The Ted Lasso Mulligan

 Ted Lasso had such a weird run. Season one debuted in 2020 when we all desperately needed something uplifting to focus on, and Ted Lasso season one is about as perfect as television gets. Season two was a little darker, but they were clearly Doing A Thing, so I think a lot of us gave Ted Lasso the grace to get where it was going…and then it just didn’t get there. Season three was weird and messy, with series co-creator Bill Lawrence having departed by that point to focus on Shrinking, and Jason Sudeikis taking more creative control amidst a “prolonged” production which saw issues arise from cast scheduling conflicts and the Russian owner of the football club where they filmed the series being forced to sell after the invasion of Ukraine, among rumors of Sudeikis being difficult and/or cagey and changing scripts constantly. It really felt like nothing could go right for Ted Lasso at the end.

Which is why it always felt like a fourth season was inevitable. No one was really happy with season three, not fans and not the creatives—Jason Sudeikis blamed the audience for “lacking imagination”, which no, dude, we just expected you to pay off everything you set up in the first two seasons! Which you didn’t!—and probably not anyone at Apple TV+, who saw their breakout hit series almost immediately fade from cultural relevance because season three was such a turnoff.

But now we get a do-over. Season three is not the end of Ted Lasso. The fourth season of Ted Lasso is coming later this year; the series is set to return on August 5. A teaser dropped this week, showing Ted returning to AFC Richmond, this time to coach a women’s team.

The feel-good vibes that everyone fell in love with are there, though I am immediately turned off by the presence of Ted’s wife (ex-wife?) in London. I never thought Ted would stay in the UK, from the beginning it was clear he would not stand to be so separated from his son forever, but the season-three turn into Ted and his ex reconciling was weird and felt like 1) Sudeikis working out his real-life divorce sh-t on camera, and 2) a betrayal of the initial premise of Ted coming to terms with the failure of his marriage and accepting that does not mean he is a failure as a father, too. So I’m not super stoked by the specter of Ted’s marital status haunting the show any more than it already has.

But I AM super stoked by the possibility of Roy Kent and Keeley reuniting. The Ted reconciliation stuff in season three wasn’t great, but the single most egregious sin committed in season three was breaking up Roy and Keeley, a decision that clearly arose solely to propel Keeley into a spin-off WHICH NEVER MATERIALIZED. So yes, by all means, fix that sh-t! Roy and Keeley’s journey together was one of the best elements of the series, breaking them up was devastating for the characters. This was not a case of “want vs need” pitting audience desire against storytelling necessity (as we’ve recently seen with The Pitt), Roy and Keeley breaking up was obviously a corporate decision made to keep the Lasso machine spinning. And then they didn’t f-cking make it count.

Missing from the teaser is Nick Mohammed as Nate, the equipment manager turned coach who was supposed to be Ted’s foil and the character whose story propelled a three-season arc set up early in the series. Nate starts out as Ted’s protégé, he turns into Ted’s rival, and then Nate was supposed to learn the lessons Ted was trying to teach all along about self-acceptance and esteem, but the second most egregious sin of season three was shoving Nate’s redemption arc almost entirely off screen, because we had to deal with Ted’s f-cking marriage drama. Roy and Keeley might get a chance at fixing their season three disappointment, but it doesn’t look like Nate will.

Don’t get me wrong, I am going to watch Ted Lasso season four, mostly to see if Roy and Keeley get back together. And maybe Ted Lasso can recapture that season one magic, with a new challenge for Ted and a new team to turn into champions. I just hope this isn’t a case of too little, too late. It’s been three years since season three, which might work in the show’s favor, as people have had time to forget the disappointment of the original finale. But it is also long enough for everyone to move on, and recapturing audiences can be tough. Is it too late for a Ted Lasso mulligan?