‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4 overview: Ladies’s soccer is simply what this present wants

My first response to the announcement of Ted Lasso Season 4 may finest be summed up in a single phrase: Why?

The Emmy-winning sequence had already come to an in depth with Season 3, which noticed coach Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) returning to Kansas Metropolis to be together with his son Henry (Gus Turner, changed with Grant Feely in Season 4). Following three seasons of engaged on his psychological well being and his household relationships, the transfer house was the pure conclusion to Ted’s arc. What extra may the present must say? And extra importantly, did we’d like extra? Season 3 was pretty lackluster, fumbling key character moments, languishing in overly sentimental melodrama, and dragging due to hour-long runtimes. If Ted Lasso was going to come back again and recapture a few of its earlier magic, it had some critical classes to study.

Three years after its supposed finale, it looks as if Ted Lasso has lastly realized these classes. With Season 4, the sequence finds new goal due to a stunning transfer: having Ted step out of the highlight.

Ted Lasso Season 4 is all about ladies’s sports activities.

Don’t be concerned, Ted remains to be very a lot round, able to dole out folksy one-liners and Beastie Boy quotes on the drop of a hat. However Ted Lasso properly acknowledges that its lead has discovered closure to his most urgent emotional challenges. Now, Ted acts as extra of a conduit by which the present can introduce its latest focus: ladies’s sports activities.

Ted Lasso hinted at this focus in its Season 3 finale, when Keeley Jones (Juno Temple) pitched a Richmond ladies’s crew to Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham). Three years later, that dream is turning into a actuality, and Rebecca desires Ted again to teach the Girl Greyhounds.

She, Keeley, and Leslie Higgins (Jeremy Swift) win him again over the course of the season’s first episode, which falls into some Season 3 pitfalls: overly on the nostril and much too lengthy. (Trimming episode runtimes, tragically, is not a lesson Season 4 has realized.) Fortunately, Ted Lasso finds its footing once more from episode 2 onward as soon as Ted lands again at Richmond.

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Right here, Ted Lasso begins to recapture a few of its Season 1 magic. In its first outing, the sequence labored finest when Ted was breaking down the partitions of those that doubted him, from Richmond’s gamers to its fanbase. His empathetic curiosity within the face of his skeptics is the rationale the present turned COVID’s feel-good hit, even when later seasons tackled darker materials. With a brand new crew in Season 4, Ted Lasso finds itself at the same start line to Season 1. There is a new crew of gamers to win over, together with a brand new assistant coach within the no-nonsense Alice Chilton (Tanya Reynolds). However maybe most significantly, there is a good chunk of the footballing world that doubts whether or not a Richmond ladies’s crew even must exist.

Ladies’s sports activities are on a meteoric rise. In 2025, a Nielsen Sports activities report estimated that ladies’s soccer may turn into one of many world’s high 5 sports activities by 2030. In the USA, viewership and fandom of the NWSL has elevated drastically over the previous yr. Sexist detractors will let you know in any other case, downplaying the work of unimaginable athletes and the leagues they’re constructing. Ted Lasso represents these detractors as a Greek refrain of jerks: drunken bozos at a spherical of pub trivia, or disgruntled Richmond shareholders who’re flabbergasted that their cash goes towards funding a ladies’s crew. Even Rebecca should confront her personal internalized misogyny. In spite of everything, she fails to think about a lady for the top coach job and infrequently wonders above all else whether or not the crew shall be worthwhile. A monetary report from Leslie would not assist, though the pair are nonetheless decided to help the crew.

This is the place Ted Lasso jumps into its Imagine-mobile and places its engine into full throttle. This time, although, Ted is not within the driver’s seat. He (and Rebecca and Leslie) are joyful passengers to Keeley, whose unbridled enthusiasm is the true coronary heart of the season. Already a succesful entrepreneur by the tip of Season 3, the years between seasons have allowed her to blossom even additional right into a tenacious go-getter. From combating for a greater locker room to checking out jersey supply points, she is on fireplace — not simply with the dedication to construct one thing new, however with the deep-seated data that this crew is critical. Look no additional than the Girl Greyhounds’ multi-generational followers. Pub proprietor Mae Inexperienced (Annette Badland), whose bar has proven males’s soccer for years, is over the moon that she now will get to look at a ladies’s crew. In the meantime, Roy Kent’s (Brett Goldstein) niece Phoebe (Elodie Blomfield) and her pals get new athletic function fashions to look as much as. Sure, the messaging generally is a bit heavy-handed. (It is Ted Lasso, it comes with the territory.) However the pleasure the present builds across the Girl Greyhounds made my eyes misty, in a lot the identical approach that seeing a younger lady in a WNBA or NWSL jersey does. It is superior to look at athletes break obstacles, to see folks construct a long-lasting love of ladies’s sports activities, and to spotlight each of those nice issues on a present as huge as Ted Lasso.

Ted Lasso’s Girl Greyhounds steal the present.

Brendan Hunt, Jason Sudeikis, and Tanya Reynolds in “Ted Lasso.”
Credit score: Apple TV

As for the Girl Greyhounds themselves, they’re an absolute blast to look at. Just like the Greyhounds in Ted Lasso’s earlier episodes, they’re extra of a boisterous ensemble, excluding a couple of characters pulling focus. Regulation scholar Gemma (Abbie Hern) doubles as an ace striker. Goalie Boots (Jude Mack) brings a wild edge to the crew. Twins Niamh (Aisling Sharkey) and Siobhan (Rex Hayes) bicker up a storm. Mom Lizzie (Faye Marsay) deploys her maternal instincts on the sector, typically performing as a foul-mouthed mediator. Within the first 4 episodes despatched to critics, these characters start as sketches who’re steadily being stuffed in, with the potential for a lot extra down the road.

However the truest scene-stealer right here is assistant coach Alice. Reynolds has constantly been a brilliant spot in each challenge she’s in, from Intercourse Training to The Different Bennet Sister. Ted Lasso is not any completely different. Because the ultra-direct Alice, Reynolds is a grasp of deadpan, and the proper counterpoint to Sudeikis’ boisterous Ted. Her straight-shooting results in a few of the early episodes’ finest comedic moments, however her intense quest for complete perfection on the pitch suggests some critical private progress forward. Because the present pulls focus away from Ted and onto the Girl Greyhounds, Alice is primed to be an incredible new co-lead.

That shift is proof of Ted Lasso’s welcome evolution in Season 4, which to this point appears to be avoiding Season 3’s largest pitfalls. As somebody who was skeptical of the present’s return within the first place, its embrace of ladies’s sports activities, like Ted coaxing Rebecca together with his divine shortbread, has gained me over.

The primary episode of Ted Lasso Season 4 is now streaming on Apple TV, with new episodes each Wednesday.