{"id":28625,"date":"2026-08-05T14:18:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T09:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28625"},"modified":"2026-08-05T14:18:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T09:18:24","slug":"promising-as-reboot-tedious-as-sequel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28625","title":{"rendered":"Promising as Reboot, Tedious as Sequel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAnyone with even the vaguest understanding of the profit motive can understand why Apple TV sports comedy \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/ted-lasso\/\" id=\"auto-tag_ted-lasso\" data-tag=\"ted-lasso\">Ted Lasso<\/a>\u201d has returned three years after its poorly received \u2014\u00a0yet still widely watched \u2014 third season seemed to close the book on its story. A streaming service continuing to milk one of its few major hits doesn\u2019t prohibit the result from being enjoyable; if the first three seasons of \u201cTed Lasso\u201d are effectively one (overlong, especially toward the end) sports movie, then Season 4 is its perfectly routine sequel. And in a genre filled with redemptive second chances, \u201cTed Lasso\u201d could use one of its own. If a show has the chance to correct for mistakes like overindulgence and bloat, why not take it?<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSeason 4 introduces a premise that gives Jason Sudeikis\u2019 titular American-football-turned-British-football coach a chance at both a fresh start and a return to old stomping grounds. Two years after Ted walked away from AFC Richmond and took his signature mustache back to Kansas City, team owner Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), marketing chief Keeley (Juno Temple) and operations head Leslie Higgins (Jeremy Swift) arrive stateside with an offer he can\u2019t refuse: coaching the club\u2019s brand-new women\u2019s team, who begin their existence as the underdogs \u2014\u00a0specifically, Greyhounds \u2014\u00a0their male counterparts once were. Given the cultural bias against women\u2019s sports leagues, they\u2019ll likely remain so even if they succeed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe concepts of class reunion (Ted goes back to London and gets the gang back together!) and clean slate (Ted takes on a new challenge!) are somewhat at odds. Sure enough, Season 4 is far more enjoyable as the latter than the former \u2014\u00a0even as \u201cTed Lasso\u201d keeps privileging nostalgia and tired subplots over its best chance at a renaissance. Tanya Reynolds of \u201cSex Education\u201d is a welcome addition as Alice Chilton, a coach whose constant scowl and clipped severity make her a well-suited foil for Ted\u2019s sunny optimism until she inevitably warms to it. But, at least in the five episodes provided to critics out of an eventual 10, she\u2019s pretty much the only new character who feels fully established, because \u201cTed Lasso\u201d refuses to make room in the ensemble by sidelining (or is it touchlining?) old ones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tLike Sudeikis, actor Brett Goldstein remains a creative force behind the camera, which may explain why his churlish then player, now coach Roy Kent remains such a presence despite the pivot away from his men\u2019s squad. But while foregrounding Rebecca and Keeley makes sense given the renewed focus on women in sports, Roy and Keeley\u2019s on-again, off-again romance lost its allure several seasons ago. Figures like Roy and Ted\u2019s longtime deputy Beard (series co-creator Brendan Hunt) would be better deployed as occasional cameos, yet they remain load-bearing \u2014\u00a0and space-occupying \u2014\u00a0protagonists. The consequences can border on the absurd: a major decision by Ted\u2019s ex-wife Michelle (Andrea Anders) is sped through rather than shown from her perspective; an episode hinges on a team problem with cliques that\u2019s only depicted onscreen far too late. Until then, we\u2019re mostly told about it by other characters with longer tenures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tContributing to the sense of overcrowding is an otherwise welcome development: no single episode of the first five clocks in at over an hour, the way so much of Season 3 did. \u201cTed Lasso\u201d is not for everyone; the blindingly earnest social consciousness and relentless positivity some find so grating remain firmly in place. (Feminist commentary was never the series\u2019 strong suit, and centering the women\u2019s team prompts more of it than ever.) But Season 4 reigns in some excesses and offers glimpses of fresh new faces: a walk-on player who\u2019s also a single mom; a goalie who refuses to wear gloves; a new mentor for Rebecca, played by comic legend Tracey Ullmann. If only the show would clear the field for them.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anyone with even the vaguest understanding of the profit motive can understand why Apple TV sports comedy \u201cTed Lasso\u201d has returned three years after its poorly received \u2014\u00a0yet still widely watched \u2014 third season seemed to close the book on its story. A streaming service continuing to milk one of its few major hits doesn\u2019t&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Ted_Lasso_Photo_040203.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}