Ted Lasso Season 3 Was a Sitcom That Forgot It Was a Sitcom

Let me start by saying something nice, because Ted Lasso would want me to, and I'm afraid of him. The show's first two seasons each won the Emmy for best comedy series. It was warm, it was quick, and it was funny, which is the rarest combination in television, next to a reality star with a library card.

Then came season three, in 2023. Twelve episodes. About 650 minutes in total. Not a single episode under 42 minutes. Several past an hour. The penultimate one nearly 70 minutes, and the finale 75. Season one, you'll recall, averaged about half an hour. Somewhere along the way, the sitcom ate a feature film and never quite digested it.

Now, I'm not against long things. I've sat through weddings. But a comedy is a little like a joke, and a joke has a natural length. You tell it, people laugh, and you stop. A man who keeps going after the laugh isn't telling a joke anymore. He's giving a toast, and nobody likes the guy who gives a toast.

Critics noticed. Reviewers called the season bloated and spread too thin, with too many storylines wandering off in different directions like tourists without a guide. Jason Sudeikis defended it, comparing the experience to live theater, where the audience is asked to participate. I've been to the theater. The audience participates by trying not to fall asleep.

To be fair, there's plenty of heart in season three, and a few of those long episodes earn their minutes. Sudeikis is still charming enough to sell a mustache to a man with no lip. But charm is not structure, and kindness is not a running time. The best thing you can do for a show about decency is cut twenty minutes out of it. That's not cruelty. That's love, with scissors.