Ted Lasso: The Richmond Way - Blu-ray Review

Movie
I have kind of felt like an outsider the last several years as everyone on social media raved about Ted Lasso when it first came out. Back in 2020 everything and anything that could be put on a streaming platform was being transitioned over due to Covid 19 lock downs, and I was kind of “streamed out” if you know what I mean. Most of the stuff that was a streaming exclusive was generally pretty “meh” (Paramount Plus put out a lot of mid range stuff due to the theatrical lockdown) and I didn’t feel like paying extra money for Apple TV being that I was already paying for Hulu, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Paramount Plus, AND Netflix and I was feeling a bit tapped out. That being said, the organic enthusiasm kept me intrigued, up until last year when the series ended. But being that I wasn’t really into the Apple TV infrastructure, I kind of figured it would be a “one of these days” type show. AAAAAAAAAND, I guess today is that day.

What’s more amazing than the show itself is the fact that this actually got put on Blu-ray. Most of the big streaming platform originals stay locked on the platform, with only Disney and Paramount Plus avid about bringing said shows to physical medium. Apple TV and Amazon Prime are tow of the biggest holdouts, with Prime only tossing us a few things like The Boys (and I think one more show) and up until this point Apple TV has refused to put any of their shows on home video. But I guess today is more than just a first for myself, as this breaks Apple TV’s record of holding out and happens to be the very first show they have let go and put out on home video (although I’m slightly sad that we didn’t get a 4K UHD release, but that’s simply me being a greedy little boy)

Ted Lasso is the brain child of Jason Sudeikis, who planned and co-created the show after basing it off of a sketch comedy character from years ago. Starring and produced by Jason, the series is a cheeky little fish out of water tale where a British soccer club (apologies, Futbol) decides that they’re going to hire a United States college football coach to come and lead them. In walks one Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis), a bubbly and overly exuberant chatty Kathy of a coach who is thrust straight into the lion’s den of culture shock. Born and raised in the midwest, Ted and his assistant coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) are kind of oddities to the Brits. He’s overly talkative, overly optimistic, and worst of all, has NO IDEA how Futbol is played. But hey, he’s got enthusiasm. Only thing is, Ted is set up to fail from the beginning, as team owner Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) hasn’t hired Ted to succeed, but in fact the opposite. She has just split from her conniving ex husband Rupert (Anthony Head, most notable for being Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and is on a mission to have Ted come in and tank the team, so that she can stick it Rupert one last time (being that the Richmond team is the one thing he truly loves)

The show (I don’t know why the Blu-ray labels it as “the Richmond Way” instead of “The Complete Series) lasted a grand total of 3 seasons, and is separated into what I would consider three separate quality chunks. The first being the initial 10 episode 30 minute season, and what I would like to call “perfection incarnate”. I know I’m going out on a limb here, but Ted Lasso: Season 1 is the very definition of a perfect season. It starts out well, with a great sense of comedy, but infuses it with personal tales of growth from not only Ted and Rebecca, but also the team’s Captain Roy (Brett Goldstein), hotheaded star Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster), and Jamie’s sassy tabloid girlfriend Keeley (Juno Temple). I can’t really convey on paper just how good it is, but season 1 earns my official seal of approval as 5/5 rated.

Season 2 runs hot and heavy on the 1st season’s heels, putting out a strong season that continues on with the evolution of the show. Roy has retired from Futbol, Keeley has left Jamie in the dust, and Ted has formed a strong friendship with prickly team owner Rebecca. However, this season takes a darker tone, cutting out some of the comedy for introspective looks at death, divorce, personal trauma that has been bottled up for years, and even the expansion of the team’s roster. However, this season is not AS good as the previous perfection that came before it. I can’t really place WHY it isn’t, but I can see some of the signs. The scope of the show seems to be tightened up, with less ensemble casting on screen, with the episodes generally focusing on 2-3 main characters instead of everyone at once. A lot of the other Futbol players take a back seat to Jamie, Roy and Nigerian player Sam (Toheeb Jimoh). Also, I noticed that a few of the episodes seemed a bit unfocused and out of place, specifically the 9th episode of the season that focused on the crazy adventure of Coach Beard. On the plus side, Rebecca and Ted’s inner demons are explored much more intimately, and you come out of the season appreciating their nuances a bit more. If I had to give a star rating, season 2 would be a 4/5 (it starts out a 4.5/5, but around the 8th episode of the 12 episode season it starts to falter and fumble a bit).

Now we’re on to the infamous 3rd season. I had heard every sort of extreme on social media about the final arc, and how polarizing it was, so I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. That being said, I don’t think it was the train wreck that critics reported it to be, but it was in NO WAY as good as even the second season. The character arcs are shrunk even more, putting only a couple of the cast members in front of the camera at time, and the character development just sort of flip flopped all over the place. Sudeikis had announced from the start that he had a 3 season arc in mind for the show, and with that in mind the length of the episodes jumped dramatically from the 30-38 minute runtime of the previous two seasons. Many episodes jump up to 45 minutes, and the final two episodes clicking in at 70 minutes (ish) each. But even then, it almost feels like the season needed a few more episodes to really finish of Ted’s arc, and I blame that solely on some of the padded filler episodes that were in the season. It’s not great, but it’s not horrible either. But I will fully admit that it does what most shows fail to do, and that is tell a complete story that finishes what the series started without forcing it into more and more seasons where the writers write themselves into a corner, and the resulting ending doesn’t feel like it was meant for the same show (How I met Your Mother *cough *cough). With this in mind, I’ll give the 3rd season a 3/5 rating.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

As mentioned above, the show was released on Apple TV in 4K with Dolby Vision support, so it’s kind of a sad thing to ONLY get a Blu-ray 1080p variant for home video. That being said, the show was never a stunner in the video quality department from what I sampled, and the Warner Brothers Blu-ray set do a very capable job with the digital material. The image is clean and clear, with no signs of any major artifacting anywhere (except for some minor crush in season 2, and a flicker or two of banding in a night sky), and colors are simply superb. The series showcases wonderful shades of green (the field they play on), tons of blues and reds for the uniforms, and a variety of crazy colors for the London backdrop that the players venture out into on their off time. The show was pushed onto two discs per season for the first 2 years, and 3 discs for the 3rd and final year due to the increased runtime of said last season per episodes. Bitrates run in the 25-30 mbps range for the most part, which is pretty solid, and generally the show looks very good. There’s some minor softness due to the decreased bitrates but overall this is a solid looking show.







Audio:

The show sports a singular 5.1 DTS-HD MA track for the entirety of all 3 seasons (sadly no extra language tracks for our foreign friends), and just like you would expect from the description, this is a very forward heavy show for the most part. There’s some minor “on the field” action that sort of puffs up the mix a bit with the crowd screaming, or the announcers yelling in our ears, but otherwise the soundstage is mostly relegated to front heavy dialog driven portions and some minor ambient surround usage. Bass is solid and impressive when needed (such as when Beard is raving in the club with Jane in the infamous S2 Ep9 entry) but overall this is a just a simple, well balanced, dramatic track that tends to keep things basic.




Extras:

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Ted Lasso is quality entertainment. The 3rd season definitely suffers, but the show’s first and 2nd year more than makes up for the dip in quality for the final entry into the series. Everyone is obviously giving it their all and you actually build a rapport with the characters. Juno Temple is above and beyond one of my favorite characters as Keeley, but Jason, Hannah, Brett and Toheeb are so incredible that I can’t pick a favorite character. Warner’s Blu-ray set is fantastic, with a good spread of the series across 7 discs, but sadly it is a BIT barebones for the price. The only “extra” is a simple poster, and Warner has given us only a single English DTS-HD MA 5.1 track for audio, and English SDH subtitles. Is it a great show? Absolutely, is the Warner Brothers Blu-ray solid? Yup. Would I have liked more extras and language tracks to make it more appealing? Of course. But at the end of the day this is a rare treat to get an Apple TV show on home video. Recommended.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple, Jeremy Swift, Brett Goldstein
Created by: Brendan Hunt, Joe Kelly, Bill Lawrence
Aspect Ratio: 2.00:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: Not Rated
Runtime: 1453 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: July 30th, 2024

mechman said:

Excellent review Michael!

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thank you. It was a treat to watch. Usually I've seen all the movies and shows (at least the majors) before I even request them for review, but this was a virgin run for me on this one and I'm REALLY glad I got to binge it like this.