If brevity is the soul of wit, then Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) lost his wits a long time ago.
Richmond’s affable coach has never been afraid to talk someone’s ear off. However, his wordiness becomes a problem in Ted Lasso Season 4, episode 7, titled “Yes & Baby.”
The episode sees Ted trying to build a dating profile on Bantr, but he constantly gets stuck on the first prompt: Describe yourself in three words. How can he sum up his character in such few words? More importantly, how can he do that without sounding like he’s bragging?
That’s not the only trouble Ted has with making his profile. As he and Keeley (Juno Temple) try to whip his Bantr account into shape, they also have a hard time describing what he wants in a romantic partner within the designated character limit. (Apparently, he wants someone with a love of “banger” show tunes.)
“I’m starting to think I may skew a bit loquacious,” Ted laments.
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Ted’s struggle to keep things brief has been a charming quirk of his since Season 1. However, it’s become a decidedly uncharming fault of the show as a whole.
In Season 1, episodes stayed around the half-hour mark: a standard length for a streaming comedy. However, as the seasons went on, episodes ballooned in length until audiences were routinely sitting through 50-minute episodes. The shift in runtime matched Ted Lasso‘s pivot into overt dramedy territory, but it also left the show feeling like a worse version of itself. The jokes weren’t tight. Subplots piled up. Ted Lasso‘s saccharine niceness, welcome in short bursts, became cloying over longer periods of time.
Coming three years after Ted Lasso‘s supposed series finale, Season 4 felt like the perfect opportunity to reset the show and address major criticisms, such as the bloated runtimes. Instead, Season 4’s installments remain squarely in the 45-to 50-minute range, so the problems remain. With the Lady Greyhounds in the mix, the problems feel even more pronounced, as the show strains under the weight of its massive ensemble and its myriad storylines.
As Ted’s dating app woes suggest, Ted Lasso is too long-winded for its own good. If it were a Bantr profile, Bantr’s servers would implode under all the excess. What the show needs to do is refine itself. That doesn’t necessarily mean it needs to describe itself in only three words, Bantr-style. However, if it did want to go that route, I have a suggestion: Needs. Some. Trimming.
New episodes of Ted Lasso premiere Wednesdays on Apple TV.
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