It’s hard to imagine now how welcome a balm “Ted Lasso” was when it premiered on Apple TV+ in August of 2020.
We were buried in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic. Streets were empty, grocery store visits were an expedition and real life seemed like science fiction. Actual fiction came to the rescue.
“Ted Lasso,” which stars Jason Sudeikis as a fish-out-of-water college football coach taking over a British soccer team, was funny and engaging and, most of all, warm and inviting. The country was already divided by politics; now an unthinkable medical crisis would widen that gap even further.
I’m not claiming that Sudeikis and the show healed all wounds. They haven’t healed at all, as any look at the headlines will tell you. But “Ted Lasso” did,
at a time when we really needed it, make the people who watched it feel better. (It won 13 Emmys and a Peabody Award along the way, as well.)
What is the new 'Ted Lasso' season about?
But balms are a temporary fix, not a cure. It’s impossible to replicate what this one meant to fans of the show at that time — at least I hope so. The second season includes a Christmas episode that proved incredibly divisive, and by the third season it really did feel like it was time to say goodbye.
Hello again.
“Ted Lasso” is, somewhat surprisingly, back for a fourth season. The country is still divided (though somewhat united in the wake of a crazily entertaining World Cup for a few minutes there, which seems relevant here), and I am sorry to report that the show isn’t going to bring it back together.
Not for lack of trying.
Ted is still the salt of the earth, of course. He left the team and Richmond at the end of Season 3 to go back home to Kansas City and spend more time with his son; he’s working as a clerk in a grocery store when Season 4 opens, to ensure he makes good on his commitment.
Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein), the irascible former star player turned assistant coach (and the most interesting character on the show), has taken over as coach of the team. Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) is Roy’s assistant.
Rebecca (Hannah Waddington) is still the team owner; Keely (Juno Temple) is promoting the team and the delightful Leslie Higgins (Jeremy Swift) is still the director of football operations. That trio shows up unexpectedly in Kansas City to eat barbecue (Rebecca eats it like she’s from another planet and just discovered sauce) — and to pitch Ted on a new gig.
They want him to coach the new Richmond women’s team. There is some dramatic hemming and hawing, but the fact that a fourth season exists is a pretty big hint as to what Ted decides.
Who isn't coming back to 'Ted Lasso?'
OK, spoiler alert or whatever (come on): Not only does Ted move back, his son (Grant Feely) and his ex-wife (Andrea Anderson) also move to Richmond. Although we see plenty of Roy and Beard, of course, the focus here is on the women, as it should be. However, that means players like Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster, busy with “Rooster”) and Dani Rojas (Cristo Fernández) aren’t around. (There is one particularly unwise callback that, with luck, goes no further than it does in the first four episodes, which were sent to critics.)
The most important new addition is Tanya Reynolds as Alice, a former player who wanted the head coaching job for the Lady Greyhounds that Ted gets. That’s not the only reason for her refreshingly surly vibe. Reynolds’ performance is often comic relief, but she brings some real heart to it.
Of course, heart is what “Ted Lasso” specialized in, especially during its magical first season. Ted’s story about playing darts while actually playing darts against Rupert, the team’s former owner (Anthony Head, who died in June), to decide whether he or Rebecca, his ex-wife, controlled the team, is one of the truly memorable bright spots during the pandemic, a little ray of light in a dark time.
Season 4 could never live up to Season 1
There is nothing in Season 4, at least in the first four episodes, that approaches that. Which, in fairness, not much else does. Ted is no longer fighting for acceptance or approval — he’s won that with the people of Richmond with the men’s team. The fight now falls to the women’s team itself, whose acceptance is not exactly universal. Sudeikis is famously a supporter of women’s sports, and it’s a worthy issue to explore in the Caitlin Clark era. “Ted Lasso,” as known a quantity as there is in streaming, is just an odd vehicle with which to do it.
The new season is stuck in a kind of limbo. If it’s too close to the original, what’s the point? If it’s too different, it’s not “Ted Lasso” anymore. Sudeikis and the other producers (which include Goldstein and Hunt) are wise in that regard not to bring back too many of the former characters. With the exception of Reynolds, the new ones struggle to break through, but that’s expected — it took a while for the original cast to, also.
It’s better than Season 3, certainly — tighter, more focused, less all over the place. But some of Ted’s homespun wisdom was wearing thin before the new season. (The less said about doubling down on Beard’s weirdness in Season 4, the better. Egad, I’ve said too much already.)
So it’s not the comeback season the final season of “The Bear” was. And maybe, rising from the ashes, it becomes a more fully formed version of itself as the season goes on. The question is whether anyone will stick around for that.
'Ted Lasso' Season 4 - 3 stars
Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★
Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★
Cast: Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein.
How to watch: Streaming on Apple TV Friday, Aug. 5; new episodes debut every Friday through Oct. 7.
Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Media commentary with a side of snark? Sign up for The Watchlist newsletter with Bill Goodykoontz.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Ted Lasso' was what we needed in 2020. Do we need Season 4 now?
