Ted Lasso's Penultimate Episode Reminds Us That, Yes, This Is A Show About Football (Sometimes)

"Ted Lasso" took the world by storm and had us glued to our screens watching men run around after a ball, all while putting Apple TV+ on the map. Though the show sold itself as a comedy about cultural shock and the difference between real football and American football, it quickly became about more. "Ted Lasso" is also a phenomenal show about mental health, community, and self-betterment, in addition to an often hilarious comedy and a thrilling story about the beautiful game.

Season 3 of "Ted Lasso," however, has been a mixed bag. The episodes are twice as long but half as compelling or thematically deep, focusing too much on a poorly-handled redemption arc. Moreover, the football side of things has taken a backseat, and not always for the better. Granted, football is not the most cinematic game out there — which is why the best football anime deal with either superpowers or mostly the protagonists' inner thoughts and conflicts.

Things changed a bit in the penultimate episode of the show, where AFC Richmond faces their longtime biggest enemy and white whale, Manchester City (who in real life are leading the Premier League). In an incredible sequence, Richmond wins by two, putting an end to an emotional, stunning, exhilarating plotline wrapped in a cathartic episode. More than anything, seeing Jamie Tartt score a second goal against Pep Guardiola's team reminded us that, hey, "Ted Lasso" is also still about football (sometimes).

By most accounts, season 3 is likely to be the last season of "Ted Lasso," bringing a fairy tale ending to an underdog team. As it approaches its potential ending, the show has kind of forgotten that it is supposed to be about a football team. Most scenes about the sport this season have played out quickly and mostly focused on the overall story, serving just to remind us about Richmond's standing in the Premier League — continuing the rivalry with Rupert and Nate — but not serving the players' stories. The reason this hurts is that "Ted Lasso" knows how to mine great drama out of the greatest sport. 

Whenever we do get scenes of football matches, they are simply stunning. We see this in the latest episode when Van Damme does a triple block that would be deserving of at least MVP of the game — and, as Reddit user u/VonDrakken suggests, the moniker of The Mask of Zoreaux — and also in Jamie Tartt's fantastic goal and assist. 

Before that, we got a glimpse of brilliance in the match against Arsenal as the team embraced total football. This episode showed Jamie Tartt embracing his inner Messi, and Ted his inner Pep Guardiola, with the team resembling peak Barcelona as Jamie became a selfless team leader who can conduct beautiful symphonic goals, as the entire team plays as one, passing the ball constantly and in full sync.  Even in our brief time with Zava, "Ted Lasso" showed off the kind of fantastic, physics-defiant plays that the greatest players are capable of.

The first two seasons of "Ted Lasso" mined a lot of comedy and excitement out of peculiarities of football, like offside rules, the big personalities found in the game, and the idea of people of different countries not being able to communicate but still having to play together every day. Season 3 has little of that, but when it does — like Dani Rojas becoming enemies with Van Damme when playing for their home countries — is great.

This season, we got a brief storyline about a rich jerk trying to start his own elite Super League (which is based on a very real and very stupid idea) until Rebecca gives a rousing speech decrying the proposal, talking about what the sport means to people. The problem is that the way we've seen matches play out in "Ted Lasso" doesn't really support Rebecca's speech. Instead, most times we see people playing football this season, it plays out like quick montages spread out over the whole season rather than a key part of the story.

With one more episode to go, the show is likely to end with Richmond winning the league. But the beauty of football is not just in the final score of the season or the trophy, but in each match, of knowing your team can go from relegation to finishing fifth in the top league and finding tremendous triumph and victory in that. Let's hope "Ted Lasso" has learned a few things about its British setting, and remembers why this is called the beautiful game.