevered, turned the team into a family (admittedly a dysfunctional one) and earned success on the field and respect off it. And as the players bought into his methods and learned to unpeel layers of toxic masculinity, the huge array of supporting characters, from Nate to Trent to Jamie to Roy to Keeley and to Rupert each unfolded their own compelling character arcs, too.
The final episode saw the team say their goodbyes with a camp but still charming “So Long, Farewell” routine lifted straight from The Sound of Music, before the show tied up a couple of loose ends, with Roy Keane confirming his transformation into what used to be called A New Man by uttering the words Ted longed to hear. Part of the charm of Ted Lasso when it’s at its best is that unabashedly corny things work because of the charm of the performances. Who among us has not felt the need to say, “Can I be your friend?” Or, in this case, “Can I be a Diamond Dog?”
Other loose ends neatly tied up was that Rebecca asks Ted to stay, and of course he gently declines, thereby confirming their relationship as emotionally intimate but not romantic. Jamie and Roy become besties, even while both affirming their continuing romantic interest in Keeley, and even cynical and snidey scribe Trent Crimm reveals himself as an adherent of the cult of Ted, completing his book, The Lasso Way, a loving account of his season with the team.
It’s a threadbare cliché in showbusiness that you should always leave them wanting more, and perhaps the greatest genius of this show was quitting while they were ahead after three short seasons. Co-creators Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt (who plays Coach Beard) have done just that, leaving us both with a sense of satisfaction but also curiosity. The Ted Lasso fan universe was rampant with speculation this week about the questions the show left unanswered: does Keeley end up with Roy or Jamie? Will Rebecca end up with the handsome Dutch pilot she spent a night with in Amsterdam? Will Ted get back with his ex-wife? Will Roy Kent be successful in succeeding Ted? And where does Nate fit in? Will he always be happy to be just the kit man?
In the end it doesn’t matter, the show gave us lots of feelgood moments but the final whistle blew at the right time. No extra time. No penalties. And whatever happens in the future…we’ll never forget this season.
