The drop in quality between Ted Lasso season one and the latest series really is quite a sight to behold.
It’s now so mediocre I’m questioning whether I was right to be so positive about the show when it first aired at the height of the pandemic.
Ted Lasso’s unapologetic brand of optimism and focus on kindness was just the tonic TV audiences needed during those dark days of lockdown and the Jason Sudeikis-fronted series became a global word-of-mouth success because of it.
But by the time the second season rolled around, Ted’s homespun cheeriness and folksy positivity seemed more forced.”
But by the time the second season rolled around, Ted’s homespun cheeriness and folksy positivity seemed more forced and, I’m ashamed to say, I found him a slightly irritating character. (Maybe that says more about me than him, I’ll admit).
That series was patchy at best and ended with a completely left-field twist, that saw mild-mannered AFC Richmond assistant coach Nate (Nick Mohammed) transformed, almost overnight, into a snarling, literally spitting, villain.
As season three begins, Nate’s improbable and unsatisfying story arc continues apace as we find him promoted to head coach of rival club West Ham United where he has become even more comically unpleasant.
Quite why the creators of Ted Lasso chose to do this with the series’ most innocent character, I’ll never know, although it feels like a heavy-handed attempt to create a redemption storyline for someone who didn’t need to be redeemed.
To use a football analogy, it burst into the top flight in its first competitive season but has struggled to maintain its form ever since.”
If the makers of Ted Lasso had ended things after the first series, we’d be talking fondly about the show for years to come.
To use a football analogy, it burst into the top flight in its first competitive season but has struggled to maintain its form ever since.
This more-is-more approach – complete with lashings and lashings of saccharine sentiment – has caused the series to drop into the relegation zone and turned it into something to be endured, rather than enjoyed.