Ted Lasso Season 4: We aren’t in Kansas anymore… again

Ted Lasso, the 4-time Emmy award winning comedy starring Jason Sudeikis, recently wrapped up its long awaited fourth season. As an avid fan of the first 3 seasons, it saddens me to say that those who plan on watching this most recent season should enter with tempered expectations.

Season 4 picks up a couple years after the previous season ended with Ted returning to Kansas to be closer to his family. In the first episode, the audience gets to see him in his natural habitat working a 9-to-5 to be close to his son Henry. However, his life is shaken up once again with a surprise visit from his old friends Rebecca Welton, Leslie Higgins and Keeley Jones who come with a proposition that he become the manager of AFC Richmond’s new women’s team. Through this new cast of characters comes new lessons, new problems and ideally some new laughs.

However, this is where the first issue emerges. The laughs seem to have been left in the previous seasons.

Do not be mistaken, there are hilarious moments within the season as Jason Sudeikis continues his incredible performance as our favorite coach, but it cannot be ignored that the writing for the season has taken a significant downturn. To quote Peter Griffin, “it insists upon itself,” which is a fatal flaw for such a previously considered masterpiece of interwoven comedy and dramatics. Having to introduce a whole new cast of characters, especially when it isn’t even a new show, is a difficult and oftentimes damaging task which Ted Lasso falls victim to.

While the first three seasons had time to grow the characters within a cast of naturally funny actors, the fourth season does not have that same luck. There are some great characters in the show. The twins with impossible to pronounce names bring great comedic moments, having Shannon return for the team is a fun full circle moment and is terrifically done and Boots was Boots, which is enough said. Alice Chilton, played by Tanya Reynolds, is easily my favorite new character of the show for her dry humor and the full depth of emotion that would be lacking without her presence.

I wish I could say the same about some of these other blokes. Gemma was a fun character at times when she wasn’t being used as a blatant plot device, Al Sherif and Song were attempts at full characters but became lost in the smog of the several story lines and last but certainly least is Zelda Southport —a character that brought me such visceral anger every time she cursed my screen.

While I think the idea of her character was well thought out and a fun satire of out-of-this-world wealthy individuals, they more than missed the mark on the execution. Zelda was annoying and crude, which may be funny in the occasional scene, but with the significance of the role she played, it became tiresome and boring. Her entire arc was built up to a ‘wow, crazy people are crazy’ joke that could have been done within a singular episode. Although Rebecca seems to set Zelda up for a return with “I look forward to seeing you at the next owners meeting,” I say scrap her character entirely and try again for Season 5.

While this season was deeply flawed, there was some good to it. The final two episodes were emotional journeys that brought many important storylines and lessons from previous seasons to a close. Mae’s death was extremely well done, and I haven’t fully recovered from it yet. There could not have been a better send off for a fan favorite character. Additionally, the ending of the show having significant changes to the characters’ futures like Roy Kent going to Chelsea, Keeley being pregnant and even in hairstyles with Beard going bald were brave risks that were worth taking by the creators. Mae’s monologue was heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time, but was the perfect choice of narration to end the season.

This new season was full of peculiar choices and risks, but as Rebecca will always remind you:

“We’ve got to take risks, haven’t we? Otherwise, what’s the f---ing point?”