After a second season that put Ted and company through a proper emotional wringer, Apple TV+’s hit Ted Lasso hit returns for a third outing. All signs point to season three being curtains for Ted Lasso, even if Jason Sudeikis keeps using interviews to tease the potential of a spin-off or other continuation. Sudeikis has gone on the record before about his inclination to steer the show through a trilogy structure replete with nods to a certain intergalactic franchise. All the same, the season premiere, titled “Smells Like Mean Spirit” in a fittingly corny Nirvana riff, picks up on the precipice of AFC Richmond’s debut in the English Premier League (EPL) after their miraculous rise. Yet, for many of our favorites, that boost in opportunity means that there is plenty rotten in Richmond.
The episode opens with a melancholy Ted (Sudeikis) at the airport. He’s sending his son Henry (Gus Turner) back across the Atlantic. After six weeks together the bubble has burst, and Ted must return in full force to his coaching duties. It’s for the best because Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) bristles with the desperate need to beat her ex-husband and West Ham United owner Rupert (Anthony Head), a feeling only stoked by the press’s uniform suggestion that AFC Richmond will finish last and be relegated again. Over at West Ham, Nate (Nick Mohammed) embraces the dark side. He steps into his new position as manager where Rupert feeds his festering fury with Ted. Even Roy (Brett Goldstein) and Keeley (Juno Temple) are struggling. Their new positions as, respectively, coach and PR firm CEO have driven them to break up. All down the line, the personal supersedes the pitch.
Introducing the threads makes this particular Ted Lasso season premiere a dense affair. As the show has further embraced its ensemble reality, the challenge for the writers is to balance an extensive roster of storylines. Thankfully, this team is a bunch of proper pros. “Smells Like Mean Spirit” once again shows off their collective ability to dip in and out of arcs for key moments. With the exception of one overly exposition-laden conversation between Ted, Rebecca, and Leslie (Jeremy Swift) in Rebecca’s office, the episode is a crisply and cleverly built entrée back into the show. It helps that the same thematic principle links the central figures—the past is all too eager to haunt AFC Richmond’s halls. Failed marriages, growing pains, and father figures float in and out of every consciousness.
On the point of father figures, the episode’s most striking scenes revolve around Nate. Ted’s failure to recognize the ways he harmed Nate factor significantly into the West Ham defection. In season one, Nate was a bullied and overlooked man of color who Ted embraced. Yet, come season two, Ted’s focus on rehabilitating Jamie (Phil Dunster), who brutalized Nate, and elevating Roy, who was far from kind to Nate, undermined his and Nate’s relationship. As we learned later in the season, Nate’s contentious relationship with his father left him pining for a figure to fill the void. His unaddressed trauma around that led him all the way to Rupert’s evil embrace. Throughout “Smells Like Mean Spirit,” Rupert gushes about how he’s “proud” of Nate, and “believes” in his talent. It is manipulative, cruel, and brilliant.
That strand sets up a faceoff in the press between Nate and Ted. Not to mention a side serving of consternation from the fired-up Rebecca. When Ted, in classic folksy fashion, takes the AFC Richmond squad into the sewers to make a point about getting out of their own heads, a public works employee snaps a photo and tweets it. That leads Nate to comment on how “shitty” Ted is as a coach and sets Rebecca off to confront Ted on why he isn’t working harder to make sure they beat Rupert. Ted steps into a press conference after Rebecca asks him to “fight back” and he does, but in his signature way—foregrounding grace and humor to deflect Nate’s vitriol. It is a poignant sequence, and one that also allows Ted Lasso to put Ted and Rebecca back on the same page, all while amplifying how vengeful Nate feels.
For all of this heaviness, it wouldn’t be Ted Lasso without a heaping dose of heart and humor stirred in with the roiling pot of inter and intrapersonal struggle. In a case of “this is made exactly for me,” the premiere features an extended Paddington Bear joke about how even the marmalade-loving ursine projected AFC Richmond to finish last, not to mention Ted’s one-liner about Twin Peaks in his press conference. There is plenty of laughter to go around anchored by the, as always, exceptional cast, but it’s hard not to recognize that this is a more emotionally charged premiere than Ted Lasso has seen to date. From the opening shot, a slow pull back from the clearly distressed and distracted Ted, “Smells Like Mean Spirit” is a stage-setter for what promises to be a loaded season.
From the opening shot, a slow pull back from the clearly distressed and distracted Ted, “Smells Like Mean Spirit” is a stage-setter for what promises to be a loaded season.
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GVN Rating
Devin McGrath-Conwell holds a B.A. in Film / English from Middlebury College and is currently pursuing an MFA in Screenwriting from Emerson College. His obsessions include all things horror, David Lynch, the darkest of satires, and Billy Joel. Devin’s writing has also appeared in publications such as Filmhounds Magazine, Film Cred, Horror Homeroom, and Cinema Scholars.
