The Ted Lasso finale's callbacks and the show's parallels to Wizard of Oz

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Originally published at: The Ted Lasso finale's callbacks and the show's parallels to Wizard of Oz | Boing Boing

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I agree that the final season was uneven and that they still nailed the ending. I hope Ted Lasso’s success inspires more series about people being kind and decent to one-another.

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I fell off this season about halfway through. I’m not sure if I should bother going back and watching the rest.

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Third season was MUCH more enjoyable than the second. By far.

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The third season was an enjoyable one, but I agree that it was uneven. My feeling is that the episode lengths really did it in. The episodes just didn’t feel tight enough, giving the feeling that they were meandering. As this season was really about everyone who wasn’t Ted – trying to pre-prove the point of Ted’s note on Trent’s book – the meandering gave the impression of aimlessness.

They rocked that finale, though. And there is absolutely no reason for them to return to the well with these characters. The show went on a high note, so no more seasons and no spinoffs please.

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Throughout the run of the show, it felt like each episode was telling a completely different story with a completely different message. Which would have been fine if everything were not so quickly forgotten. (Sam’s principled stance on the airline sponsor seemed like a big deal at the time, but was never mentioned again, and so many episodes followed that pattern.)

There was an overarching story, but we kept going off on unrelated and ultimately inconsequential tangents.

It was still a great show, but it could have been so much better with more focus and more of an effort to tie episodes and themes together.

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You’re right, there was much more they could have done with that. And should have done with it, to be honest, but it’s hard to get the tone just right with that ongoing storyline in a comedy. How they used it, though, was interesting. His protest by taping up his kit led to Jamie’s taping up his kit (because they’re a team) and finally getting in good with the other players. It also led to Bantr’s sponsoring the team, which in turn led to the Sam and Rebecca thing. I can’t speak for any similar happenings throughout the show where a one-off was used as a springboard for future storylines like that, though.

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There were a lot of anticlimaxes too.

I really thought that the hotshot eccentric superstar in season 3 was building to Ted deciding to get rid of him because “the united team is stronger than any one superstar,” but then he just suddenly quit soccer and was never mentioned again.

That time could have been used much better.

Still, a great show overall. A delight to watch.

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Funny enough, that particular storyline was also a springboard for Jamie’s growth. Seems like these big events seem to serve smaller things, but there’s a shortcoming in the writing in that the big things shouldn’t end so abruptly after they’ve served their smaller character arc purposes.

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This was one of the best shows of recent years - but I think it could have benefited from a 4th season. Then they could have used 2 years to get Nathan Shelly (The wonderki(n)d) redemption arc more believable.

As well they could have spent some time and explored:

  • the money guy that hates Obisanya,
  • the superstar weirdo that just vanished halfway through,
  • and the prospect of actually selling the team if Ted left.

Still, really great and entertaining. (This coming from a guy that really doesn’t like sports. Hate is a strong word…)

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For my money, the halfway point was about where it started to actually come together. I felt like everything after the Amsterdam episode was pretty great.

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