"Ted Lasso"'s Season 3 Episodes Are Still Too Long

When fans learned that "Ted Lasso"'s third season — currently airing on Apple TV+ — would be its last, many were upset. They wanted more time with Ted (Jason Sudeikis), Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt), Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), Keeley (Juno Temple), Roy (Brett Goldstein), and co. But somehow, that desire seems to have been interpreted as more time in each individual episode. Episode 10, released on May 17, is an hour and four minutes long. It is the second episode of the series to go over an hour after episode six, "Sunflowers." In general, the episodes have been just below that hour-long mark. But season three's episodes are too long, and it's a big part of why it feels like "Ted Lasso" has lost its way in season three.

"Ted Lasso" stuck to the half-hour comedy model in season one. In the age of streaming, most comedies finish their episodes at around 30 minutes, give or take, since they don't have to worry about time slots. "Ted Lasso" started to flirt with runtime flexibility in season two, with a few episodes coming nearer to 40 minutes. But plenty of the show's most iconic episodes continued to stick close to the 30-minute mark, like season two's much-beloved Christmas special, "Carol of the Bells." The season two finale is 50 minutes, but that felt like a special occasion, and even network comedies have done extra-long episodes for season finales (or special events like weddings). But "Ted Lasso" season three has made these inflated runtimes the standard for the formerly half-hour comedy, and it's hurting the show.

You can feel the heaviness of the run times while watching. "Sunflowers" doesn't have any bad or boring plots in it, but each individual plot takes up so much time, messing up the pacing and making the episode drag. I'm invested in Rebecca's romantic life, the coming-out plot for Colin (Billy Hughes), and the bicycle shenanigans of Roy and Jamie (Phil Dunster), but it feels like the show doesn't know how to manage all these strands while still keeping things flowing and fun. If the episode was 20 minutes shorter, it could have kept those fun moments and still kept things moving. Episode 10, "International Break," similarly drags, even as it contains some plot points fans have long been waiting for.

Viewers might counter that "Ted Lasso"'s season three episodes need longer running times because it's not just dealing with comedy but with drama, too. But consider something like Hulu's "The Bear," which is even more of a dramedy than "Ted Lasso" is (so much so that some have argued it shouldn't count as a comedy at all). Every season one episode of the FX show but the season finale was 31 minutes or shorter, and episode seven — widely considered to be the best one — was just 20 minutes long. Shorter running times keep things smart, sharp, and interesting, and if written well, leave plenty of space for moving drama.

Sudeikis, who was the sole showrunner for "Ted Lasso" season three, told Variety in an interview published March 14 that the longer runtimes are because there are so many characters and plot lines, and they're "just following the stories." Because it's on streaming, the creative team have the flexibility to do whatever they want, as long as Apple and its production company, Warner Bros., allow. And surely it's difficult — painful even — to know you're making the final season of a beloved show and that you might not be able to fit in every moment with the characters that you want. But that just makes some of the things the show has chosen to focus on this season even more confusing.

Early episodes spent a lot of time on a plot to sign fictional soccer player Zava (Maximilian Osinski) to Richmond, only for him to unceremoniously retire in episode five. Why did the show spend so much time on that? How have the episodes been so long yet so many important plots saw little movement for weeks?

These huge "Ted Lasso" runtimes make the show feel rudderless and unmoored. Is there a plan for the end? Are they going to leave us all satisfied with where the characters end up? I'm hopeful, but concerned.

New episodes of "Ted Lasso" premiere on Wednesdays on Apple TV+.