Week-to-Week: Somehow, Ted Lasso Returned

The return of AFC Richmond to TV screens was inevitable, but this? Was not.

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We’ve been operating under the presumption that Ted Lasso would be returning in some form since the ostensible series finale aired almost two years ago.

Review: Ted Lasso, "So Long, Farewell" | Season 3, Episode 12

Yes, co-creator Jason Sudeikis was adamant that he was finishing the intended story for the title character, but every other cast member suggested they would come back in a heartbeat, and we knew Apple had no desire to give up the show’s umpteen Emmy nominations for no good reason. And while the third season finale offered some closure for Ted himself, it strongly suggested that AFC Richmond’s story could keep going, with the episodic-ending montage even hinting at the introduction of a women’s team. So when news started to break of the British actors’ options getting picked up last summer, it wasn’t surprising, and it felt like a question of when—not if—the show would return.

And look, no matter what the details of Ted Lasso’s return were going to be, there was going to be some cynicism from critics. As someone who struggled with the show’s storytelling in the second season and almost fully rejected it in the third, I don’t have a lot of trust in what this creative team would do with an extended take on the show’s story world, which did at least conclude in a thematically resonant place. Admittedly, the show became a bit of a punching bag in the final season, to the point Sudeikis himself remarked on it, arguing that those who spoke negatively about the season “don’t have imaginations and they’re not open to the experience of what it’s like to have one.” But I would contend that criticism was earned, and any attempt at a revival would naturally inspire a relitigation of the parts of the final season that led to this response (the poorly articulated redemption arc for Nate, Keeley’s siloed disaster storyline, Ted’s one-minded obsession with his ex-wife, etc.) while reflecting on how the show would move forward without its star.

However, I don’t think critics were prepared to be confronted with the idea of Ted Lasso returning for season four with Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso, which is what Apple announced this morning. I know this because Apple sent out the embargoed news yesterday, and the reaction among critics was immediate and confounded. No one was surprised that Apple wanted more Ted Lasso, and no one was shocked that the creative team would be returning (with 30 Rock producer Jack Burditt joining them). But the idea that Sudeikis would be returning as Ted Lasso was a complete undoing of the one part of the “series finale” that felt remotely final, and a reversal of years of insisting that the Ted Lasso-era of Ted Lasso would end after three seasons. It’s a detail that took a decision we already viewed as motivated by money and acclaim over creative need and added another layer of cynicism over top of it for good measure, which somehow became compounded when it became clear this morning that the news would actually break on Jason and Travis Kelce’s New Heights podcast.

Now, as a fellow critic pointed out during our conversations yesterday, technically speaking the embargoed press release did not say in what capacity Sudeikis will be reprising the role of Ted Lasso; maybe he was only appearing as a recurring guest star, like many of the returning characters in the ninth season of co-creator Bill Lawrence’s Scrubs. However, when the New Heights clip went live, it bizarrely contained information that Apple left out of its press release: the fourth season is Ted Lasso returning to AFC Richmond to coach the women’s team teased in the montage at the end of the third season. Apple surely knew what Sudeikis said on the podcast, so why they chose to leave this out is a mystery to me, but it gives us a clearer glimpse of what exactly drove him to change his mind about leaving Ted Lasso behind.

I’ll reserve judgment on the creative vision for the season until it exists, but my immediate reaction is that the show’s handling of Keeley and Rebecca’s storylines in the third season, I don’t know that I am onboard with multiplying the show’s interest in its female characters and placing Ted as a paternal figure among them. I’d also question whether, if they were installing a new writer-producer, they couldn’t have found a female writer to take on the task.

However, given that I already saw fans in the show’s subreddit attacking people for “pre-judging” in opposition to the show’s core values, I’ll stop there and focus on the piece of information that was also missing from the press release: why is Sudeikis coming back to a show that he ended? When it turns its attention to the creative path ahead, Sudeikis chimes in with his pitch for the season, in line with the philosophizing he’s done about the show to date:

“As we all continue to live in a world where so many factors have conditioned us to ‘look before we leap,’ in season four the folks at AFC Richmond learn to LEAP BEFORE THEY LOOK, discovering that wherever they land, it’s exactly where they’re meant to be.”

Look, this just makes me roll my eyes, I’m not going to lie. But if I had been adamant that my version of a story was over, I’d probably return with at least an attempt to connect this purported ethos to the choice to return to it. When it released this morning, the episode of New Heights did offer some insight, as he explains that a combination of the writers/actors strike and the consistent requests from fans/friends/etc. convinced him it was worth investigating. But Sudeikis can’t just pretend the show was on a break—he might have never confirmed it was a series finale, but he was too vocal about the three-season plan to come back without at least a mild mea culpa.

If Sudeikis ultimately decided that it was more important to “leap” into a new story than to linger on his reluctance to reopen the book of Ted, that’s fine! He held all the power in this situation, and whether he wants to come back to talk back to his critics or simply return to a character that he missed, that’s his prerogative. But it’s weird that this press release didn’t even acknowledge the mustachioed elephant in the room and ignores the asterisk attached to the whole affair, as though this is just a renewal of a successful show.

I’m too fascinated by the creative task ahead of Sudeikis and his fellow producers to dismiss Ted Lasso season four out of hand. Even though the finale laid some tracks out, and they seem to be committing to the women’s team, there’s still a lot of creative question marks. Which characters return as part of this vision? What kind of story for a women’s team doesn’t feel like it’s retreading past seasons? And is there any universe where a return of a series that trumpeted its conclusion as the logical creative end of its narrative doesn’t register as a cynical exercise? Even if the show didn’t have remaining goodwill from its stellar first season that even the Nate of it all couldn’t fully destroy, there’s a distinct creative energy behind the affair that I expect even its harshest critics won’t be able to turn away from (even if it’s just for the page views or subscriptions).

I’ll acknowledge my criticism of the show’s second season at The A.V. Club made me into one of the show’s most visible “haters,” and while I had more company after the third season I know there is a huge gulf between the average fan’s relationship with this show and the one I developed over those three seasons. There are going to be corners of the internet—as evidenced by the Kelces’ giddy reaction to the news—where this is earnestly celebrated, and likely subscribers to this publication who found critics’ turn against it to be unmotivated. What unites these responses is a strong emotional attachment to the show’s characters and stories, and I’m willing to accept that this can exist as justification alongside the cynical reasons I’ve outlined.

Which reasons win out when the final product appears next year will be the question that, inevitably, the same critics who turned on season three will be reflecting on in our reviews.

Episodic Observations

• Since I know Sudeikis has a tendency to read his own press, I’d like to extend an open invitation for a Kelce-free conversation about the decision to return in light of his comments on the reaction to season three, just in case he’s a subscriber.

• If you weren’t following the casting discussions last summer, it implied that Hannah Waddingham, Jeremy Swift, and Brett Goldstein would definitely be returning, but that Phil Dunster would not be back as a series regular. This could have obviously changed in the intervening period—Goldstein isn’t listed as a “star” in addition to his roles as writer and executive producer in the press release, for example. Heck, as far as we know, Sudeikis himself wasn’t planning to return at that point and it might not have focused on a women’s team. Everything could have changed.

• Following up on our Spring schedule, Hacks is starting a bit earlier than anticipated on April 10, and Emma Fraser will keep the Max train rolling as her The Pitt reactions close out and she takes over our coverage for its bizarre 2-1-1-1-1-2-1-1 release schedule through the end of May.

• We also have a release date for season two of Poker Face, which means extra fun for Josh Spiegel who will have three episodes to cover on May 15 in addition to the final three episodes of Andor airing the same week.