Ted Lasso

Ted Lasso is finally back. But is this new fourth season worth the wait, and does it have anything fresh to say? Ted (Jason Sudeikis) has returned to the U. K., only this time, he’s coaching a brand new women’s soccer team. The hit Apple TV series features familiar faces including Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple, and Brett Goldstein, as well as newcomers Tanya Reynolds and Abbie Hern. Want more laughs from Apple TV? Check out these episodes: Getting therapeutic with 'Shrinking' https://www.npr.org/2023/02/10/1155973319/getting-therapeutic-with-shrinking Seth Rogen and a fabulous cast highlight the satire 'The Studio' https://www.npr.org/2025/04/03/1242489333/seth-rogen-and-a-fabulous-cast-highlight-the-satire-the-studio Connect with Pop Culture Happy Hour: Letterboxd https://letterboxd.com/nprpopculture/ / Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pchh Our weekly newsletter https://www.npr.org/newsletter/pop-culture Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org http://plus.npr.org/. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:14Speaker 01

  We start off this new season, Ted is an assistant manager in a supermarket. And it's not actually clear, like, this is like a pet peeve of mine, like, how does class work in Hollywood? Like, this dude is a former Premier League coach. He's rich.

• 0:26Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 0:26Speaker 01

  He's living his life. That suggests that there might be something going on. Like, he's, like, chosen his life almost, like, kind of weird. A set is like, why is he working here?

• 0:33Speaker 00

  Too much sports gambling.

• 0:35Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Like, I can't figure out why he's in this particular social location, given, you know, his life to that point.

• 0:44Speaker 00

  Whatever happens to Ted Lasso? When we last saw the man, he had left England and returned to Kansas City. When we last saw the show, it had finished up a season that was maybe, but not definitely, its last.

• 0:57Speaker 02

  The show is back on Apple TV and Ted is back in the UK. Only now, he's coaching a brand new women's team. I'm Stephen Thompson.

• 1:06Speaker 00

  And I'm Linda Holmes. And joining us today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is one of the hosts of NPR's Code Switch podcast, Gene Demby. Hello, Gene, welcome back.

• 1:14Speaker 01

  What's good, friends? How are you?

• 1:16Speaker 00

  Good to see you, good to see you. So Ted Lasso, played by Jason Sudeikis, found success coaching men's soccer, AKA football, despite initially knowing nothing about it. He then returned to the US to be closer to his ex-wife and son. Skip forward a couple of years now, team owner Rebecca, played by Hannah Waddingham, wants him back, not to coach the men, who were being coached by Brett Goldstein's Roy Kent, but to coach an entirely new team of women. Some faces returned from the first three seasons, including Juneau Temple as Keeley, but the players are new. As for Ted's family, well, if he wants to take Rebecca up on her offer to go back to the UK, which you know he will, he'll have to figure that part out.

• 2:01Speaker 00

  So Stephen, I'm gonna start with you. What did you think about the beginning? We have seen the first four. What did you think about the beginning of the fourth season of Ted Lasso?

• 2:13Speaker 02

  Well, I think the first episode of this fourth season, the one that is largely set in Kansas City, I think is pretty wobbly. I think you're kind of taking characters that we know, you know, from this other setting, kind of planting them in this new setting. And I think it really takes a while for this new season to find its footing. I found that first episode to be overlong. I wasn't necessarily buying all the kind of bits and subplots that are kind of leading us to this inevitable conclusion. But I think as the season rolls along, without spoiling anything, I think it starts to find its footing a little bit. I think these episodes, you know, Ted Lasso was experiencing some episode bloat in later seasons.

• 2:55Speaker 02

  These episodes are running more in the, like, 40 to 50 minute range. And I think it could stand to be tighter. Not all of these B plots are working for me. And I think overall with this show, on one hand, I'm really happy to revisit these characters. I'm happy to hang out with these characters again. But I'm not sure that what initially drew us to Ted Lasso is necessarily entirely still present in this show. And I think it suffers a little bit from something that is happening, I think, across the entertainment industry, where entertainment that was really popular during the pandemic isn't necessarily hitting the same way in 2026. And I was really feeling that watching these episodes.

• 3:39Speaker 00

  Hmm, that's very interesting, because Ted Lasso was, you know, originally kind of a pandemic discovery for a lot of people. And people went back and forth at the time about it has, like, a warmth to it and kind of like a niceness to it that was kind of a relief at that point.

• 3:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, we were all in the trenches.

• 3:55Speaker 00

  Yeah, exactly. Gene, what did you think?

• 3:57Speaker 01

  I mean, it's funny, you talk about the warmth and sort of heart of the show, because we just, Linda and I, we just talked about The Dink, another Apple TV product, not too long ago, about sports, and how that was very much on the right side of the cloying versus sort of sweet and warm continuum. And I felt like very much that Ted Lasso has, especially in the third season, had already sort of like went too far in the direction of cloying. And I still feel like it's very much situated there now. It was like very, very, like, everything works out well in the end. And I think that's fun, right? You know, it's a show about sports, right? Like, it's supposed to be like a feel-good show. The thing I don't buy was that, first of all, like, we start off this new season, Ted is an assistant manager in a supermarket.

• 4:42Speaker 01

  And it's not actually clear, like, this is like a pet peeve of mine, like, how does class work in Hollywood? Like, this dude is a former Premier League coach. He's rich.

• 4:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:48Speaker 01

  He's living his life. That suggests that there might be something going on. Like, he's, like, chosen his life almost like kind of weird. A set is like, why is he working here?

• 4:56Speaker 00

  Too much sports gambling.

• 4:57Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Like, I can't figure out why he's in this particular social location, given, you know, his life to that point. And even, as we know, as Linda sort of said, we know he's gonna end up going back across the pond and like, you know, charming everybody and winning everybody over. But it wasn't even the sort of like momentum to get him back there. Didn't make sense, because it was like, that's obviously a better, your life would be so much better if you were living that life. What is keeping you tethered to Kansas City is whether he's like, I don't know, there's so much to give up. And then his family is like, dog, let's go. And it's like, he's like, I don't, I don't know. So it's just very hard to like, again, just like Stephen, I dig all these characters a lot. And I was, you know, sad to see the show go away, and I'm glad that it's back. But I'm also kind of like, is there still story to tell about these people? Like, these characters in particular, you know?

• 5:40Speaker 00

  Yeah. You know, the funny thing is, one of the original co-creators of Ted Lasso was Bill Lawrence, who also worked on Scrubs and works, I think particularly relevant to this, works on Shrinking. And Bill Lawrence, there was some recent reporting in The Hollywood Reporter, Bill Lawrence and Jason Sudeikis had some creative differences about, I think, what to do with the show. Bill Lawrence ended up leaving the show, so he's not, I do not think was involved in this season at all, has gone off to do Shrinking. When I talk to people, I tend to discover there are your really dig Bill Lawrence stuff people, and your really do not dig Bill Lawrence stuff people. And very often, that applies to Shrinking, it applies to Ted Lasso, it applies to Rooster,

• 6:24Speaker 00

  which is this newer show that Steve Carell was in, where he played a writer who was teaching at a college. And I think for me, I am very much a Bill Lawrence person. I'm very much a Shrinking person, which people who know me know well. I feel a little bit like the magic touch of Ted Lasso, for me, not for everyone, not definitively, but for me, was the Bill Lawrence piece, which was a little, for me, emotionally richer and a little more poignant. Whereas I feel like Jason Sudeikis, in leading the show, has trended a little bit more toward stories about Ted's kind of internal, like, his marriage and a bunch of stuff like that that I'm not as invested in.

• 7:09Speaker 00

  So I had trouble with that. I also have a little bit of trouble understanding what they thought it was gonna do to center this around a women's team. Because it remains a show that is still really, you know, obviously orbiting around Ted. It's not that Rebecca and Keeley are not great characters, but it is still a show that is orbiting around Ted. And I question why, like, what was this supposed to do? Other than just like be different? Like, be that story's over and a new story is starting and isn't that exciting? Do they have something they want to say about Ted and this women's team?

• 7:54Speaker 00

  I think you'll find over the course of this season, without spoiling it, you know, they're aware of kind of the general dynamics of women's sports, the economics, the disadvantages, differences in media exposure, stuff like that. But like, is there a reason why they want Ted to work with a women's team? And I'm not sure that I'm seeing that quite yet. And the trade-off for that is that all of the players who I had gotten to really love, and I have no idea what the situation was with the actors who wanted to come back, if anybody didn't want to come back, I don't know what the specifics are on the business side, are all gone now.

• 8:31Speaker 01

  Right.

• 8:32Speaker 00

  And because it's a new team. So you don't get those players. I wouldn't be surprised to see some of them pop up, but they're not really part of the show, other than Roy, who is around. But I, I'm just not sure why. Like, why are we doing this?

• 8:48Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean, it feels like they were given an opportunity to reboot and they wanted to kind of take the show in the same direction and a different direction at the same time. It's certainly, I'm sure, as with kind of the direction that the show took in season three, I'm sure some of it is dictated by the interests of Jason Sudeikis. You know, that Jason Sudeikis seems to be kind of at the helm of this show. Jason Sudeikis famously very into women's sports, very much, you know, somebody who turns up in the stands at a lot of major women's sporting events. And so I'm sure he's interested in women's soccer. And I think they're certainly hinting at some interesting player dynamics. That's gonna take more time to unfold.

• 9:28Speaker 02

  And we're getting so many B plots about familiar characters that I think some of these new characters, at least in the first four episodes, feel a little underbaked. I do think there's promise in some of those characters. And I think there's some promise in the dynamic between, you know, not only Ted Lasso himself, but also Coach Beard, played by Brendan Hunt, you know, is back on this season. And, you know, they're working with a coach named Alice Chilton, played by Tanya Reynolds, you know, and her coaching style is clashing with theirs in kind of potentially interesting ways. I think she's an interesting performer, and I think there's promise there. But they're still spending an awful lot of time really leaning into these, you know,

• 10:11Speaker 02

  B plots with Rebecca and Keeley that I don't think are really cohering.

• 10:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, man.

• 10:17Speaker 02

  The way that I think the show wants them to. There is, again, without spoiling anything, there's this whole long thing with, like, Rebecca having this crisis of, like, am I a feminist? Because of my hesitation in hiring a woman to coach this women's team? But it just feels like it doesn't know what it wants to say.

• 10:37Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm. And you could feel like that whole, like, am I a feminist because I hired this white dude to coach this women's team? Almost felt like lampshading. It was like they almost had to like acknowledge that, like, there was the obvious, like-

• 10:47Speaker 00

  That's exactly how it felt to me.

• 10:49Speaker 01

  You know what I mean? Yeah. It was like, okay, they got acknowledged that they basically said to this woman who was already in the role, that like they were going with a different candidate.

• 10:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 10:55Speaker 01

  And at some point, it's like, it's funny, it was like, ha ha. But it's actually like, this is actually a problem. This is actually a giant problem. There's a much more qualified and capable and competent person right there, and Ted Lasso was there for vibes. And like, we're supposed to be okay with that. That's like a- Even when in those like very solid first two seasons, that was like a thing I think stuck in a lot of people's craw, right? Like, a lot of people were bothered about that. And this is like even more pronounced now. It was like, she was already in the job and they sort of just swept her aside for this dude who was like, it clearly learned something where he got super high and learned about and like, understood like total football towards the end of third season. But like, so maybe he still has some of that sort of tactical, you know what I mean, acumen. But like, it's like, why is this dude in his job? Is he just?

• 11:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean,

• 11:34Speaker 01

  you know, like, they just get a sports psychologist, you know what I'm saying? Like, they don't need him to do the, yeah, anyway.

• 11:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, he's, this has been an issue. Certainly, the coaching angle has been an issue with this show from the very core concept, which is like, this guy is incredible with people. And, you know, sports are played by people and he understands people. And that in many ways makes him a very effective motivator. But there's a huge difference between being a good motivator and being a competent coach or even understanding the rules of the sport that you are coaching. And certainly, like, kind of rebooting it with a women's team, kind of sidelining a qualified coach in order to bring him into this role, does kind of bring up kind of those same core issues.

• 12:20Speaker 02

  And of course, obviously, for the show and in general, the answer is you have a combination of people. You have a combination of skill sets and hopefully they work kind of in concert with each other. But yeah, it certainly is not doing anything to address that core issue that goes all the way back to the very first episode of this series.

• 12:38Speaker 00

  Right, right. And I think the trick is that for a lot of people, as you're saying, one of the things they could never get over in this show was that it was all about sort of everybody learning how great this guy is and that they shouldn't doubt him just because he doesn't know what he's doing. And it's like, I was able to get past that because it was so surrounded by other things that I really enjoyed, right? And it also had the scaffolding of Rebecca was bringing him into this job because she thought he would fail. And so there was a little bit of, you know, on the one hand, like,

• 13:23Speaker 00

  well, yes, the reason he got this job is because she knows he's unqualified. That's why she hired him. Now, you've gone back to the beginning. You're retelling the story of people should not think that he shouldn't have this job just because it seems like maybe he shouldn't have this job. And it's clear when you see this that this women's league is facing some very particular challenges. The players have some challenges because the, you know, it's interesting watching this right at the same time that the Women's Professional Baseball League is kicking off. And you see how like, it's smaller, the stadiums are smaller, the crowds are small, there's only a few teams. It's like, this team is still trying to get on its feet, this soccer team.

• 14:06Speaker 00

  And the idea that like this guy is what they really need is just, I think it's gonna wear on people. With that said, I agree with both of you. Like, it's fun to see these characters again, at least some of the time. I don't love everything they're doing, but I have been a Coach Beard girly for a really long time. I love that character. I love that performance.

• 14:30Speaker 02

  And they're clearly building to something interesting this season with that guy.

• 14:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, and I'm really, you know, he's just such a weird character in a way that I very much value. I like Hannah Waddingham. I don't necessarily love what they're doing with Rebecca at the moment in the first part of the season, but I do love her. And I can always watch Brett Goldstein do basically anything, even that romantic comedy with Jennifer Lopez.

• 14:57Speaker 00

  We've got a lot more to talk about. We'll be right back after this break.

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• 16:31Speaker 00

  Welcome back, Gene. I wanted to pick up with you. What are you thinking about?

• 16:37Speaker 01

  The way the third season ended, I was actually kind of hopeful that there was gonna be like, okay, this is the story of the Greyhounds post-Ted, right? Like, there's a world in which you had Nate and Coach Beard and Roy can't.

• 16:47Speaker 02

  Did think that's where they were gonna go.

• 16:48Speaker 01

  And it felt like it would have been a really interesting, you know what I'm saying? Like continuation of, of the story. And it doesn't have to be, he doesn't have to be the sort of like, the thing around which everything revolves.

• 16:58Speaker 00

  Have you really taught them anything? Or do you still have to be there and do it yourself?

• 17:03Speaker 01

  And now it's like, oh, it almost feels like everything else has been frozen in time, except for him, you know? And it's like, man, like, he doesn't seem integral to all the stuff that he's being inserted in. We're back into like a will they, won't they thing with Keeley.

• 17:18Speaker 02

  With Roy and Keeley.

• 17:19Speaker 01

  And it's like, again, I like both those characters, but like, oh, we did this already. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I love Hannah, I love Hannah Waddingham. And so I was like, I never thought, I'm bored watching Hannah Waddingham? Like, that's, what's going on with the show? And I just, I feel like a lot of ways, it feels like less joke dense than it has before.

• 17:34Speaker 00

  It is definitely less.

• 17:35Speaker 01

  There's like way fewer jokes.

• 17:36Speaker 00

  While simultaneously, as Stephen mentioned, the episodes are longer.

• 17:39Speaker 01

  Yes, exactly. So there's like more.

• 17:40Speaker 00

  They've gradually stretched it out from more similar to a half hour to more similar to an hour.

• 17:47Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 17:47Speaker 00

  While making it less funny.

• 17:50Speaker 01

  It's fun. Like, I mean, you know, there are so many callbacks to the first show, the stuff that like jokes that land in the first show was like, there was that famous joke. It was like, when he's trying to figure out the geography of the UK, he's like, how many countries in this country? And like, there's a joke literally when they're in Kansas City, he's like, how many cities in the cities? Like, oh, the same, it's like, ha, ha, get it. It's like, oh, it's like, it's just, it feels like it's the first episode in particular feels like fan service. Like, just, you know, just all fans, I was like, but it's like.

• 18:13Speaker 00

  Well, it's a love letter to Kansas City. And I think if you love Kansas City, it's a really fun episode.

• 18:18Speaker 01

  And let's be honest.

• 18:19Speaker 02

  Who?

• 18:20Speaker 01

  No shit. Outside of producer Mike.

• 18:24Speaker 00

  Cold and brutal.

• 18:25Speaker 01

  And Patrick Mahomes.

• 18:26Speaker 02

  Who really, you know what I mean? I mean, honestly, like, I think I come down slightly on the other side of the like, skippable debate. Like, as much as I can identify many flaws in these first four episodes, I still did find myself kind of mashing that play button. Once I got through the episode, I still basically considered it a fun hang. I think lowering expectations and kind of like allowing the stakes of each episode to feel a little bit lower, I think maybe benefits this show. If people aren't necessarily like clamoring for every new episode, I am enjoying it. I just, I think it is, if you're wanting to compare this season to previous seasons,

• 19:10Speaker 02

  I think it is closer to the kind of shapeless, intermittently enjoyable third season than those kind of more transcendent early episodes.

• 19:22Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 19:22Speaker 00

  I think that's right. I think that's right. And for me, I think much of how I feel about the rest of this season is going to depend on how much they can ensure that neither the show nor the team feels like a Jason Sudeikis slash Ted Lasso personalist regime, you know? I think, um, I think the more you get that collaboration from everybody, both in the team and on the show, I think the better it's gonna be. And I am optimistic that they are gonna turn a corner. And by the end of the season, I'm gonna be like, yes, I understand where they were going with this.

• 20:03Speaker 00

  They pulled it all together, you know, ultimately it made sense to me. All that kind of stuff. I want lots of brains in the game. You know what I mean?

• 20:11Speaker 01

  Absolutely. This is like a, to the point you just made, like, one of the things I always feel in shows about sports teams is that they have all these characters on the team, right? And you never get to spend enough time with the players. Like, obviously, like, you have exceptions like Friday Night Lights, right, that the series, right? But I felt like even in the earlier seasons, the original Recipe Ted Lasso, it was like, we got to see Danny, right? We got to see Roy, we got to see Jamie.

• 20:34Speaker 02

  Sam.

• 20:35Speaker 01

  But I always wanted to know more about the locker room dynamic. Sam, right, we spent a lot of time with Sam. Always wanted to know more about the locker room dynamics. Like, that is so much of what's so fun about sports and like, you know, these very different personalities, sort of like congealing around this goal. Very, like, we get like some like really top line notes on some of the women on the team. Like, one of them is a mom, one of them is really talented, but she was like, you know, hard done by, you know? And it's just like,

• 20:57Speaker 02

  Right.

• 20:58Speaker 01

  I want to know who these people are.

• 20:59Speaker 02

  I think that's a lot more important than finding stuff for Higgins to do.

• 21:05Speaker 00

  I love him, though. I love him.

• 21:07Speaker 01

  I do, too.

• 21:07Speaker 00

  I, I, I love the character. But I guess my closing thought is, my favorite moment in original Recipe Ted Lasso was when they wound up having the big Christmas dinner that all the team was there for and they were bonding. And it was, I think, at Higgins' house.

• 21:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:24Speaker 00

  And they were passing the food around and they were having a great time. And people had brought what they wanted to eat. And some of it was, you know, whatever, it's what I'm used to eating at home, blah, blah, blah. And it was really warm and really great and Ted wasn't there. Ted was off with Rebecca. And I think what that episode did for me was it demonstrated, as we talked about, it's not just that he is a charismatic, you know, cult leader or whatever. It's that they've learned something from the methods that he's used and the things that he's taught them. And now they can do it themselves.

• 22:00Speaker 01

  They can do it themselves, exactly.

• 22:01Speaker 00

  And that's why, in a way, I also would have found that more interesting. But now we have him teaching the Ted Lasso way to a bunch of really talented women. And listen, it's gonna go how it's gonna go, right? And we'll see, we'll see, we'll, we'll see how it goes. We'll see how it goes. I'm gonna keep watching and hopefully by the end, it will all work out. Well, that brings us to the end of our show. Gene Demby, Stephen Thompson, thank you so much for being here, you guys.

• 22:29Speaker 01

  Thank you. Appreciate y'all.

• 22:31Speaker 00

  This episode was produced by Lennon Sherburne, Liz Metzger and Mike Katseff, and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello, Come In provides our theme music. Thanks for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Linda Holmes and we'll see you all next time.

• 22:49Speaker 04

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