Ted Lasso Season 4 Has Already Hit Its Biggest Hurdle

There was always going to be a bit of a question mark hanging over Ted Lasso Season 4. After three seasons, the Apple TV comedy-drama had already told what felt like a complete story, following the titular character from an inexperienced soccer coach into the heart of AFC Richmond while still giving its major characters meaningful conclusions. Bringing Ted Lasso back after three years meant finding a reason for both Ted and the audience to return.

Ted Lasso’s first three seasons gave Jason Sudeikis’ character inspiring moments and remarkable growth. With his witty optimism, Ted arrived in England, expected to coach a soccer team he barely understood, but that running joke gradually became a moving story about friendship and belonging. By the end, Ted returned to Kansas to be closer to his son, and everyone else was forced to move on without him. On August 5, 2026, Ted Lasso Season 4 arrived, and reviews suggest the show still has plenty of the charm that made it such a phenomenon. However, it is facing a big hurdle with its return.

Ted Lasso Seasons 1–3 Were Infectiously Optimistic

Ted Lasso

It’s easy to see why Ted Lasso became such a widely beloved character. He arrives in Richmond as an almost absurdly cheerful American who knows very little about soccer, but his optimism is never shallow. He has a tall task ahead of him, and he spends plenty of time healing fractured player relationships, winning over a skeptical team, and teaching valuable lessons around empathy and mental health. His famous advice to “be curious, not judgmental” is the perfect way to summarize how he approaches almost everyone around him.

When Sam makes a mistake on the pitch, Ted tells him to “be a goldfish,” highlighting the coach’s philosophy that mistakes don’t define people. Likewise, the “believe” sign isn’t just a motivational gimmick for the AFC Richmond players, as each member of the team slowly learns how to internalize that message throughout Ted Lasso. Jamie becomes less selfish, Rebecca has a friendship that isn’t based on what someone can get from her, Roy becomes softer, and an environment is created in which everyone feels valued. Even Ted learns to hide less behind his people-pleasing sensibilities and face conflict head-on. By the end of Season 3, Ted has reckoned with his own panic attacks, and the characters who surround him have grown enough that he can leave Richmond knowing they no longer need him to hold everything together.

Given the meaningful character development that the core Ted Lasso characters go through, it makes perfect sense that Ted’s story ended with him going back to Kansas. He spends years helping everyone else become healthier and happier, and he finally learns to apply that same compassion to himself by choosing his son and his own well-being over the team he has grown to love so much. “So Long, Farewell” was a brilliant finale, even if fans didn’t necessarily want to say goodbye to the AFC Richmond team. So, when Apple TV announced Season 4, there was something of an issue: what was left for Ted to learn?

Season 4 Has to Justify Its Existence

Early reviews only highlight one real issue with Ted Lasso Season 4: it’s struggling to justify its existence, and that’s currently its biggest hurdle. The Hollywood Reporter’s review argues that the season has difficulty finding “somewhere interesting to go,” while other critics similarly questioned whether the show can recover its earlier momentum. The criticism isn’t necessarily that Season 4 is poorly made, but just whether the new installment has the same sense of purpose that made Seasons 1, 2, and 3 so good.

That problem is partly baked into the decision to bring the show back. Ted Lasso Season 4 features the same humor and comfort that fans have come to love from Apple TV’s hit show, and another installment to right the wrongs of Season 3’s rather uneven pacing isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, its signature wit and charm may not be enough to carry a season that’s left to reverse the choice Ted made in “So Long, Farewell,” which was supposedly the culmination of Ted’s story. While coaching the Richmond women’s team gives him a professional reason to come back, it doesn’t automatically recreate the personal stakes that made his initial arrival so compelling. Ted’s kindness changed Roy, Rebecca, Jamie, and Nate, to name a few, and their relationships with him changed him in return. Ted Lasso‘s initial three seasons were constantly creating new complications from these dynamics; Season 4 is starting after most of those relationships have reached their natural conclusions.

That gives the new season a decidedly harder job. With many of the original characters having wrapped up their stories, the Season 4 characters have to earn the same investment from scratch. It’s not impossible – Ted Lasso Season 4 is full of exceptionally talented actors and an interesting premise centered on an often-underrepresented part of soccer, but it means the new installment has to do more than simply remind audiences why they loved the show in the first place. The Lady Greyhounds and Ted deserve to have meaningful stories of their own, rather than Ted Lasso simply relying on the emotional goodwill built by earlier seasons.

If Ted Lasso Season 4 can show audiences that there is still something substantial for these characters to learn, change, and overcome, the Lady Greyhounds’ story could become just as beloved as AFC Richmond’s. Until then, the question isn’t whether Ted Lasso Season 4 is any good, it’s whether there’s enough story to make it feel necessary.

Release Date

August 14, 2020

Network

Apple TV

Showrunner

Bill Lawrence, Jason Sudeikis

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  Hannah Waddingham

  Rebecca Welton

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  Jeremy Swift

  Leslie Higgins

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