It seems that everyone invested in the characters of Apple TV’s hit show Ted Lasso is clamouring for a fourth season of the wholesome football series. Whether it’s diehard fans, casual viewers or the cast themselves, there is an air of anticipation around a return to the small screen of everyone’s favourite band of merry misfits. That is… everyone except me, it seems. I binged all of Ted Lasso last year in anticipation of its “final” season and found myself loving my time with the characters and becoming genuinely invested in their stories. I didn’t think it was some perfect masterpiece or anything, but it was a great feel-good show that had its heart in the right place and most importantly – stuck the landing. Both the midseason and full season finales – “Sunflowers” and “So Long, Farewell” – are so earnest and heartfelt even for this show’s standards. There is a real sense of finality and closure to that final episode and while it certainly feels like the launch of a new chapter, I personally am not convinced that we need to *see* that chapter. I felt so complete and satisfied as the final montage of “So Long, Farewell” played out that the idea of a revival didn’t even cross my mind. Now, 12 months on, it seems as though everyone has decided to forget all that. I can understand wanting to spend more time with the characters, but the actual story of Ted Lasso is over as far as I’m concerned. This got me thinking – should we let a good thing die? Or is there enough evidence to suggest that with enough talent, writers can keep stories fresh even after a planned ending? Maybe I shouldn’t be so harsh, because there is an endless list of shows that were seen to be cancelled too soon before they could get the endings they wanted. But my gut fears for the future of this show. Let’s look back and assess.

The Lost Issue

Poor Lost. Until recently, it was one of the shows most associated with having terrible endings after starting well (the finale is great, actually, even if the ride there is bumpy) until House of Cards and Game of Thrones selflessly took that title away. No, the biggest crime surrounding Lost is not its final hour, but the pressure the network put on Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse to create a new Grey’s Anatomy – a show that would simply never end. Given the nature of the show’s mysteries, I think any sane viewer would realise that was never going to be possible. The showrunners have since said their original plan was to end the show after its third season, and had to improvise massively in order to stretch events out within that all-over-the-place (though occasionally brilliant) season. By the end of the sixth season, the writers had thrown so many ideas at the wall that I was impressed by the sheer madness of it all. But at the same time, it was clear their original intentions with the season were a distant memory and it is easy to understand why so many were put off by the show’s direction. Regardless of what I think, Lost‘s viewership retention plummeted over time. Even saying all this, Ted Lasso is a much more grounded show than Lost which gives different challenges in terms of retaining its audience. That said, Lost should be a cautionary tale to any streaming services and networks when bleeding their shows dry.

Stranger Things & Event Television

The story of Stranger Things is also a sad one for me, even if there are plenty of people who still love its most recent instalments. The first season of Stranger Things is filled with charm, spark and excitement. Again, it’s not perfect, but before that final episode it really feels like it’s building to something special. Then comes the unfortunate reality – the first season doesn’t really end. This has created a destructive cycle within the show where it continues to build up to earth-shattering events that inevitably never live up to their promise in a show that is doomed to continue its life as a decade-long romp that should’ve ended as a strong miniseries. A lot has changed in the transition from network television to streaming, but one thing remains – no one ever wants to kill their darlings. As long as Ted Lasso remains the most successful show Apple TV has put out, they will do everything they can to make sure it continues for as long as possible to keep people subscribed, just as Netflix has done with Stranger Things.

Though one thing that has changed is how television is discussed. We’ve gone from the weekly water-cooler shows like Lost and 24 to a new model, where years can pass between seasons fuelling speculation and discussion before a whole season is dumped onto streaming at once for people to watch at their own speed. Apple TV is one of the few streaming services still adopting the weekly episode release structure, but the same precedent applies. There is an energy where these services almost feel the need to hoard shows to keep on their front page and stagger their releases, delaying the final episodes as much as possible. While I would like to praise Apple TV for being more adventurous with their programming than their rivals and allowing for more out there projects to be greenlit, there is a danger they could fall into this same trap with their golden goose.

The Simpsons & Legacy

Well, you must’ve known this one was coming. The Simpsons’ thirty-sixth season premiere has swept internet discussions for the past few weeks for its bold false finale in which it mocks the concept of it actually ending. Of course, three seasons of Ted Lasso is not directly comparable with thirty-six seasons of The Simpsons, but this episode raised some very interesting ideas and discussion. I think the most relevant point to bring up now is that while The Simpsons is about a quarter century past its peak, no one really cares. The writers know it, the past audience know it and the present audience know it. This episode and the discussion around it is almost irrelevant because, at the end of the day, no matter how “bad” The Simpsons got and no matter the length of that decline… people will still watch “Marge vs. The Monorail”, “Homer at the Bat” and “Treehouse of Horror V” in another quarter century (hell, it might be running its eighty-sixth season by then). And I think despite my concerns about the direction of Ted Lasso and this precedent for refusing to let good things die… I can take solace in the fact that no matter what happens, the first three seasons of Ted Lasso tell an entertaining, satisfying and complete story that we are lucky to have in its entirety. Anything that comes later is just a bonus.