‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4, Episode 1 Recap – Take Me Back to London

The obvious downside to Ted Lasso Season 4, at least as far as this premiere is concerned, is that it’s based around a single dramatic question that we already know the answer to: Will Ted uproot his life again to return to London and coach the new AFC Richmond women’s team? Given that there wouldn’t be a show if he didn’t, there’s little genuine tension around what he’ll choose to do. On the upside, though, it’s reassuring to be back in this world, among these characters, and the show’s expert balance of comedy and sentiment means that even idling around waiting for an outcome we already know is coming doesn’t feel like a waste of time.

Ted’s ostensibly happy in Kansas City, but only insofar as his unflappable demeanour means he’s happy just about anywhere. But he’s deeply unsatisfied, in his own way. He’s working as an assistant manager in a grocery store, still showing impeccable leadership but getting no credit for it, and he doesn’t even coach Henry’s soccer team, having come to the conclusion that sometimes the needs of a dad and the needs of a coach don’t necessarily mix. But his mind is elsewhere. Whenever he spots a sporting session somewhere, he fixates on it, even when he should probably be paying attention to what Michelle is saying about Henry getting into trouble at school for writing down Public Enemy lyrics.

The sudden arrival of Rebecca, Keeley, and Higgins, then, represents a jump-start to both the season’s plot and Ted’s latent need to be doing something he finds meaningful, which in his case is obviously coaching. And, of course, they have just the opportunity for him. AFC Richmond’s women’s team needs a head coach, and since the women’s game is blighted by financial issues and mismanagement — the folding of Twickenham FC’s women’s side on account of “draining resources from the men’s game” is cited as an illustrative example — it’ll be a tall order. It’s exactly the kind of challenge that Ted thrives on.

But, naturally, he has to spend the entire episode pretending he isn’t interested, which means most of the runtime is devoted to using Rebecca, Keeley, and Higgins’s presence in Kansas City to fill in some of the between-season details — Keeley and Roy are really good friends; Rebecca and Matthijs are still in their honeymoon period — and set up the new outing’s overall mission statement, while keeping the comedic engine ticking with effective Brits-abroad banter as the trio explores Kansas, enjoys some barbecue, purchases bedazzled outfits, and discovers the history of baseball.

Higgins going on a tour of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is oddly moving, and calcifies the season’s underpinning idea that there isn’t a world of difference between the historical treatment of Black baseball players and the present-day treatment of female footballers. It’s a risky comparison — the tour guide even points out that it isn’t quite the same — but it works well enough to reiterate the idea of championing the underdog against systemic odds. Ted Lasso has a unique ability to take an outlandish idea and imbue it with real heart and sincerity, and the biggest takeaway from Episode 1 — which is titled “Home”, ironically — is that Season 4 doesn’t seem to have lost this ability.

It’s also still really well-written, despite the broadness of some of the fish-out-of-water comedy (best exemplified by Rebecca’s repeated mishaps with barbecue sauce and her purchase of a gaudily sequinned outfit, Higgins turning up to a game in a vintage baseball jersey he bought from the gift shop out of guilt, and various jetlag gags.) The emotional payoff in Ted deciding to take the job comes in the form of texting Michelle to ask how she feels about moving the whole family to London, and Henry responding on her phone because Ted forgot to charge his iPad, despite promising that he would. It’s such a lovely, looping bit of storytelling — Ted’s absent-mindedness stemming from his dissatisfaction with his current circumstances inadvertently solving his problem of being too fearful to be honest with Henry about genuinely considering the job — that it reassures me about the whole season, despite almost nothing happening in its premiere to assuage the assumption that the show might risk diminishing returns by coming back after three years on what is essentially a reboot premise.

Ultimately, it’s too early to tell, but early signs are at least promising. Ted hasn’t lost his sense of self, and neither has his namesake show, and if simple things like a yard sale haul and a gifted teabag can already create real emotional sentiment, then I think we’re probably in good shape.