‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4 review: The Lady Greyhounds give Richmond a reason to believe again

Ted Lasso returns to Apple TV with a surprising new direction – and while it does not fully recapture its early magic, the women’s team gives the series a much-needed sense of purpose.

This review is based on the first four episodes of Ted Lasso Season 4.

When Ted Lasso Season 4 was announced, it was difficult not to see it as a cash grab. Season 3 had already delivered what was supposed to be the series’s conclusion, while also weakening much of what made the show’s first two seasons so special.

Continuing the story seemed unnecessary, particularly when Ted (Jason Sudeikis) had returned home to Kansas to be with his son – a polarizing decision that made little sense given what the show had spent years building toward.
Rather than forcing Ted back into the men’s game, Season 4 wisely shifts its attention to AFC Richmond’s newly formed women’s team.

It’s a change that gives the series a renewed sense of purpose, allowing it to begin recapturing the underdog spirit that defined its earliest episodes. Better still, the new direction feels like a natural extension of the world rather than an excuse to keep one of Apple TV’s biggest hits going.

Home isn’t always where you belong.

Ted now works as an assistant manager at a grocery store in Kansas City. While the job pays the bills, it doesn’t fulfil him in the way coaching once did. The one thing keeping him grounded is the opportunity to be a present dad to Henry (Grant Freely). When Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), Keeley (Juno Temple), and Leslie Higgins (Jeremy Swift) arrive with an offer to coach Richmond’s second-division women’s side, Ted initially refuses.

The premiere smartly – though somewhat ironically – revisits the ending of Season 3 by asking whether remaining in Kansas truly gives Henry the best version of his father, ultimately arguing that purpose matters just as much as presence.
It is also the weakest episode of the first four.

Ted’s decision to return to Richmond happens at a blistering pace, asking viewers to accept a life-changing choice that the previous season had framed as the right one. While the rushed turnaround reinforces the idea that Ted was never meant to stay in Kansas, the premiere is so eager to get Ted back to Richmond that it skips over many difficult conversations – particularly with Michelle (Andrea Anders) and Henry – that should have made the decision resonate.

Ted Lasso Season 4 finds a new purpose through women’s football.

The decision to build the season around women’s football in England also feels timely. While the Lionesses and Women’s Super League clubs have enjoyed success for years, England’s victory over Germany at UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 transformed the sport. Attendances, television audiences, sponsorship, and grassroots participation exploded almost overnight. An impressive run to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final, followed by another Euro Championship triumph in 2025, only strengthened that momentum, even if the sport still has a long way to go.

Fortunately, executive producers Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt, and Brett Goldstein understand that reality. Rather than positioning Ted as the man arriving to save women’s football, the series instead asks how the Richmond way translates to a different environment with different challenges. Given how Ted handles early issues, his ability to build belief makes him a natural fit for a squad still searching for its identity.

The show also refuses to pretend women’s football exists on equal footing with the men’s game. The Lady Greyhounds share a cramped dressing room with the youth team, struggle to retain Pinter & Sons as a sponsor, receive limited media attention, and face questions over the team’s financial viability. Although some of the dialogue surrounding feminism and privilege lands with the subtlety of a brick, the wider obstacles facing the team never feel like boxes to tick, even if some lack development. Instead, they reflect the realities still facing the women’s game, allowing Ted Lasso to celebrate its growth without losing sight of the optimism and kindness that define the series.

Finding its feet.

While the first episode stumbles, each subsequent installment improves considerably. As Ted settles into his new role, the writers become increasingly confident in the direction they have chosen. Rather than trying to recreate the men’s team’s Premiere League journey, the season embraces the opportunity to build something entirely new as Richmond’s women forge their own identity while chasing an unlikely FA Cup fun.

The Lady Greyhounds inject fresh energy into the series, though it is Tanya Reynolds who proves the standout addition as coach Alice Chilton. Alice is stern, guarded, and determined to be taken seriously in a sport that still questions women in positions of authority (Rebecca never seriously considers a female coach to fill the position). That determination often masks her softer side, making her growing partnership with Ted one of the season’s most rewarding partnerships. Abbie Hern’s Gemma, a law student trying to rediscover her love for the game, and Faye Marsay’s foul-mouthed Lizzie are equally welcome additions, even if the wider squad still needs more time to establish distinct identities.

Sudeikis is also more engaged this time around. Ted remains prone to rambling cultural references and relentless optimism, but the character is on a path to rediscover his sense of purpose. Waddingham remains effortlessly watchable as Rebecca, whose determination to make the women’s team succeed gives her some of her strongest material since Season 1, even if this does not extend to her entire arc.

Temple’s Keeley is also back on firmer ground after a third season that left her wayward in disconnected storylines. Her drive to champion the women’s side makes her feel integral to the story once again, while Roy’s increasingly desperate attempts to convince Keeley that he can move on provide Goldstein with some of the season’s biggest laughs.

Plenty of promise, but not perfect.

That is not to say everything works. Rebecca’s romance with Matthijs (Matteo van der Grijn) often pulls attention away from far more interesting developments within the club. More frustratingly, it reduces the amount of time Rebecca spends alongside Ted. Regardless of whether viewers want their relationship to become romantic, their dynamic has always been the heart of Ted Lasso. Across these opening episodes, they surprisingly share very little meaningful screentime.

Similarly, Beard’s storyline involving Jane (Phoebe Walsh) feels like an extension of one of Season 3’s weakest arcs. Hunt does his best with the material, but Beard deserves a story that allows him to move forward instead of repeatedly revisiting the same relationship. Meanwhile, Roy and Keeley’s slow path back toward one another serves as a reminder that the creative team is trying to repair one of last season’s biggest missteps.

The bottom line.

Four episodes are not enough to declare Ted Lasso back to its best. The opening episode is a surprisingly clumsy reintroduction, and some of the issues that plagued Season 3 have not disappeared entirely. However, each episode builds confidently on the last, suggesting the writers have found a compelling new direction to take the series in.

Season 4 tells fresh stories while rediscovering much of the humor and sincerity that once made Ted Lasso one of television’s best comedies. It has not completely recaptured that magic just yet but – for the first time since Season 2 – it feels like Richmond is heading in the right direction.

Ted Lasso Season 4 Episode 1 is now available exclusively on Apple TV, with new episodes premiering every Wednesday

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Images courtesy of Apple TV.