Nate's Storyline Was the Worst Part of Ted Lasso Season 3 (and Its Biggest Mistake)
The character's redemption arc in Season 3 was a failure.
Let's face it — Season 3 of Ted Lasso was a complete mess. While the first two chapters of the Apple TV+ series are still some of the best comedies on the streaming platform, its last season simply failed to live up to the stellar legacy the show had built.
With myriad bloated storylines and unnecessarily long episodes, Ted Lasso's third installment felt like a total bore fest, and Nate Shelley's redemption arc made it look even worse.
In the Season 2 finale, Nate cursed his mentor and friend Ted Lasso and switched sides, leaving AFC Richmond to become the manager of the team's biggest rival — West Ham. With that in mind, fans expected Nate to go into full villain mode in Season 3, but for some inexplicable reason, the writers decided to prepare a redemption arc for the character.
Despite his obnoxious behavior in the last season, Nate milked viewers for sympathy in Season 3. The writers tried to build the character's redemption arc through his relationship with waitress Jade, but this storyline felt so dull and uninspired that it became even harder for fans to relate to and care about Nate.
Even though Nate saw the error of his ways and left West Ham to work with Richmond again, he didn't even apologize to Ted when he rejoined the team. It looks that the character wasn't sorry for how he made his teammates feel in the past, leading fans to believe that he didn't even deserve a redemption arc in the first place.
In the finale, Nate managed to make up with the coach, but that wasn't enough to save the season from falling apart. With so much screen time wasted on making us feel sympathy for the character, even a million apologies from Nate could not vindicate him in the eyes of the audience.
While the writers tried to make it look like Nate had to be excused because of his terrible upbringing, in the end, it seemed that he hadn't truly realized his mistakes and corrected himself. Ultimately, his redemption arc just felt cheap and unconvincing, making it one of the worst parts of Ted Lasso Season 3 and the entire series.