Directors: Erica Dunton, Ellie Heydon, and Declan Lowney
Cast: Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt, Juno Temple, Jeremy Swift, and Tanya Reynolds
Rating: ★★★.5
Everyone’s favourite football coach is back. Ted Lasso has been forced to return from the US to the UK to coach the AFC Richmond women’s team. And it is here that Lasso, the character, mirrors Lasso the show, which Apple TV had to bring back for a fourth season despite neatly wrapping up the character’s arc in the season 3 finale. Season 4 was a risky proposition and it starts shakily, but to the relief of anyone who has liked this heartwarming show, it gets back on track, even if it carries the hint of a predictable formula in its narrative now.
Ted Lasso season 4 review: Jason Sudeikis and Tanya Reynolds in a still from the show.
Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) is living a quiet life in the US with his family, when Rebecca Walton (Hannah Waddingham), his former boss, coaxes him to return to London and take up the coaching job for the women’s team at AFC Richmond. Lasso reunites with his trusted assistant Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) but must also contend with the reclusive and silent women’s coach Alice Chilton (Tanya Reynolds). But more importantly, he must find a way to break through to the women’s team when even entering the locker room unannounced is something he can no longer do.
Ted Lasso had no business getting 3 seasons. It was created out of a joke character, a caricature for comic relief. Yet, over the years, the show - and the character - kept evolving, while maintaining its identity. What has worked for Ted Lasso is this unique ability to be relatable and grounded while featuring characters and situations that range from batshit crazy to mildly zany. This show does not deal in normal. In this age of streaming demands and commercial pressures, it is a challenge to maintain that innocent irreverence.
The creeping predictability in season 4
In season 4, the show manages to keep that tone alive. A typical way American sitcoms degrade over the seasons is that their characters become caricatures of themselves, as writers accentuate the absurdities and downplay the humanity. But despite already being a caricature, Ted Lasso avoids this curse. The characters remain human. Their motivation, conflicts, and hurdles are all very real-world. Just that they deal with it in their unusually quirky manner.
However, a sameness and predictability do creep into season 4. The existing characters retain their nature and that balance of humanity and quirkiness, but it seems the creators went a bit overboard with the eccentricities of the new additions. Many of the new characters seem to have that added zaniness as they try to fit into this world, as if the writers want them to fit the tropes of lovable idiots. The same goes for certain plotlines in the season, which feel too laboured and manufactured, lacking the real-world spontaneity of the first three seasons.
Movie Review
Ted Lasso season 4
3.5/5
Drama, comedy
Ted Lasso is back in London to coach the women's team at AFC Richmond, but his reunion does not come without challenges, one of which is the women's assistant coach
Cast
Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt, Juno Temple, Jeremy Swift, and Tanya Reynolds
Verdict
Jason Sudeikis' lovable coach remains every bit as heartwarming as do the people around him in this engaging watch. But sameness and predictability have crept in now.
But some things remain fresh
And despite all that, Ted Lasso is a delightful watch. That is largely down to its performances and some wonderful dialogue (as always). The show’s propensity to deliver life lessons in the form of ordinary one-liners and monologues remains, even if their frequency is no longer the same. But every now and then, a small quip or a line of dialogue reminds you of how profound this show can be without ever getting preachy.
Add to that Jason Sudeikis in top form, and you have an engaging watch. The actor shoulders the show yet again, this time with the added responsibility of ensuring the tone remains familiar yet new. And he sails through that. Brett Goldstein and Juno Temple are the other stars in this season, taking off from right where they left three years ago, without missing a beat. But Brendan Hunt’s Beard seems a little too stretched this time. He is the one character whom the writers are giving the American sitcom treatment as the seasons progress, but the actor still manages to make him human. Of the new entrants, Tanya Reynolds deserves a shoutout for making a character that could have been 2D quite engaging.
Ted Lasso season 4 is far from perfect. But it is farther away from being a disaster. It is a feel-good, heartwarming show that yet again makes you fall in love with the eternal optimist that Coach Lasso is, albeit with some hiccups.
Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well.
A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism.
Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Film Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day.
Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world.Read More
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