Blog
‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4 Review: A Heartfelt Homecoming
Ted Lasso is back on TV. Apple’s hit soccer series, which helped usher in the current streaming trend of sports-themed comedy programs, debuted its fourth season on Wednesday. But after three years away, you may be wondering if the Emmy-winning comedy is still firing on all cylinders.
Apple TV sent members of the press the first five episodes of the new season for review. Based on these episodes, I can say with certainty, the Ted Lasso we all fell in love with is so back.
Cocreated by and starring Jason Sudeikis, the series, which followed an American football coach tapped to mentor a struggling UK soccer team, was a major hit right out of the gate. It hit TV at the height of the pandemic, when many viewers were still stuck indoors, yearning for positive escapism. The show did just that, cementing Sudeikis as a formidable star and introducing a new crop of UK actors to the celebrity A-List.
Some of those names have returned for the show’s fourth season. Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt and Jeremy Swift are all back, reprising the roles that made them household names.
Getting the proverbial band back together is already a big part of the season’s success. Yet instead of continuing to wring whatever juice remained in the AFC Richmond storyline, Ted Lasso’s fourth season makes the smart pivot to focus on Richmond’s struggling women’s soccer league.
The first three seasons relied heavily on the fish-out-of-water premise of an American football coach heading overseas into unfamiliar territory to coach an unfamiliar sport. Season 4 of Apple TV’s comedy flips the fish-out-of-water script and puts Mr. Lasso in a different sort of awkward position: being a male head coach of an all-female team.
Now look, I know how that last sentence may sound. But there are a load of real-life issues that come with that simple statement. Female soccer leagues may have risen in popularity in recent years, but the harassment, discrimination and systemic misogyny have remained a present reality.
Ted Lasso leads a new team in season 4.
Apple TV
As unfunny as those things sound, Ted Lasso somehow explores these issues with refreshing honesty, giving voice to the underrepresented female players in a male-dominated sport while remaining true to itself as a comedy series.
The result is a season that once again taps into the fun formula that made its first season a standout hit when the show premiered six years ago.
There really isn’t much new to say about the performances of the show’s returning cast. Sudeikis and the gang seamlessly step back into their characters’ shoes. Seeing them back on screen is like a welcome hug I didn’t know I needed.
Sure, the days of the pandemic quarantine are behind us, but Ted Lasso’s unflinching positivity and Midwestern charm are still outliers in an entertainment medium that embraces gun-toting antiheroes over kind characters spewing quaint, quippy one-liners.
Even Roy Kent gives the coach a welcome-back hug in the season’s second episode (this isn’t a spoiler; it’s also in the trailer), which feels important to mention, considering how gruff and cantankerous that man can be.
My point is that seeing them all reunite on screen did wonders for my mood. But that’s not a sustainable recipe for a solid season.
This is where the Lady Greyhounds come into play.
Tanya Reynolds leads the cast of new faces joining the Ted Lasso crew this season, alongside Jude Mack, Faye Marsay, Rex Hayes, Aisling Sharkey and Abbie Hern. It’s Reynolds’ performance as assistant coach Alice Chilton, specifically opposite Sudeikis and Hunt, that adds a nice layer of stone-faced awkwardness to the mix.
Previously, it was Hunt’s job to fill that position opposite Sudeikis, but Chilton isn’t awkwardly funny. She has some serious difficulties in managing the team, as well as managing her own personal demons, which add another layer to the mix and open the story to a range of narrative possibilities that keep Ted Lasso and crew consistently on their toes.
While he still stands out like a sore thumb, it’s not long before Chilton sees the magic that Lasso weilds in making a soccer team shine. Seeing her bewilderment at his ways is a subtle reminder for the rest of us that kindness can go quite far.
Away from the soccer field, storylines involving Rebecca’s enduring romantic life, the will-they-won’t-they relationship between Roy and Keeley and the little peeks into Lasso’s family plotline tie the show together in a nice little bow.
More than once, I found myself thinking that this season of Ted Lasso, much like the recent Netflix rom-com Office Romance (which was written by and costarred Brett Goldstein), flips gender expectations and roles within the genre, giving nearly every female character some well-earned power.
Oh, and did I mention that it’s funny? It takes a lot for a show to get laughs out of me, and I barely made a peep when season 3 aired. This time around, though? I wasn’t just laughing in parts — I was cackling.
Hat tip to everyone in the writers’ room; y’all made season 4 pop.
When Ted Lasso said goodbye to audiences over three years ago, I, like many of you, felt cheated by the way things ended.
Now that new episodes are here, with more seasons potentially in the works, I can honestly say Ted Lasso season 4 is the heartfelt homecoming I needed. Once you watch, I’m sure you’ll agree that you needed it, too.
