'My heart fluttered': why Ted Lasso's surprise return actually works
I thought Ted Lasso ended perfectly in season three. Season four proved me wrong
I’ll admit it: I went into Ted Lasso season four a sceptic.
Season three gave Ted, Rebecca, Roy and the rest of AFC Richmond a send-off that felt complete, tying up every thread with a bow I didn’t think needed loosening. So when Apple TV+ confirmed a fourth season was coming, my first thought wasn’t excitement. It was “why mess with a perfect ending?”
Then I watched episode one, and I take it all back.
The premiere, which dropped on Wednesday, picks up three years after Ted’s abrupt departure from Richmond. He’s back home in Kansas, working as an assistant manager at a sporting goods store, when Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), Higgins (Jeremy Swift) and Keeley (Juno Temple) turn up to offer him something he wasn’t expecting: the head coaching job for Richmond’s newly formed women’s team.
Ted hesitates. His son Henry is settled, and he’s built a quiet life with his ex-wife Michelle nearby. It’s his mother who pushes him to take the leap, and by the episode’s final minutes, Ted’s decided to move back to London with Henry and Michelle in tow.
It’s the kind of gentle, earned turn the show has always done well, and it’s why my heart fluttered watching the credits roll. This isn’t a rehash. It’s a natural next chapter.
Jason Sudeikis, Waddingham, Temple and Swift all slip straight back into their characters, and it’s clear three years haven’t dulled the chemistry. Brett Goldstein returns as Roy Kent, now Richmond’s head coach for the men’s side, alongside Brendan Hunt as the ever-loyal Coach Beard. The standout new addition is Tanya Reynolds as Alice Chilton, one of the coaches steering the new women’s team alongside Ted and Beard, with Grant Feely stepping in as Henry.
Some familiar faces are sitting this one out. Jamie Tartt, Dani Rojas and Sam Obisanya aren’t back as regulars, and it’s a lighter squad for it.
The most notable absence, though, is Rupert Mannion. Anthony Stewart Head, who played Rebecca’s villainous ex-husband across the show’s first three seasons, died in June, aged 72. Season four doesn’t write Rupert out with a tribute scene, but the cast have paid their respects elsewhere. “Anthony Head was a brilliant actor who played the worst person in the world, which was an incredible skill because he was the best person,” Brett Goldstein said in a statement following Head’s death.
What episode one does confirm is that Ted Lasso still knows exactly what it’s doing. The story feels natural rather than forced, and that ending sets up the rest of the season beautifully. I’m already counting down to episode two.
It’s also given me hope for another Apple TV+ favourite of mine, Shrinking. Bill Lawrence, who co-created both shows, always intended Shrinking as a three-season arc about grief, forgiveness and moving forward, and season three wrapped it up just as neatly as Ted Lasso’s season three did. It’s since been renewed for a fourth season with the full cast returning, which had me nervous. Watching how carefully Lawrence has handled Ted Lasso’s follow-up, though, I’m feeling a lot more confident he’ll pull off the same trick twice.
Ted Lasso season four is streaming now on Apple TV+, with new episodes released weekly until October 7.