The Show Must Go On: Ted Lasso

OBVIOUS SPOILERS AHEAD!!

“Be a Goldfish.”

Goldfish are very quaint animals; they are small, they are colorful, and like all flawed living beings, they forget. They have a memory of the preceding twenty seconds, to which a human’s memory span can vary from a couple of minutes to years at a time. But perhaps this shortcoming is actually a blessing in disguise. 

The introductory phrase encompasses the secret to being your best self; forget what happened, focus on the present. Because, the present is a gift, and it should not be wasted. And by recalling that past–the one where you made mistakes–you are inevitably holding yourself back from flourishing into a higher standard. 

This well known phrase was founded by Ted Lasso, the lead character on my favorite show, 

“Ted Lasso.” “Ted Lasso” has been nominated for over twenty Primetime awards–marking it as the most nominated first-season show of all time–and is acclaimed by top critics as a “refreshing” series to binge. 

The three season series revolves around Ted Lasso, an American football coach hired to manage a football team in England. 

Oh, sorry, I meant soccer. 

Crazy, right? I mean, what would an American football coach know about soccer? First off he has to understand the complexity of moving up and down the leagues, then he has to understand all the rules that are involved with the game, and don’t even get me started on “offside” (a little inside joke for those of you who’ve seen the show). 

This is the mindset of the woman, Rebecca Welton, head of the prized Richmond team and ex-wife to the previous owner of the club Rupert Mannion, who hires Lasso. But she does not hire him because she wants the team to succeed. 

She hires him because she wants Lasso to tear the team apart, destroying everything Rupert found so dear to him. 

We meet characters such as Lassos best friend and assistant coach Coach Beard, Keeley Jones, Nate the Great, Roy Kent (he’s here, he’s there, he’s every … where), Jamie Tartt (doo doo doo doo doo doo), Dani Rojas (Fútbol is life), Trent Crimm (The Independent), Colin Hughes, Isaac McAdoo, Sam Obisanya, Zava (a humorous play on Zlatan Ibrahimović) and others. 

Ted Lasso spread all sorts of life lessons through whimsical southern diction, enunciating on the ideas of growth, renewal, and love. Although it seems corny, these lessons inspired every one of the macho men involved in the series (surprisingly even Roy Kent, the legendary Greyhound dissenter) to evolve into someone who is more emotionally complex. By bringing in his own experience to combine with the contrasting and unique experiences of each of the players, he creates a familial environment and a true home for him and the team. 

This is hands down the best show I’ve seen in all time and I would recommend it to everyone! 

It has comedy and it has emotional scenes (with a healthy balance between the two) but it is truly heartwarming and has such a moving storyline with conversations between characters that create a wholesome environment for the audience to live with. And even on a moral standpoint, the show teaches each character lessons by giving them advice they might not have but may need to hear. Overall, it has got to be one of the best written comedies on tv of this time. 

Recently, this show ended its third and possible final season with a farewell from Ted Lasso to the team where he leaves the UK to reunite with his family back at home. Lasso decides to leave because he feels as though he is no longer a part of their lives and that returning home will mend the gap between them. He does bridge gaps between misguided and lifelong friends. Sadly, the series finale ends on a depressing scene where Ted Lasso says goodbye to his family in Richmond before reuniting with his family in America. 

Now, there are many speculations that Ted Lasso will be officially over (knock on wood) after that episode, but I strongly advocate for another season. I’ll outline my reasons next: 

As if it isn’t heartbreaking seeing Lasso solemnly leave a life he loves, we depart on the ghost of Ted Lasso in this episode. As I was watching every second go by–literally pausing the episode just to see how much time there was left–all I could look at ahead of me was a quiet, dispirited shell of a man who somehow raised and reunited a family of footballers in England. I guess his solemnity was a way of him expressing his sadness too. I figured it may be a branch that extends to another season where we see him revert his decision. 

But it just felt incomplete. Watching the last episode of a show titled after the main character who didn’t even try to be his regular self was incredibly disheartening. Yes, the episode did wrap up goodbyes expertly and it made full circles from tiny details in season one, but it failed to bring the character of the leading man. 

Secondly, there is absolutely no way that a show can end like that. In addition to Ted Lasso basically being a robot with no emotions, he seemed truly disheartened to leave. This show is made up of excellent actors who know how to portray emotions and bring characters for life. Don’t believe me? Go ahead and watch Rebecca’s annual confessions to Ted Lasso at the end of every season–ultimately leading to Hannah Waddingham, the actress who plays her, winning three awards for “Best Supporting Female Actress In A Show.”

We as an audience deserve a truly emotional series finale. We deserve another season of quick witted banter that makes us laugh and we deserve to feel sadness after another finale. We deserve a series finale with raw emotions that make us laugh until it hurts and cry until our eyes are so puffy we look sick. 

And though we do not live in an ideal world, we deserve to see one televised where Lasso is happy with both families. One where we don’t have to see him forced into a difficult position in abandoning one for the other. One where he is happy with both worlds because in all honesty he does deserve both. Not only that, we deserve both worlds too.