Ted Lasso Hits a New IMDb Low: 'We'll Never Have Paris' is Now Worst-Rated Episode of the Show
The episode's problems are symptomatic of the rest of the season.
As the third season of Ted Lasso approaches its conclusion, the number of complaints about its writing increases.
Many fans are disappointed with the creative decisions that the show's producers have taken, but most importantly, the execution of these decisions has been severely criticized.
This season's eighth episode, 'We'll Never Have Paris,' which aired about a week ago, has already received the lowest IMDb rating in the show's entire history, scoring only 6.4/10. The second least popular episode is now 'Beard After Hours' (S2E9), which was effectively a filler with no impact on the overall plot, written after the second season got expanded by two additional episodes.
'We'll Never Have Paris,' on the contrary, is a crucial part of the third season and the whole Ted Lasso story. So how did it manage to sink so low? There are multiple reasons for that, and we'll start by quoting a fan from Reddit:
'This show went from a comedy drama about an American coach trying to coach football in England, to attempting to cover every single social issue in the 21st century like they were playing social issue bingo.'
Very, very well observed. In Episode 8, AFC Richmond's well-earned success is treated like an afterthought instead of a moment of shared triumph for the team and the coach. The plot mostly revolves around Keeley's sex video getting leaked to the Internet — and who cares about soccer when cybersecurity is the hottest topic right now!
In addition to that, the episode focuses heavily on the characters' love lives, with Ted's post-breakup turmoil being at the center. In the episode, he asks Rebecca to hire a private investigator to follow his ex-wife Michelle and her boyfriend, Dr. Jacob, and fans found this twist to be extremely disappointing and completely out of character for Ted:
'Ted would never hire a private detective. Just took me completely out of the show. All this work with Dr. Sharon, another character dearly missed this season, just to be a sleazebag and hire a private eye to follow your ex-wife around? Just abysmal [the show] running there,' another fan concluded.
Speaking of other weaknesses of Episode 8, and the entire Season 3 in general, fans couldn't help but notice that the pacing is plain bad, and too many plotlines feel unnecessary. At the same time, the characters are not given enough time to develop their arcs properly, so their storylines are jagged and unsatisfying. There are also technical flaws, such as too much of the story getting told in montages or dialogue that feels like it's been written by ChatGPT.
It looks like the third season is going to be remembered as Ted Lasso's low point. But fans don't lose hope, and everyone is looking forward to seeing the remaining three episodes of this season. The next one will air on Apple TV+ on May 17.
Source: Reddit.