Ted Lasso Returns For One Final(?) Feel-Good Season

Looking for your next binge-watch, or just need to fill an hour? Welcome to Your Weekly Watch List, our curated collection of the best shows on television. Here’s what to watch from Sunday, March 12 through Saturday, March 18.

Lace up your boots, Ted Lasso fans, as the Apple TV+ comedy returns for its final season this week. Plus, we’ve got the Oscars, The Last of Us season finale, and the premieres of Swarm and Extrapolations.

The 95th Oscars

Sunday, 8:00 PM ET on ABC

Hollywood’s biggest night returns, and, for a change, some true fan favorites have a chance to take home deserved gold. Between Everything Everywhere All At Once star Michelle Yeoh finally being recognized after four decades of greatness, former child actor Ke Huy Quan and The Whale’s Brendan Fraser looking to complete their underdog comeback stories, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s Angela Bassett poised to win her long-overdue first Oscar (and the first acting award for a Marvel movie), there’s plenty to root for at the 95th Academy Awards. Three-time host Jimmy Kimmel returns, presumably with plenty of slap-based jokes at the ready.

The Last of Us Season 1 Finale

Sunday, 9:00 PM ET on HBO

Pedro Pascal’s Joel and Bella Ramsey’s Ellie have overcome bandits, cannibals, raiders, and fungus-infected hordes in their quest to find a cure for the zombie plague, but can they deliver the infected but immune Ellie’s blood to the right people? If this acclaimed series can break the stubborn video game adaptation curse, the smart money’s on them getting far enough to at least continue the harrowing story in an already greenlit Season 2.

Ted Lasso Season 3 Premiere

Wednesday, Apple TV+

If there’s one genre even more blighted than the video game adaptation, it’s entertainment inspired by TV commercials. (Sorry, Cavemen.) That makes the success of Jason Sudeikis’ soccer story, spun off as it was from the actor’s series of spots promoting the English Premier League, even more unlikely. In Ted Lasso’s third (and what Sudeikis and co-creator Bill Lawrence say will be final) season, transplanted American football coach Ted has cemented his genial but effective leadership of AFC Richmond, while the defection of Nick Mohammed’s Nate to rival West Ham United sees the two former colleagues compete on and off the pitch. Easily one of the most beloved and exuberantly enjoyable TV comedies in years, Ted Lasso also boasts a stellar cast including Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, Juno Temple, Brendan Hunt, Phil Dunster, and Toheeb Jimoh, all returning for one last, 12-episode shot at feel-good glory.

Swarm

Friday, Amazon Prime Video (Full Season)

Atlanta’s Donald Glover and playwright Janine Nabers are co-creators on this dark tale of fandom gone very, very wrong. Dominique Fishback stars as Dre, a superfan of a Beyoncé-like pop star whose obsession with her idol leads to darker and darker places. Chloe Bailey and Damson Idris co-star in the seven-episode series, with Glover on hand to direct the first episode.

Extrapolations

Friday, Apple TV+

If you like your science fiction tinged with creeping existential terror, then this speculative near-future drama from creator Scott Z. Burns is your cup of steadily rising water. In a recognizably decaying planet beset by climate change, a group of interconnected characters struggle to adapt to a world where seas and temperatures have risen, and navigate the resulting interpersonal conflicts. The series features one of those casts so sprawling it might be easier to list who’s not involved. Look for Matthew Rhys, Edward Norton, Gemma Chan, Forest Whitaker, and more illustrious names as the first three of the season’s eight episodes drop Friday.

If You Have...

An Hour

Bert Kreischer: Razzle Dazzle: Tuesday, Netflix
Superman & Lois Season 3 Premiere: Tuesday, 8:00 PM ET on The CW
Gotham Knights: Tuesday, 9:00 PM ET on The CW

An Evening

Servant Series Finale: Friday, Apple TV+
Carnival Row Season 2 Finale: Friday, Amazon Prime Video

A Full Day

Shadow and Bone Season 2: Thursday, Netflix
Dance 100: Friday, Netflix

Up Next

Lucky Hank: Sunday, March 19, AMC
Waco: American Apocalypse: Wednesday, March 22, Netflix
Yellowjackets Season 2: Friday, March 24, Showtime
Up Here: Friday, March 24, Hulu

Dennis Perkins is a freelance entertainment writer with bylines at The A.V. Club, Paste, Ultimate Classic Rock, The Portland Press Herald, and elsewhere.