Ted Lasso season 4 is the best it's been in ages – but there's a drawback. The first four episodes are promising, though some familiar characters are missed.
Season 4 brings a fresh start
The opening scenes are not hugely encouraging. Ted seems to be having some sort of breakdown in slow motion. We're in his native Kansas City. Ted has been working as a supermarket cashier for the last three years. Yes, it's ludicrous; can you picture Jürgen Klopp ringing up your weekly shop? He occasionally pilfers goods from the shelves, since nobody stops him.
In these early moments when it's unclear what the hell is going on, it's much easier to imagine what Dark Ted would look like; some alternate reality of the TV show, where Lasso is on the loose as a serial killer masked under that Ned Flanders exterior. Anyway, that's not what this is, because Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), Keeley (Juno Temple) and Lesley (Jeremy Swift) soon pitch up to fetch him back to Richmond.
They want him to coach their second-tier women's team, the Lady Greyhounds. At first, he says no, but we've all seen the trailer, so are aware he's going to say yes. Then it's back to basics: the biscuit box, hijinks in Rebecca's office, the old Richmond characters around west London, where the only forms of media are Alison and Dermot on This Morning and Trent Crimm's self-serving new podcast.
New challenges and characters
Locals share their unsolicited opinions with Ted and this time around, the theme is sexism! Nobody has any faith in this team and its money-making abilities. That includes Rebecca. So starts a tug-of-war between Rebecca and Keeley (who seem to have been sharing a bottle of St Tropez) over the amount of spend that should go into the Lady Greyhounds.
The AFC Richmond owner also clashes with cheerless assistant coach Alice (a sublime, scowling Tanya Reynolds), who is rightly irked she's been passed over for the top job. Actual stakes! They're very welcome, because there isn't much jeopardy here. This is Ted Lasso. We know it's all going to work out.
The women's team brings a new cast of characters. They include warring sisters and a couple kissing during practice ('You don't get that in the men's team'). So far Jude Mack's loose-cannon goalie is the standout. But whether someone who bottles a stranger in a pub would have a future in the game is one for our football reporters to rule on.
Mixed feelings on returning cast
I still missed the familiarity (and antagonism) of Jamie Tartt, Nate and Rupert, ever more so after the loss of Anthony Head. Roy (Brett Goldstein) fills out the returning core cast, but I have grown weary of his sweary schtick. I appreciated the restraint in keeping him and Keeley as Just Friends, at least in the first four episodes available for review.
Ted's gee-wizzing and the performed enigma of Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) are similarly among the least interesting bits of this fourth season, unless they're sparking off Alice or Rebecca. Maybe that's by design, given the purported focus on the women of the game.
Verdict
Yas girlboss speeches aside, the first four episodes of season four have got me back on board. I have wondered if that first season of Ted Lasso, like so many other things foisted on us during the pandemic and met with an outsized reaction, was actually any good. Had we all been so desperate for some good feeling that we fell for a saccharine caricature derived from an NBC advert? But then, Ted Lasso and its brand of unwavering niceness still gets you, even when you see it coming.
The last two seasons were plagued with patronising monologues that felt a bit like this footie show was moonlighting as an after-school special. Be warned, there is still some of that. But it's usually lightened with a joke at the end. Sudeikis and co write the show as they go, so perhaps the remaining six episodes will backslide into that guff. But so far, Ted Lasso season four is decidedly less crap than the World Cup halftime show advertising it.
