The most beloved football coach wants you to laugh again
'Ted Lasso' returns with a fourth season focused on a women's team
BarcelonaEver since its television debut in August 2020, Ted Lasso has earned the title of fiction's most beloved football coach. The protagonist of the eponymous Apple TV comedy, created by and starring Jason Sudeikis, is the archetype of the good guy who strives to make everyone around him happy, sometimes even forgetting himself a little. After a three-year absence, Ted Lasso, the quintessential good feelings series, returns this Wednesday with a new season that marks a renewal of the plot and characters.
Ted Lasso is arguably one of the main successes that Apple TV has achieved since its launch, October 2019. Comedy has been fundamental in putting on the map a platform that has much less presence than other competitors such as Netflix or HBO Max. In the year of the pandemic, it knew how to capitalize on the need to laugh and feel good that many viewers had, and very soon it became word-of-mouth. Its popularity led it to triumph in several Emmy editions: it has won the award for best comedy on two occasions, and actors Jason Sudeikis, Brett Goldstein, and Hannah Waddingham have also been recognized for their work.
At the beginning of the series, Ted was an American football coach who, due to various circumstances, ended up in London coaching a soccer team without having any idea about it. His optimism and determination made the players trust him and the club, AFC Richmond, prosper. When the third season of the series premiered in March 2023, it seemed that the story had reached its end, and in fact, that was Sudeikis's idea. Two years later, however, after much thought, the actor and Apple surprised fans by announcing that there would be a fourth season. Of course, the new installment promised to shake up the story. "Playing a character who sees the best in people and isn't angry at the world for all its weaknesses, bullies, and shadows is something that sticks with you. It's not that I'm Daniel Day-Lewis [known for being a method actor and living as the characters he plays], but it was beautiful to live it; to feel that coursing through your brain and body all day. It still is," Sudeikis explains in "The Hollywood Reporter.Women's football
The fourth season advances two years in time compared to the previous installment. Ted is settled in his native Kansas City, where he returned to be with his son Henry. To fully exercise his role as a father, he has given up sports and works as a supermarket cashier, a job he does with his usual conviction even though it doesn't particularly excite him. The apathy surrounding him is broken when three of his most beloved colleagues from Richmond reappear: Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), the owner of his former club; Leslie (Jeremy Swift), the operations director; and Keeley (Juno Temple), the public relations manager. The visit has a clear objective: to convince Ted to be the coach of the club's women's team, which is in the Second Division.
In his new role, Ted will have to learn to work with new collaborators, the most important of whom is the assistant coach, Alice, a woman with very firm principles and little inclination for jokes or humor. The actress responsible for interpreting the character is the British actress Tanya Reynolds, known for having been part of the cast of Sex education and who recently appeared in La otra hermana Bennet. Besides her, the series will feature a whole host of new female characters who will be the players of the team Ted will manage.
The cast renewal does not mean that some of the series' well-known and beloved characters will not reappear. In this regard, the grumpy Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) continues in the fiction, now as the coach of the men's team, the job his mentor Ted did. Fans of the series can also expect the return of the eccentric coach Beard, who will once again be the protagonist's right-hand man.
Ted Lasso is one of the most anticipated premieres of the summer. So much so that in the World Cup final, Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt, dressed as Ted and Beard, made a special appearance to introduce one of the stars of the halftime show, Justin Bieber. In his performance, the affable coach maintained his usual positivism: "I think we need a little bit of heart, somebody with soul, somebody that can bring love." Immediately after, the Canadian singer appeared with an acoustic guitar to perform Everything Hallelujah, from his latest album, Swag II.
