The Emmy award-winning comedy-drama “Ted Lasso” came to a close on Wed. May 31, capping off 3 seasons with our beloved goofball cast of AFC Richmond. The series finale had an appropriate dose of emotionally charged nostalgia to cap off an overall uninspiring 3rd season. Ted Lasso started off as a lightly digestible half-hour weekly comedy, a refreshing spotlight in the world of hour-long streaming dramas. However, as the stories moved past the “Major League”-esque plot of the first season, the run times got longer and the charm faded away. That’s not to say that it was entirely gone, but it turns into an entirely different ballgame when you go from a half-hour sports comedy to an hour-long comedy-drama. The monologues grew longer, the tackling of social issues was ill-delivered, and the corniness increased. I did introduce this article with ‘our beloved goofball cast’ for a reason though. Hell, I went as Trent Crimm, (formerly of) The Independent, for Halloween one year. I did enjoy the show, and it was always a good time to sit down and watch it with my family every week.

Being on the internet too long, especially Twitter as my vice of choice, will put the world and respective audience of simple viewership on the back burner in one’s mind. With the also recent conclusions to HBO’s acclaimed dramas “Succession” and “Barry”, a spew of “Ted Lasso” criticism has hit my feed. Although I did just criticize the 3rd season, this week’s plethora of series finales and subsequent comparisons remind me that simply enjoying things exists. I know this may sound pretentious or boringly neutral, but seeing my oft-uninterested younger brother passionately follow along and invest in “Ted Lasso” brings an appreciative smile to my face and reminds me to take off the critic glasses for a moment. “Ted Lasso” is no “Succession” or “Barry”, obviously, yet they’re all important to people. While I live for both sides of any beef on Twitter, or the deep discussions of any current media, proclaiming “Ted Lasso” to be ‘as emotionally deep as CocoMelon” is a critically online misjudgment of the people who don’t spend the majority of their time discussing movies and TV on the internet. Plenty of people still sit down to just enjoy something rather than pick it apart (although I’m not innocent in my enjoyment of criticism). While I could sit and critique the Ted Lasso final sequence, sitting there and enjoying it with my family as they gleefully point out all the nostalgic details is much more enjoyable for a show like “Ted Lasso” and I recommend all future viewers to approach it with that lens. 

As Ted and the AFC Richmond community go their separate ways (with plenty of irrational, yet truly emotional human decisions) I too part ways with the Neuqua Valley community and The Echo. Whether you love network soap operas, cartoons, modern streaming dramas (hopefully someone reading this shares my love for The Wire), or any show in between, in life and in our favorite TV shows, all good things come to an end and change is inevitable. We’ve all gone through a lot of change in high school, a lot of us aimlessly wandering around until we find our guiding passions, with mine being the writing I discovered working for our school’s publication. The Echo has undergone a metamorphosis as well, from different advisors to a rotating cast of unique writers and photographers. Things evolve and the newsroom of The Echo will too, but as long as there are passionate writers and photographers, there should always be The Echo. As the AFC Richmond squad performed their beautiful rendition of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s, “So Long, Farewell”, I bid my readers a, “So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodnight.”

Signing off for one last time, be sure to support next year’s staff and keep tuning in.