Ted Lasso season four review round-up: 'Pointless and cynical'
By Sean O'Grady, Press Association Deputy Entertainment Editor
The fourth season of Ted Lasso has been called “pointless and cynical” in a series of largely negative and mixed reviews.
The Apple TV sports comedy starring Jason Sudeikis and Hannah Waddingham has returned three years after its third season aired.
When fans last saw Lasso, he had returned to America after AFC Richmond narrowly missed out on the Premier League title.
However, the new season sees him lured back to the UK, this time as the manager of the Richmond women’s team.
Awarding the season two stars out of four, The London Independent described it as “pointless and cynical” and that the latest batch of episodes felt “flat”.
The reviewer wrote: “While the show has always been gently amusing rather than laugh-out-loud funny, this new series does feel acutely short of gags.”
In another critical review, Variety said the majority of new characters are sidelined, with only new women’s coach Alice Chilton (Tanya Reynolds) feeling “fully formed”, which led to a sense of “overcrowding”.
The publication wrote: “Season 4 reins in some excesses and offers glimpses of fresh new faces: a walk-on player who’s also a single mom; a goalie who refuses to wear gloves; a new mentor for Rebecca, played by comic legend Tracey Ullmann. If only the show would clear the field for them.”
The Hollywood Reporter criticised the season’s “creaky pacing” and said the show was struggling to “find anywhere interesting left to go".
Although the publication praised new showrunner Jack Burditt for cleaning up “the show’s worst excesses”, the review added: “The problem is that, having rid itself of its messier elements, Ted Lasso has replaced them with…well, not much of anything, really.”
In a more mixed review, Britain's Daily Telegraph awarded the fourth season three out of five stars and wrote that the show still manages to strike the “surprisingly delicate balance between the sickly-sweet and the smutty.”
However, the publication also noted that Sudeikis previously claimed season three would be the show’s last.
The review wrote: “The implication being that three servings of Lasso were enough both for him and the audience. He was probably right.”
The Guardian gave the season three out of five stars and, in a mixed review, wrote that the show’s “fairytale London” and “football-based inaccuracies” mean it doesn’t bear “any relation to reality”.
However, the review noted there is still plenty on offer for loyal fans of the show, writing: “A sense of quality entertainment still hangs about the whole well-oiled endeavour.”
Radio Times gave the new season four out of five stars, praising the introduction of the women’s football team and the addition of Reynolds to the cast.
The publication wrote: “It’s just Lasso, with all that denotes: a colourful, friendly comedy where the plot lines and the lessons given by the stories tend towards the cheesy, but are so warmly heartfelt that it’s hard to object.”
