there was a really awful christmas movie that came out years ago called "love the coopers". my friend's wife had us watch it with them one christmas and i had to choke back the vomit that was coming up from all the manipulative BS that the movie was serving. it was disappointing because it had a great cast and it probably seemed like a good ensemble holiday flick. but unlike a movie like "the family stone" which has actual emotions and a genuine approach to family spirit, "love the coopers" was desperate and needy. one critic even said "you MUST 'love' the coopers. that's how the title comes off."
that's how i feel about this last season of ted lasso. it went from being a genuine feel-good show to a manipulative drama that slogged through the 12 episodes. and whereas the previous seasons also had 12 episodes, the run-time was no more than 40-some minutes. this episode was over 12 hours long in total.
the last few episodes, including the finale, had some bright spots. even in the final moments of the show, there were some nice scenes. but then a lot of it was so on-the-nose and so eager to be the bear hug show it had previously attained by earning that sentiment...it came off as just being cloying much of the time.
if the season had 30-35 minute episodes, followed by an 80-minute finale...fine. but to have an 80-minute finale following entire hour long episodes really made it *feel* a whole lot more time consuming. and it is.
it does feel over, and they keep saying it is. it felt like a finale. but i guess we'll see how desperate apple gets in the coming years.
we might have to revisit "love ted lasso" again...
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