The third and final season of ‘Ted Lasso’

Something interesting happened at the end of the second season of Teddy Lasso. Nate, the team’s brilliant tactician-turned-kitman-to-assistant-coach-left Richmond to become the head coach of another team. A team now owned by Rebecca’s ex-husband Rupert, who used to own Richmond and remains sneaky and slimy behind that charming smile, stepping in as Nate’s new Bizarro Ted father figure – Lord, does Nate love a father figure – when different lives made things happen Ted to divert his laser beam of positivity and attention for a while. It was getting a little dark. Surprisingly much was spat. I didn’t enjoy that part very much.

The result of everything is this Teddy Lasso comes as close as you’ve ever come to a real, actual villain in its third, unless you count things like “anxiety issues” and “family struggles” and “general confusion about the sport you’re paid to play” as villains who , I mean, I won’t fight you. But that’s a more specific thing. The new team – the one owned by Rupert and coached by Nate – literally wears black, in case you weren’t aware of that. It’s kind of Mighty ducks Situation reversed where the protégé goes to turn evil and destroy the cute mentor but with a lot more swearing. Roy Kent remains a maestro with the F-word. So… it hasn’t all changed I guess

My suspicion here is that, like me, you see where this part of the story is likely going. There is likely redemption in our future. I don’t understand how this show – a show whose whole thing is about overcoming personal issues and a crowd of imperfect humans becoming more whole with the help of the people around them – can build up Nate and suddenly turn him into Darth Vader and Ted let him destroy. Or let him destroy Ted. Something has to be there, even if it would be kind of weird if the show just leaned on everything and went wild breaking Bad in the last season.

By the way, this is the final season of the show. Allegedly. Probably. The Braintrust at the center of it all was a little reticent about what that means. Brendan Hunt, who not only plays my beloved Coach Beard but also serves as executive producer, summed it up like this when asked.

“It’s not necessarily the end of the series. It’s probably the end of this story because we’ve always seen it as a three-part thing. We never really knew if we could tell all three parts – and suddenly here we are. So there will be some kind of closure to this beat, but closure isn’t necessarily the end.”

Which, you know, is both helpful and maybe not very helpful. He also proposed a spin-off where Coach Beard would start a band, which I wish he hadn’t because now it’s the only thing in the world I want. We all have problems. The main thing here is that the story as we know it ends in a variety of ways, both for better and for worse.

It’s also going to be quite a busy affair, if the first screeners cleared to critics are any indication. People grow and branch out, taking on new roles and/or challenges. Keeley runs her own PR company and the show sometimes follows her path over there. We check in Nate and Rupert often, sometimes with more spitting, which I still don’t enjoy, but I’m beginning to understand. Trent Crimm, who was fired at the end of last season for outing Nate as his source for the story about Ted and his troubles, is back to work on a book and if you were wondering if that led to it that I texted a fellow critic who read, “I’d watch a show where Roy and Trent vacation together,” the answer is yes, and I stand by that.

However, it puts a lot of balls in the air. More so than the show had up there before when all of its main actors were under one roof. I’m excited to see how the new season handles that. A lot of balls in the air can be good! It can also be messy, especially when you’re not allowed to use your hands to control it. (That’s a football joke.) (I’m sorry.) The folks making this show have done a good job so far at navigating a tricky premise (a silly concept — an American football coach with a silly name flies to England to train there the other football – which later became one of the most honest portrayals of mental health in the workplace on TV), so I’m inclined to agree with them when they’re in doubt.

However, there is also the matter where the setup is promising for one last ride. Richmond, back in the Premier League and widely believed to be heading back towards relegation, have a natural enemy. Ted’s mustache-based Midwestern friendliness is put to the test by various outside forces. Roy, who is now the assistant coach of the team he used to play for and is grappling with some of his self-inflicted personal issues, has plenty of excuses to swear and rant. A supporting character is introduced early on whose last name is Disco. At one point, Jamie Tartt says “it’s just poopy,” but with his accent, it sounds more like he’s saying “poop-eh.” Those last two things are admittedly less important than the other things, but I held onto them for about 48 hours and I would explode.

It’s a shame that one of our better shows is ending, especially when… all the other good shows are ending soon, but it could be for the best. Let’s let these weirdos try to get everything home before it gets weird. They’ve cut out their work for them so far, but if there’s a point Teddy Lasso Has performed well in the first two seasons, it doesn’t cost you anything to believe in it a bit.

The third and final season of Ted Lasso premieres on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, March 15, with new episodes being released weekly