{"id":844314,"date":"2026-08-05T10:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T10:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/844314\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T10:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T10:52:14","slug":"ted-lasso-season-four-review-why-the-hit-shows-final-outing-feels-like-a-tired-and-cynical-cash-grab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/844314\/","title":{"rendered":"Ted Lasso season four review: Why the hit show’s final outing feels like a tired and cynical cash grab"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Karl<\/p>\n

August 5, 2026 \u2014 5:00pm<\/p>\n

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Ted Lasso \u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n

Like football, a Ted Lasso season is a game of two halves. And as such, reviewing it at half-time is a perilous exercise. But having seen the first five episodes of season four \u2013 ostensibly the final season \u2013 that is precisely what I am going to do.<\/p>\n

So, here\u2019s the caveat: struggling teams can sometimes stage remarkable comebacks after the break. And for the sake of this once-beloved show, I hope that\u2019s what happens here.<\/p>\n

\"JasonJason Sudeikis as Ted and Tanya Reynolds, who plays new character Alice, in season four of Ted Lasso.<\/p>\n

To milk this metaphor just a little longer, this season feels like a game stretched into extra time and inevitably on the way to the dreaded penalty shootout. It\u2019s a long way from the beautiful game at its finest, and it\u2019s absolutely not the way anyone wants it to end.<\/p>\n

There was never supposed to be a season four; season three \u2013 which also started unpromisingly \u2013 ended well enough, with storylines tied up, and futures stretching ahead for each of the main characters. That there is a fourth outing<\/a> suggests Apple turned up at the offices of executive producers Bill Lawrence<\/a>, Jason Sudeikis and Jack Burditt with a truckload of cash, and said, \u201cGive us something, anything\u201d, and greed rendered them powerless to resist. As a business decision, it perhaps makes sense; as an exercise in maintaining the reputation of a once-loved show, it does not.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Hannah<\/a><\/p>\n

Season four opens with a close-up of a name tag on the front of a polo shirt. \u201cTed\u201d, it reads, and below that, \u201cassistant manager\u201d. A demotion? Of sorts. The miracle-working Mr Lasso (Sudeikis) is working the cash register at a supermarket in Kansas City. He\u2019s still got the perma-grin and the dumb moustache and the sunny attitude, and he\u2019s still managing his troubled \u201cplayers\u201d with a combination of reverse psychology and homespun wisdom, but sport is the furthest thing from his mind. He\u2019s come back to the States solely to be with his young son, Henry. Nothing is going to change that.<\/p>\n

Which is, of course, the cue for his old buddies to rock up and try to lure him back, a massive change of plans that takes no time at all to realise. (Henry is eager for a change of scene, it happens; so is Ted\u2019s ex-wife Michelle. If only real life were actually that simple.)<\/p>\n

Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham<\/a>) doesn\u2019t want Ted back for AFC Richmond, which is now managed by Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein<\/a>), the emotionally constipated, growling tough-nut former captain of the side that Ted guided from second-tier strugglers to Premier League contenders. She wants him for the newly launched women\u2019s team, the Lady Greyhounds.<\/p>\n

\"RebeccaRebecca (Hannah Waddingham) and Keeley (Juno Temple) in episode one of the new season.<\/p>\n

When Ted arrives, he finds his old buddy Beard (Brendan Hunt) working as Roy\u2019s offsider. However, he\u2019s a shaggy-haired, bushy-bearded mess, thanks to the break-up of his always volatile relationship with the mercurial Jane (Phoebe Walsh), who has written and stars in a one-woman play about their messy affair. Somehow, though, he\u2019s back at Ted\u2019s side within the blink of an eye, despite the fact Ted already has an assistant coach.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"What<\/a><\/p>\n

Alice (Tanya Reynolds) is surly, uptight, rule-bound, ambitious; if you\u2019re thinking, \u201cOh, so she\u2019s just like Nathan (Nick Mohammed<\/a>) in the other seasons\u201d, you\u2019d be right. And that\u2019s illustrative of the weakness of this season.<\/p>\n

Everything feels like fan service, and half-hearted at that. The gags are lazy, the characters have become tired collections of tics, the storylines are predictable. Oh, and the footballing action \u2013 never the strongest element of the show \u2013 is laughably lame. Given the main through line is about the battle to have women\u2019s soccer taken seriously, you\u2019d think they might have made a little more effort to show it at its best.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s six years since this show first arrived on the scene, and I suspect many of us have forgotten just how refreshing it was in the midst of COVID doom and gloom to have this paragon of optimism, kindness and can-do spirit lob into our lounge rooms. Ted arrived in England as a know-nothing coach, handed the job by a woman who wanted to destroy as payback the team she had won from her ex-husband in a divorce settlement, only to win her, the fans and us, the viewers, over.<\/p>\n

It was just what the world needed. Barring an unlikely late bounce back after the break, this tired and rather cynical final outing is the exact opposite.<\/p>\n

Ted Lasso (season four) is now streaming on Apple TV.<\/p>\n

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