I Can’t Take Ted Lasso Seriously Anymore

4 min readFor the love of Christ, Batman is not a fascist! Sorry. I get worked up when that bad take rears its ugly head in random places. Like week two of Ted Lasso’s fourth season. In episode 2, “Curiouser and Curiouser!” the show finally hits the pitch to set the main story of the season in motion: Ted Lasso must coach a second-division women’s football team to championship glory. But while that objective allows season 4 to become the soft reboot of season 1 the cast and crew have promoted/promised/threatened, it is maddeningly clear that Ted Lasso, in its current shape, just can’t reach the same emotional depths no matter how far it stretches.One of the biggest differences between season 1 and season 4 lies in Jason Sudeikis’s Ted. The ever-folksy coach ain’t fighting the uphill battles he had before when Rebecca first hired him under false pretenses. Even the locals who call him a wanker love him and recognize his strengths. Or, as Juno Temple’s Keeley says to a shaken Hannah Waddingham as Rebecca (more on her in a bit): “You didn’t just hire any man. You hired Ted fucking Lasso!” Imagine anyone talking like that back in season 1.But Rebecca is all stirred up in the first place because of another woman: Alice Chilton, played by Tanya Reynolds. The newest and arguably most important addition to the roster, Alice is a no-nonsense, down-tempo coach whose presence can make an ice cube shiver. She’s practically made in a lab as the inverse of Ted Lasso, even in her foreseeable arc. Originally hired by Rebecca as an assistant manager, Alice had her sights set on a bigger position. With Lasso on board, Alice sees a glass ceiling the size of Kansas City. So in her first scene, she resigns, promising to stick around for the transition before peacing out. (You can now imagine the new heart Ted Lasso has to win over this season—not an entire club but just one impenetrable individual.)Rebecca has a different takeaway from their exchange, however. There’s an implication by Alice that because Rebecca didn’t consider hiring anyone but Ted Lasso—not even another woman—she might be an anti-feminist. Though the series creeps alarmingly close to a dated social satire circa Trump’s first term, Ted Lasso is almost onto something here. When season 4 was announced, I saw zero mention about the optics of Lasso leading women. (Maybe because the announcement included the addition of Reynolds?) It’s a nonissue to begin with, but I’ll give the show points for jumping in front of it at the rip. If only the rest of the episode were as sharp and self-aware.Colin HuttonA genuine bright spot of Ted Lasso episode 2 is the introduction of a new roster of players. Will they make us love them as we came to love the old Richmond team?There is a lot of obligatory table setting this week. From introducing a whole new set of pro players—each with their own quirks, hang-ups, and lore—to the systemic underestimation of women’s sports and the needs of women athletes. (Even Ted is absent-minded here when he nearly walks into the locker room unannounced.) It’s all very obviously material that Ted Lasso aims to explore in greater detail come October or, worse, leave dangling for season 5—which makes the lightning-swift resolution of their locker-room woes feel like whiplash. But this only makes the first episode of this season more infuriating. It feels like Lasso is a week late to its own season. Like, man, did we really need a whole episode meandering around Kansas before getting here?That there still are ghosts from Ted Lasso past threatens to undo this season’s promise for a fresh start. Roy and Keeley are still a thing, for whatever reason. Despite Keeley’s own verbalizing that it would be bad for everyone if she and Roy circled the drain again (correct), I can’t buy the show putting to bed this will-they-won’t-they story arc. We’ve been there, done that. But here we are. When the show promised a new beginning, I didn’t think that literally meant starting all over. And since Lasso is starved of interesting supporting characters—for now, at least—we’re back to watching a stale love story potentially play out on repeat. Don’t get me started on the season 4 trailer including a very revealing scene that looks suspiciously like their wedding.There’s also our first glimpse at Coach Beard, who is, to put it mildly, going through it. Seeing him unkempt like Forrest Grump on his coast-to-coast jog, we can surmise Beard is single, having split up with Jane (again) since we saw them in season 3. But he is resistant to talking about her or anything that’s actually happened. Unfortunately, his deflection is played for laughs instead of sincerity. I’ll refrain from saying more here—Anthony Breznican just interviewed Brendan Hunt, who elaborates a bit on the show’s plans for Coach Beard—but, personally, Beard is representative of Ted Lasso’s biggest issues. This show just doesn’t know when to laugh and when to say something real. I can’t tell when to take this show seriously since Ted Lasso itself can’t either.Ted Lasso season 4 is finally off to a start. Not a strong start. Just ... a start. The season has finally, for real, started. Though I’m unsure if I can stomach more of its saccharine sense of humor and overextended reaches for whimsy, I’m excited to see and learn more about the new characters. For example: Jude Mack’s Boots is primed to become a breakout fave; the way they catch Ted way off guard is actually the first real joke I’ve laughed at this season. Maybe it bodes ill for the show, but the optimist in me says that maybe the show just needs some warming up before it can finally get going.