Ted Lasso Season 4 Review: A Fresh Start Held Back by Old Habits

Ted Lasso had a perfectly good ending. After three seasons of trying to make it in English football, Ted (Jason Sudeikis) went back to Kansas to be with his son, Richmond moved on without him, and most of the characters we’d spent years with got a proper goodbye. It wasn’t perfect, neither was Season 3, but it felt like the right place to stop.

So when Apple announced a fourth season, I wasn’t entirely convinced we needed one. Season 3 had already struggled with increasingly bloated episodes, wandering subplots, and an ensemble that had become almost too big for its own good. Bringing everyone back risked undoing some of the closure the show had worked so hard to establish.

Season 4 picks up three years later, with Ted working at a grocery store in Kansas City and finding that being home with his son Henry (Grant Feely) hasn’t quite filled the gap coaching left behind. When Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham), Keeley Jones (Juno Temple) and Leslie Higgins (Jeremy Swift) turn up with an offer to coach AFC Richmond’s newly established women’s team, Ted eventually finds himself back in London.

It’s a convenient setup, and the show doesn’t spend too long worrying about the logistics of uprooting Ted’s life again. But once he’s back at Richmond, there’s a decent reason to stick around. The Lady Greyhounds are starting from scratch, the players have little reason to trust their new American coach, and the club is discovering that running a women’s football team comes with challenges it never seriously considered when dealing with the men.

All 10 episodes of Ted Lasso Season 4 are now streaming on Apple TV. Not sure where to start? Here’s where to watch Ted Lasso Season 4 in the UAE.

Do the Lady Greyhounds make a good new team?

Mostly, yes. The best decision Season 4 makes is giving Ted a completely different group of players to work with. The original Richmond squad had come a long way since Season 1, and there was only so much more the writers could do with them before things started feeling repetitive.

The Lady Greyhounds bring back that early underdog appeal, although their problems go beyond simply being rubbish at football. The team has nothing close to the resources available to the men’s side and struggles to attract the same support or investment. Even basic facilities become an issue, with the women’s dressing room conditions bad enough that Ted has to intervene to get something done about them.

There’s an interesting bit of criticism here about how women’s sports are treated, particularly when Rebecca, a successful club owner who considers herself progressive, realises how little attention she’s actually paid to the women’s side of her own business.

Unfortunately, the show sometimes feels the need to explain these inequalities to us rather than allowing the situations to speak for themselves. Rebecca’s subsequent crisis about whether she’s a good feminist becomes a running joke that goes on longer than necessary. It’s also a strange bit of writing for someone who has spent three seasons establishing herself as an intelligent, capable businesswoman.

The players themselves are a much more interesting prospect. There’s Lizzie (Faye Marsay), an older player and single mother who turns up to the open trials with her young son because she couldn’t arrange childcare. Gemma (Abbie Hern) is trying to balance law school with her ambitions as a footballer, while goalkeeper Boots (Jude Mack) refuses to wear gloves, despite apparently having enough talent to play at a much higher level.

These are good starting points for characters, and their circumstances offer opportunities to explore women’s football beyond the usual discussions about funding and sexism.

I particularly like the idea behind Lizzie, whose relationship with football is complicated by responsibilities that don’t conveniently disappear when she steps onto the pitch. Gemma’s struggle between pursuing a professional career and continuing her education also feels like something the show could spend a lot more time exploring.

Instead, the writers are often content to give the players a defining trait or personal problem and move on. They get moments here and there, including a rather enjoyable pub trivia outing in Episode 4, but there’s a frustrating lack of attention to their lives outside the team.

The original Richmond players were hardly fully developed after a handful of episodes either, but by the end of their first season, we knew enough about Jamie, Sam, Roy and the others to care about their individual journeys. The new team doesn’t quite get the same treatment, despite being the central reason this season exists.

Is Alice Chilton the best addition to the cast?

Yes. The strongest addition to the cast is undoubtedly Alice Chilton (Tanya Reynolds), the women’s team assistant coach who isn’t particularly thrilled about Ted taking over, and she has a point.

Alice knows the players, understands the realities of the women’s game and has been doing the job long before Richmond decided to bring in a celebrated male coach to take charge. She’s understandably irritated to be overlooked, especially when Ted arrives with his usual collection of motivational speeches and questionable football knowledge.

Tanya Reynolds is excellent in the role. Alice has a permanent look of mild irritation, speaks with a bluntness that borders on hostility, and seems deeply uncomfortable with the sort of emotional openness Ted encourages. She’s also someone who has spent so much time being dismissed or underestimated that she’s developed a rather prickly way of dealing with people. I enjoyed how Reynolds portrays Alice’s defensiveness through her expressions and awkward silences, and the occasional moment when Alice lets her guard down is all the more effective for it.

Her dynamic with Ted is easily one of the season’s highlights. We’ve seen Ted gradually win over difficult people before. It’s practically his speciality at this point. But Alice isn’t another Roy Kent who simply needs someone to chip away at his grumpy exterior. She’s a capable coach with legitimate grievances, and Ted’s approach isn’t always the right one. That gives their relationship some much-needed friction. Alice challenges Ted’s assumptions, while Ted slowly encourages her to be more confident in her abilities and less afraid of making mistakes.

The writing isn’t always consistent here, particularly in her strained relationship with Gemma, which occasionally feels like the writers manufacturing conflict between two women simply because they need something for them to argue about. But Alice gets a more substantial character arc than most of the newcomers, and Reynolds makes her someone worth following.

It also helps that her presence gives Sudeikis something different to work with. Ted’s relentless optimism is still charming, although four seasons in, his continued unfamiliarity with some basic aspects of football is becoming increasingly difficult to believe. He’s more interesting when he’s listening to Alice and trying to understand her frustrations than when he’s delivering another inspirational speech. And perhaps that’s the most sensible direction for the character at this point, when Ted has already spent three seasons helping people become better versions of themselves. It’s about time he learned a few things from the people around him, too.

Does Richmond’s old baggage hold the season back?

Often, yes. The returning cast remains one of Ted Lasso’s greatest strengths, although their presence also creates some of the season’s biggest problems.

Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) is wonderful company as usual, and Goldstein hasn’t lost his ability to make an otherwise ordinary conversation funny with a perfectly timed grunt or exasperated reaction. Keeley is similarly enjoyable, and her friendship with Rebecca remains one of the show’s most dependable relationships.

But I’m not entirely sure why we’re spending so much time revisiting Roy and Keeley’s romantic problems.

Their relationship has been through several rounds of breakups, reconciliation attempts and misunderstandings. Season 3 ended with Keeley choosing to focus on herself rather than getting dragged back into the same romantic complications. Season 4 appears reluctant to accept that decision, and some of Roy’s behaviour feels like a regression from the man who spent three seasons learning how to communicate his feelings without immediately getting angry about them.

The chemistry between Goldstein and Temple is still there, but chemistry can only do so much when the characters keep circling problems they’ve already worked through.

Rebecca has similar issues.

Waddingham is as excellent and classy as ever, especially when Rebecca’s confidence gives way to the insecurities she tries so hard to keep hidden. Her romantic storyline with Matthijs (Matteo van der Grijn), however, occasionally makes her behave in ways that don’t entirely fit the character we’ve come to know. I understand the writers wanting to show that Rebecca still has vulnerabilities, and she should. But there’s a difference between exploring someone’s insecurities and having them repeatedly stumble over lessons they appeared to have learned years ago.

Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) gets his share of eccentric detours too, with his personal life having apparently become even more bizarre since Ted left. Some of it is funny, although it contributes to a season that’s already struggling to divide its attention between too many people, and that is ultimately the problem.

There’s nothing wrong with checking in on the old Richmond gang. These characters are a huge part of why people fell in love with the show, and I certainly wouldn’t want the series to abandon them altogether. But when entire stretches are devoted to their romantic lives, personal crises and increasingly elaborate complications, the Lady Greyhounds start to feel like supporting characters in their own season. Which is a shame, because the new team is where most of the interesting material is.

Is Ted Lasso still warm and funny?

Yes, with caveats. For all its frustrations, Ted Lasso remains a very easy show to spend time with. The humour is familiar, with Ted’s increasingly ridiculous Americanisms, Roy’s permanently foul mood and the occasional bit of absurdity from Beard. Not every joke lands, and some of the recurring gags have become rather predictable, but there are still plenty of funny exchanges that got a chuckle out of me.

Sudeikis is also very good at making Ted’s optimism feel sincere, even when the writing is laying it on a little thick. The show has always understood that Ted’s positivity isn’t entirely a personality trait. It’s also a way of avoiding difficult conversations, particularly when they concern his own life.

Season 4 continues exploring that through his relationship with Henry and the unresolved grief surrounding his father’s death. It’s welcome to see Ted working through those issues rather than simply dispensing advice to everyone else. Some of the quieter moments involving his family are particularly effective, although the show occasionally has trouble resisting the urge to turn every emotional development into a big moment.

That becomes more noticeable towards the end of the season, when the writers start pulling together the various character arcs while also introducing additional complications involving the club’s future.

There’s a lot going on, and the finale has to work through several major developments in an hour that sometimes feels oddly rushed despite its length. It’s another example of Ted Lasso struggling with its own popularity. The writers clearly love these characters and want to give everyone something meaningful to do, but not every storyline warrants the same attention.

The football suffers a little as a result, too. The Lady Greyhounds make progress throughout the season, but the matches themselves don’t always receive enough attention to make their achievements as satisfying as they should be.

The original series was never particularly concerned with being a realistic football drama, of course. Most of its matches were vehicles for character development, and that generally worked because we knew the players involved. Here, with so many newcomers still waiting to be properly developed, the victories don’t always have the same impact.

The season’s treatment of women’s football is similarly uneven. It raises worthwhile questions about resources, opportunities and the additional responsibilities female athletes often have to manage, but occasionally settles for rather obvious observations when there’s more interesting material to explore.

Even so, there’s something undeniably comforting about returning to Richmond. The show hasn’t forgotten how to make its characters likeable, and even when the writing takes an unnecessary detour, the performances usually make it worth sitting through. The problem is that comfort can only carry a series so far.

Should You Watch Ted Lasso Season 4?

If you enjoyed the original three seasons, there’s enough here to make returning to Richmond worthwhile. Sudeikis is still immensely likeable, Reynolds is a fantastic addition, and the Lady Greyhounds bring back some of the underdog appeal that made the show’s first season so enjoyable.

It’s also a better season than I expected from a revival that initially seemed unnecessary. But I wish the writers had been a little more willing to leave the past alone. The Lady Greyhounds have a promising future, with Alice becoming such an important part of the show, and I would have quite liked to get to know them better. If the show returns, the writers should give the new players the attention they deserve in this season.

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