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Ted Lasso is one of Apple TV’s most popular shows, prompting the streamer to greenlight a fourth season despite already finishing the series. One of the show’s greatest strengths is how it focused on its characters’ development, but a season 2 episode centering on Beard’s life sparked a lot of criticism for doing just that. Season 2, episode 9, “Beard After Hours,” started after AFC Richmond’s FA Cup semifinal loss against Manchester City FC, with Beard’s brief annoyance at Ted’s coaching approach to the match prompting his solo adventure in London once he refused to return home with the team.
With the other main Ted Lasso characters only appearing at the beginning and the end of “Beard After Hours,” the episode departs entirely from the show’s usual structure, leading to a dreamlike sequence where unlikely and adverse events happen to Beard, lasting almost the whole episode. Paying homage to Scorsese’s After Hours, Ted Lasso season 2, episode 9’s massive shift in tone attracted the hatred of many, whose complaints online touched upon the most disparate reasons that made it one of Ted Lasso’s most-hated episodes.
Coach Beard’s Ted Lasso Season 2 Solo Episode Was Heavily Criticized
It Is One Of The Lowest-Rated Episodes
“Beard After Hours” is one of the worst-reviewed episodes of the entire series by fans of the show. The complaints range from Ted Lasso season 2, episode 9’s perceived pointlessness and it being a “bad filler episode” to the belief that the writers attempted to be clever without being entertaining with the episode’s structure. The change in tone of “Beard After Hours” compared to the show’s usual tone cannot be refuted, and some of the IMDb reviews highlighted how the switch felt “horrendous.”
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Some reviewers saw the episode as “pointless” as Breaking Bad season 3, episode 10, “Fly.” This episode’s perceived pointlessness hinged on its events not impacting AFC Richmond’s broader story and their being limited to Beard’s personal journey. However, another significant complaint rested on the episode’s tone being too dark and twisty compared to Ted Lasso’s usually upbeat one, causing too much of a break for some viewers, who found the whole episode simultaneously unappealing and a waste of time for both reasons.
Why “Beard After Hours” Was A Brilliant Ted Lasso Episode
It’s An Interesting Change Of Tone From The Rest Of The Series
While most of the events in “Beard After Hours” didn’t impact the team or the show’s other main characters, the episode still provided a better understanding of Coach Beard’s inner workings and thoughts. Ted Lasso season 3’s ending proved that the story was always about the team, but mostly seen through Ted’s lens. That Beard’s point of view was shown in an episode with such a different tone compared to the show’s usually upbeat one shows the shift in perspective through the episode’s focus and the narrative mechanisms used, with the darker tone making sense in the Ted Lasso series finale with Beard’s past finally being revealed.
Its differences from Ted Lasso’s usual cheer only make the episode more peculiar and fitting to tell Beard’s story.
While Beard and Jane’s reconciliation at the end might seem a small development that Ted Lasso season 2, episode 9 leads to, it fully helped Beard move past his insecurities about his relationship with her and his role in the training for the FA Cup match brutally lost against Manchester City FC. “Beard After Hours” not only was unapologetically fun and absurd, but it also provided an explanation as to why and how Beard was drawn to Jane, something his friends and the show’s storytelling never understood. Its differences from Ted Lasso’s usual cheer only make the episode more peculiar and fitting to tell Beard’s story.
Why “Beard After Hours” Doesn’t Really Connect To Anything
The Show Added Two More Episodes During Production
Like seasons 1 and 3 of Ted Lasso, the second season was originally 10 episodes, but then Apple ordered two more episodes for the season after the original 10 were already written, likely hoping to capitalize on the major success season 1 was. “Beard After Hours” and “Carol of the Bells,” Ted Lasso’s Christmas episode, were the two extra episodes, which perfectly explains why “Beard After Hours” feels so disconnected from the rest of the season, and even really the rest of the series as a whole.
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Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with “bottle episodes” as some of the best episodes of television in the past decade have been these, but in the case of Ted Lasso, it is apparent that “Beard After Hours” was not originally planned for season 2. Even so, it is still a strong standalone episode and its willingness to go against the grain for what Ted Lasso is known for makes it a bold choice, but it is also entirely understandable why fans of the show might view it as one of the weaker entries in the series.
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