Ted Lasso Season 4 Review: Just As Heartfelt As You'd Expected

To borrow from that romantic-comedy from a couple of decades ago, there's something about Ted Lasso. The show, yes, but also the character. Hilarious, heartwarming, honest to a fault. They truly don't make 'em like him anymore. Probably what explains the show's popularity, and why it's back for a fourth season, something that wasn't on the agenda once the show ending its third season. And now that it's here, everyone's curious to know only one thing - will this fourth season with Lasso coaching a woman's football team be just as good?

Here's the good news: it actually is!

Sure, I've only seen the first episode of the show yet, but who said that just that isn't enough to claim it? After all, this first episode made me feel all the feels the show had come to be known for.

Spoilers ahead for the show's first episode so continue reading only if you've watched it!

Lasso is working at a grocery store, back in Kansas City, because he wants to spend more time with his son, who's also a fellow soccer lover, playing the sport for his school's team. If Lasso is unhappy, he doesn't say it, though everyone from his ex-wife to his mother (a character we'd never seen before) knows it well. As do we, the audiences, from the moment we see Lasso even talking about the sport, or watching his son play it.

Everything seems sort of hunky-dory until Rebecca, Keeley & Higgins arrive in a chartered plane to ask Lasso to come back to the United Kingdom, this time to come and coach AFC Richmond's new women's team that hasn't even played a single match yet.

While Lasso debates and discusses this decision with himself, the trio from London spend their time in Kansas City, hoping to hear an affirmative, which at the end of the episode doesn't happen. Only that it does a bit later, when Lasso suggests moving his family to the UK should be take up the role, and both his son & ex-wife happily agree.

Staging the entirety of the first episode in Kansas City (or is it Missouri?) is an interesting choice. It's a world we've not been shown before - Lasso's life before he came to Richmond was only talked about, never shown in detail. Everything seems to work at first, yes, before it starts to fizzle out, a tad bit. Rebecca and Keeley shopping at a local store is lovely but you can't say the same about Higgins' troubles with being racially appropriate. Lasso's mother works wonderfully well, but you do start to feel a bit restless because you want to rush him to the UK and meet the team he'd be coaching - you already know he agrees to the job thanks to the trailer, so what's the big reveal here!

Speaking of the team, you're not meeting them in this first episode. No Coach Beard either. Nor do we get to see Roy Kent, aside from a mention from Keeley that they're 'good friends', as Higgins asks if he too feels the same. And while we're at Higgins, his newfound ability to give it as good as he's been getting, when it comes to his repartee with Rebecca, is something I'm still on the fence about.

It's still mostly enjoyable though, the show. Jason Sudeikis is spot on, as expected. And Hannah Waddingham is every bit her character, which isn't surprising either.

Ted Lasso Season 4 definitely leaves you with the same heartwarming feeling that it always did. A smile on your face through the entirety of the episode is guaranteed - I'm hoping it stays intact as the season progresses.

Ted Lasso is now streaming on Apple TV