*Warning* Spoilers Ahead!
As a viewer, when you watch a show’s finale, you always feel a pit in your stomach that causes your heart to feel suffocated. Whether it’s “Breaking Bad” or “How I Met Your Mother,” every show that you fall in love with and watch all the way through gives you that feeling. But what about shows that cheapen this feeling?
One show that I feel has a perfect finale was “Ted Lasso.” The Jason Sudeikis-led series had such a heartfelt ending that felt earned and wrapped everything up nicely while teasing what will come for the characters post-show.
Ted goes back home and coaches his son Henry’s soccer team. Rebecca reconnects with the man she shared a night with in a cabin. Beard realizes his love (figuratively and literally) is in London and decides to stay. And the show teases the idea of a Richmond women’s soccer team. I think it’s a textbook way of how to do a finale. And then they ruined it.
You see, that last bit launched a fourth season for the show. And not to say that I don’t think it could be a solid spin-off, but in no way, shape or form should “Ted Lasso” have gotten another season. The show wrapped up perfectly in every way with Ted. His team gets promoted, he succeeds in connecting everything around Richmond in a positive way, he accepts and overcomes his divorce and he returns home to see his son.
His character’s arc is complete; he has no challenge left worth pursuing. And Roy Kent finally finds his identity post-retirement in coaching, becoming the head manager for Richmond. His story is finished. Coach Beard finds love and a reason to stay. Nathan accepts his insecurities, finds love of his own and finds his way back to Richmond. Rebecca moves on from Rupert and finds her love. The only two characters of the main group that don’t have fully resolved character arcs are Keeley and Higgins, and neither are interesting enough to carry the show on their own.
Sorry, but Keeley got a whole season away from the team to be the B-plot. She’s had plenty of focus, and I am no longer interested in seeing her development. Even the players have had their arcs. There is nothing to explore outside of the idea of a women’s team, which points to a spin-off in every logical way.
It’s a frustrating trend in the entertainment industry, to bring back what’s old to be new again because people miss it, and for everything to be open-ended and never finish. That sucks. Let shows have a full ending and embrace it!
It’s totally ok for a show to end and not continue, especially when (narratively) it has been completed. True, there are some finales that have mixed reception, like “How I Met Your Mother.” But it could be way worse. The show could create a spin-off called “How I Met Your Father.”
