There are two wolves inside of me. One is named Ted Lasso, and the other one is Led Tasso. One really wanted a new season of the cheerful-American-coach-in-sardonic-old-England show, and the other one just wanted the last seasons, which were nearly perfect, to remain untouched.
It’s true that season four, in many ways a soft reboot than a continuation of the original, has been a mixed bag so far. The season premiere was especially daunting.
Yes, we needed the exposition, and we needed Hannah Waddingham in denim and rhinestones à la a tall, English Dolly Parton. We also needed a dive back into Ted’s personal life, which anchored the original three-season run.
At the same time, I think we can all collectively agree that the season premiere mostly fell flat.
You can only ride on the original charm of the characters for so long.
Not to mention the fact that Ted coming back to coach English women’s soccer (yes, we Americans know it’s not called that in England) was a hard sell for me at first.
This isn’t because I dislike women’s soccer – I think it’s incredibly fun to watch, it’s been fun for me ever since I watched my friends play in high school – but because the usual tropes of the genre, featuring a team of spiky, resilient women, can get so quickly worn out.
It’s a bit like watching the legendary Keeley Jones do her girl power routine. It’s always good to see an impressive and conscientious woman who didn’t come from a silver spoon background and can still rock an insane heel in the business world.
But at some point, she needs to start doing/saying something new.
To my major relief, the latest episodes of season four have my optimistic Ted Lasso side winning over my bitchy Led Tasso side.
First of all, Ted has a great second coaching assistant in Alice Chilton, played wonderfully by Tanya Reynolds (you might have seen her get her freak on in Sex Education).
Alice is prickly and unhappy and kind of a shitty coach at times. She’s not always impressed by Ted’s Midwestern magic – which is predictable – but they also wind up balancing each other out like Lennon/McCartney, in a way that Ted and Coach Beard (played in reliably bonkers style by Brendan Hunt) do not.
Second of all, Keeley herself is currently stumbling on those high heels, figuratively and not literally (the latter simply would not happen to Keeley). As she discovers, the feminine side of the soccer business can suck just as much as the masculine side. Her marketing instincts aren’t always on point. And the disappointments this time around can feel much more personal, as a woman working in women’s sport.
Keeley’s daring gamble on her ex-boyfriend, Roy “Faaaaak” Kent is also not quite paying off so far. She told him to go on ten dates with other women before she will consider rekindling their relationship, and, lo and behold, Kent has again busted his knee, and met a hot lady doctor in the process.
Keeley’s ability to show her disappointment, while not succumbing to bitterness, has given much-needed emotional honesty to this season. I hope the writers can build on it.
Keeley’s boss, Rebecca Welton (Waddingham), has also been going through it. A girl power cliche would see her quickly settling down with her Dutch pilot boyfriend in sweet, occasionally sarcastic bliss, with the man playing second fiddle to Rebecca’s growing soccer empire.
But our leggy goddess is beginning to understand that romantic serendipity, which kicked off their relationship, is not the thing that takes you over the finish line.
We have to be tough enough for love, Bruce Springsteen taught us that, both the women and the men. Tough in our love of the game, and tough in our love for ourselves and one another. We have to be scrappy, because a real relationship is not greeting card perfection. Great business instincts don’t do you much good, as Rebecca has learned.
All of this is making for more compelling television than the premiere promised. Throw in some weird theater hoodoo – a hot stage manager waxing poetic about the Scottish Play to an impressed Ted, Coach Beard’s crazy ex doing a one woman show about their bizarre relationship – and you have more dramatic and comedic potential.
Ted Lasso has always been about the weird, tender, occasionally snippy relationship that America has with its mother country. American enthusiasm vs British self-deprecation. Barbecue and sunshine vs dressing each other down at the pub. Soccer vs football.
And it’s also been about how kindness mixes with human sadness. How both can spring from the same root. With the latest episode, a New Year’s Eve mashup of three parties playing out in their separate ways, season four has begun to hit its stride.
The producers and writers have shown us that just as before, Ted Lasso knows how to mix glitter up with tears, and silly jokes with strong emotional undercurrents. It makes me wonder what else season four has up its sleeve.
The Led Tasso in me remains a little caustic, and a little cautious. The Ted Lasso in me is telling me to Believe.