The Reel Review
Season 3 of AppleTV+’s sports comedy series Ted Lasso has the team members of AFC Richmond refocusing their efforts for a Premier League championship against rival West Ham, where Nate is now working after quitting the team at the end of Season 2. Keeley and Roy split up, and the team briefly lands a ringer which gins up hopes that they might even win the championship.
This potentially final season of the feel-good, uplifting series gives some serious Love, Actually vibes, with nearly all of the major (and even some minor) characters getting their own story arcs in the twelve 60 minutes episodes, double the prior seasons’ runtimes. Rebecca has a romantic evening in Amsterdam, one of the closeted gay players struggles with coming out to the team, Sam opens a Nigerian restaurant, Nate struggles to find happiness, Keeley opens a PR firm and starts dating the firm’s female billionaire investor, another billionaire tries to start a rival football league, and Ted’s family comes to visit him.
The storytelling and writing in this double-stuffed season is more sloppy, with distracted, dead-end storylines, puzzling, out-of-character motivations and some schmaltz that is even a bit much for this perennially positive show. Despite that, there are enough truly standout moments – in particular, Roy Kent’s news conference defense of Isaac’s attack on a fan for calling his closeted teammate a gay slur – and standout episodes – in particular ‘Amsterdam’ and ‘Mom City’ – that we are reminded why we love these characters so much.
Season 1: A
Season 2: A
Season 3: B
REEL FACTS
• Nelson Road Stadium, AFC Richmond’s home stadium, is actually Selhurst Park, the real life home of Premier League club Crystal Palace FC.
• Jeremy Swift and Mary Roscoe, who play Leslie and Julie Higgins, are married in real life.
• President Biden and the First Lady met with the Ted Lasso cast at The White House in March 2023 to promote mental health awareness. President Biden even tweeted a photo of Lasso’s iconic “Believe” sign above the entrance to the Oval Office.
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