“Ted Lasso” is back for a fourth season on Apple TV after a three-year hiatus, but does the feel-good football comedy still have its magic?

The Independent’s review takes a critical look at the return, arguing that the new series—centered on Ted coaching AFC Richmond’s women’s team—feels largely unnecessary and commercially driven, recycling familiar beats while struggling to match the charm and heart of the series’ first two seasons.

Nick Hilton for The Independent:
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Several much-loved characters have departed the series (Mohammed’s Nate, Phil Dunster’s Jamie Tartt, most of the men’s team players, and, of course, the late Anthony Head as Rebecca’s nemesis Rupert), which means an influx of new faces to replace them…

Despite all this upheaval, the show’s creator, Bill Lawrence, and key cast do a good job of making it still feel like Ted Lasso. But it also feels pointless. And cynical. “Last time I hired you for all the wrong reasons,” Rebecca tells Ted, and she approaches him for the new gig. “This time I absolutely want to hire you for all the right ones.” But even though there is an attempt at some broad feminist commentary and critique… it really feels like the show has wasted the earned conclusion of its arc in pursuit of more episodes, more revenue, more Emmys. Sudeikis continues to be charming, [Juno] Temple is a highlight as the mischievous Keeley, and [Tanya] Reynolds brings plenty of new deadpan charisma – yet the return, after three years, feels a bit flat…

The acting, while effective, is often hamstrung by sentimentalism, which pushes it into hammy (and a painfully stilted Jill Scott cameo makes Chris Powell look like Laurence Olivier). And while the show has always been gently amusing rather than laugh-out-loud funny, this new series does feel acutely short of gags…

The show was about bringing some… touchy-feely shmaltz and exposing it to the rough winds of Premier League football. Can you be an eternal optimist on a cold, rainy night in Stoke? Having answered that question, the show has nowhere to go but limp on like an ageing striker whose powers are fading before their eyes.

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MacDailyNews Take: Cue the sad trombone.

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In “Ted Lasso” season four, the series shifts its focus to AFC Richmond’s women’s team — and introduces its most significant new character yet: Alice, the sharp-edged assistant coach played by English actress Tanya Reynolds.

In this Hollywood Reporter interview, Reynolds opens up about landing the role (despite never having seen the show or kicked a soccer ball), her Zoom offer from Jason Sudeikis, and playing a former player turned coach who’s “brittle and spiky on the outside but… quite wobbly” inside as she learns vulnerability and finds her coaching voice.

Lacey Rose for The Hollywood Reporter:
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Unlike the women cast as the AFC Richmond players, who had to audition as actors as well as athletes, Reynold’s soccer know-how was far less relevant. Still, she requested a follow-up Zoom with Sudeikis to make sure he was aware of her lack of athleticism. “I got really paranoid because the thought of me playing a coach is quite hilarious to anyone who knows me,” she says. “I was like, ‘Listen, man, you’ve not met me but I’m not this character. I can give it a go, but I’ve never kicked a ball in my life.’ And Jason just was very Ted Lasso about it, like, ‘Well, I think you are.'”

Over time, she got comfortable, but not without some early nerves. “For the returning cast, they know their characters inside out — but for us, we were still figuring out who we were,” she says, though she did get plenty of pep talks from Lasso vets like Temple and Waddingham. And to Reynolds’ delight, as the writers got to know her and her voice better, they started to write to her, which, she jokes, is why the character became less bulldog and more chihuahua over time. Still, none of it was easy.

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MacDailyNews Take: As we’ve written before, after season three, we approach season four warily, especially as its subject matter is ripe for treacly preaching if handled ham-handedly by those in charge of Lasso‘s third season train wreck. Here’s the official season four trailer:

See also:
• Will ‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4 be a woke disaster like Season 3? – July 22, 2026
• Some fans of the Apple TV+ series ‘Ted Lasso’ feel it’s being ruined by ‘woke’ writers – May 2, 2023

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