Summary
Apple TV+has delivered some of TV’s most satisfying seasons across different genres over the last few years. From the comedy hitTed Lasso,to Harrison Ford’s therapist office showShrinking, to its dystopian futuristic sci-fi seriesSilo, Apple TV+ has put out some entertaining and meaningful seasons.Severance, the streamer’s most popular current series, left audiences jaw-dropped in its twisty, tonally manipulative Season 2 finale, leaving audiences eager for more.
In order to grow, Apple TV+ needs to up its marketing game and focus on its tight-knit shows likeSeveranceandShrinking,instead offorcefully renewingTed Lassodespite a satisfactory Season 3 and series finale. With other ongoing projects, such a renewal appears like a desperate act on Apple TV+’s part to up viewership, demonstrating an apparent lack of faith in their slow-growing but critically acclaimed ones. Leaving that room for those other ongoing shows — not to mention new projects — will prove more profitable.
Ted Lasso, starring Jason Sudeikis, is a sports dramedy about the titular, relentlessly positive and supportive football coach being hired to train an English soccer team, AFC Richmond. Its owner, Rebecca Welton, hired Lasso hoping he would make her team fail, hoping to hurt her soccer-loving ex-husband’s feelings. She expected that Lasso’s inexperience and unrealistically optimistic demeanor would crash the team.
Instead, his nurturing but firm and attentive nature allows the team to move up in the soccer world, leading to three excellent seasons of fun for all ages. Ted Lasso goofily faces new obstacles working with the team and all of his trainees' teenage and game-related problems, setting the series' lighthearted tone.Ted Lassowon hearts everywhere and is oftencredited for boosting Apple TV+’s streamer prestige.
However,upon Season 3’s production and premiere, it became clearfrom the narrative’s direction and the cast and crew’s mouths that Season 3 was written asTed Lasso’s last. In anepisode of the podcastFake Doctors, Real Friends With Zack and Donald, showrunner Bill Lawrence confirmed that the show was initially pitched as a three-season deal, and Sudeikis had only mapped out three seasons of work on the show before planning to close out:
“you may’t sustain that [ongoing TV]. You have to have some… some ups and downs to the storytelling. But you know, I think that— I think that ours is a little different because, you know Jason, and [where] he’s kind of mapping it [Ted Lasso] out is to three. It’s a three season show.”
In the very same 2020 podcast, Lawrence admitted that"after the third season, I will desperately try to get Mr. Sudeikis to do it.“However, he also shared how he had no vision for aTed Lassofuture beyond Season 3. Now, Apple TV+ has renewed the show for a fourth season despite the fact that only three seasons were planned.
Ted Lassocould be headed for a disaster akin to Dan Harmon’s sitcomCommunity’sfourth season, commonly referred to as the Gas Leak Year. As the only season without Harmon involved,CommunitySeason 4 sufferedfrom gag and narrative recycling, lackluster character retreads, and far-fetched character directions that forced one co-star to leave halfway through.Ted LassoSeason 4 might disappoint fans and harm Apple TV+ similarly without careful consideration.
Ben Stiller’sSeveranceSaves the Day (and Can Continue Doing So)
Ben Stiller,Severance’s executive producer and primary director, has put out two incredibly successful seasons. Despite a notable three-year wait between them due toindustry strikes and creative differences,SeveranceSeason 2 delivered an epic outing that answered Season 1’s climactic cliffhanger with more mazes than exits. To top it off,SeverancesurpassedTed Lassoto becomeApple TV+’s most viewed TV show to datein Season 2. This both decreased Apple TV+’s profit losses, and changed the streamer’s marketing tone fromLasso’s up-beat positivity to one of isolated, chilling darkness. Fans are hyped for Season 3, which has already received promising updates. If Season 3 delivers as well, it means good news for Apple TV+’s future.
Fans feel divided overSeverance’s future. Many want it to continue for years, while others believeSeason 3 should close the series. How long the show will remain on air is still unknown, even though there is reportedly a planned end.Severancecould theoretically continue so long as the story yields more insightful entertainment, as a planned end does not equate a necessitated stopping point. A lot of new ideas introduced inSeverance’s second season could feel wasted if the show stops in Season 3 as well, which cannot be said aboutTed Lasso.
Thus, Apple TV+ will most likely find continued growth through consistentSeverancesupport, along with solid continued budgeting for other TV shows like the aforementionedShrinkingandthe Gary Oldman-starring dramaSlow Horses. These are plentiful properties with lots more story to tell — or at least, more story thanTed Lasso, which some viewers found to be losing charm by its latest season. Hopefully,Severancecontinues to surprise and subvert, andTed Lassosurprises the naysayers with a strong fourth outing. But only one of them is more definitively reliable than the other — which Apple still has not learned and needs to.
