This article is by Ethan Perkins:
Gentlemen, believing in rom-communism is all about believing that everything’s gonna work out in the end. Now these next few months might be tricky, but that’s just ’cause we’re going through our dark forest. Fairy tales do not start, nor do they end in the dark forest. That son of a gun always shows up smack-dab in the middle of a story. But it will all work out. Now, it may not work out how you think it will or how you hope it does, but believe me, it will all work out. Exactly as it’s supposed to. Our job is to have zero expectations and just let go. (Ted Lasso, Season 2, Episode 5)
As the credits began to roll on the series finale of Ted Lasso I tried my best to think of something to say about the show. I looked at my wife and started to recap much as I had done at the end of the Succession finale. But unlike the 20 minutes of babbling I did for that show, there was nothing for Ted.
I simply turned off my TV and got ready for bed. I thought about the coming work day. My simple commute, my co-workers, my big projects and beyond. It all seemed so normal. I knew none of my co-workers would be talking about the finale because it certainly seems as if all the steam left the show about two episodes into the final season. How odd it all seemed. A show that was at the peak of a mountain at the end of season two, was now almost completely out of the zeitgeist.
But then something hit me. Maybe that’s exactly what Ted Lasso was supposed to be. This is a show that exploded right at the start of the pandemic. It was a comedy, it was about sports when we had no sports. But even more, it was like a therapy session for everyone. In a world gripped with fear, in a country full of anger and hate, a small budget, simple concept show appeared out of nowhere and pumped a message of hope, positivity, and yes, belief, directly into the veins of every viewer. With cringy dad jokes, child-like footballers, and doe-eyed wanna be entrepreneurs, it was a snapshot of something we all kind of wanted and, even more, needed in our lives.
Ted Lasso’s final season was, by most measures, a disappointment. I am sure you can search and find hundreds of articles complaining about it. I certainly want to do that. We might have felt as though this show owed it to us to be better and give us a feeling of completion in the end. The finale came and everything (no spoilers) happened exactly like we thought it would. No big surprises, no last minute shocks. Everything just kind of finished the way it might in real life.
As I was watching the last episode, I was making little whiney comments and suddenly my wife, with all of her kindness and grace, said “can you just watch and try and enjoy something about this?” It was not meant in a way to scold me. It was meant in a way to see the other side. To not put my hopes and expectations in a TV show. It was a simple comment that was said in, well, the Lasso way. My wife certainly better understood the point of the show. It’s not a savior from the fears of this world. It’s not the end all of what will give us hope and peace. If anything, the final season tried subverted the lofty expectations held by devoted viewers. Lasso was, by its own estimation, just a show. And in the moments of disappointment, it’s not our job to get angry or frustrated, but to accept it for what it is and hope it will all work out in the end.
What Ted Lasso gets right is a message of grace not birthed out of effort — working hard, practicing a lot, saying the right thing on Bantr, or even scoring a goal. Ted Lasso says that reality is more simple than that. It’s just belief. And while the show never points its viewers to Jesus, its message is all too similar. The Lasso way isn’t about your best good deeds either. Perfection, in life and in sports, isn’t obtainable. It’s always just out of reach. Instead of dwelling on that fact, Ted points, his team, his coworkers, his friends, and especially the diamond dogs, to the fact that belief is enough. Ted enters into a situation that is full of disappointment, deceit, and far from the hope and expectations that are for a professional team. He enters just when he is needed, and leaves just as things are resolved.
The gospel — unlike Ted Lasso, is not meant to entertain, but reset our lives back on course. The narrative world of Ted Lasso remains in Richmond. It does not reach out to the viewer anymore than a romcom. The life of Jesus, by contrast, not only occurs within the real world, but decisively alters it on a new trajectory. Jesus sets our hearts into a different rhythm than anything else on earth, a story whose reverberations resound with every retelling. The gospel isn’t a TV show; it’s not just a story or even something we can fully comprehend. It connects our very soul to the love and grace of God our creator. The Holy Spirit, likewise, is here for us. Made to renew and reconcile and help us just when we need it the most. It is our comfort and peace that when the world requires perfection, we are accepted and fulfilled by our simple belief.
Life is not going to turn out the way you think it should. It’s going to be hard, it’s going to be messy, and people (as well as TV shows) are going to let you down. But that’s ok. Our job, like Jesus and Ted say, is to let go of our expectations. To not expect a broken world to get everything right. To rest, find peace, forgive, love and embrace all those that have hurt us. To know that in the end, all will work out, and our job is not to fix all that is broken, but to believe that all that one day all that is broken will one day be fixed.
