At the start of Season 3, there were many predictions about what Nate’s “redemption” might look like. But the writers of “Ted Lasso” Season 3 also botched that – and that fundamental mistake changed the entire balance of the season, and therefore of the series.
By definition, for redemption to occur, something must be done to make up for or make up for a defect. But here the order of events is reversed. Nate literally doesn’t try to apologize or make amends with Ted until the very last episode, After he has already been re-hired in the AFC Richmond squad.
Even his rehiring felt like flawed storytelling. Coach Beard comes to Nate’s door, offering his former colleague an olive branch, asking him to return to the team, and revealing his own surprising history with Ted in the process. The emotional scene is meant to make you feel like Beard is doing the right thing, and maybe even make you feel a little bad for judging Nate so harshly this season. But then again, the show itself cast Nate as a villain and did absolutely nothing to make me think fondly of the character in the meantime. Literally the only thing that could make me care about Nate again is seeing him apologize to Ted and try to work things out, which hadn’t happened yet. So the writers spent the entire season spinning those Nate wheels, leaving audiences at arm’s length and doing the character and the show a disservice in the process. It was a disastrous decision, and one that the bloated Season 3 of “Ted Lasso” simply couldn’t recover from.
“Ted Lasso” is currently streaming on Apple TV+.