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Ted Lasso season 4 review: The Apple TV comedy scores another winner
Women's football kicks off in the fourth run of the feel-good show, with Tanya Reynolds proving a fantastic addition to the cast.
Apple TV
- Jack Seale
Published: Wednesday, 5 August 2026 at 8:00 am
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A star rating of 4 out of 5.
Ted Lasso was meant to be finished after three seasons, before its creators saw women’s football as a reason to revive it. This was treated by many observers and to an extent by the Lasso showrunners themselves as a major reboot, a risk. Could they get away with such a profound change?
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This was always a curious reaction, because of course Ted Lasso is not a show about football. All the criticisms it received for its wildly inaccurate portrayal of the men’s Premier League were always wide of the mark, because it’s never tried to document any of the nuances of the game. It’s a workplace comedy about people running a football team and a football club. Who the players are isn’t that important.
In season 4, Ted (Jason Sudeikis) is – after some initial shenanigans during a standalone opening episode set in Kansas City – still there on the touchline, or the sideline as he would call it, flanked by Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt).
The offices are still occupied by forthright CEO Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham), faithful director of football Leslie (Jeremy Swift) and chaotically energetic marketing director Keeley (Juno Temple). Even majestically blunt old-school football hardman Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) is still there, since his role as men’s coach means he’s present in the building, even if his team are now relegated to the background.
That’s not to say the show is identical to before, far from it. The bad news for that section of the football fandom who have an aneurysm if a woman so much as co-commentates on a televised game is that Lasso season 4 does have quite a few extra women in it now, starting with a fantastic addition to the core cast. Tanya Reynolds joins as Alice Chilton, the women’s coach who is usurped when Rebecca decides her grand push to put AFC Richmond’s women on a par with the men requires a man (Ted) to lead it.
Ted Lasso. Apple TV
Reynolds is, like Waddingham, Swift and Sudeikis, blessed with facial features that lend themselves perfectly to Lasso’s use of cartoonish over-reactions, but she brings plenty of heart and guile to a part that at first seems like a gender-flipped Roy Kent, as Alice comes into focus as a sensitive perfectionist rather than just a difficult customer, very funny as her default rudeness is.
The women’s players, meanwhile, gradually reveal themselves to be just the sort of slow burn supporting characters that have featured in previous episodes. Stereotypes at first but then less so as the narrative progresses, they range from a Tasmanian devil of a goalie and a pair of twins who constantly get into physical fights, to a gifted but mercurial striker and a single mother whose gifts for empathy, multitasking and clear advice make her a leader on the pitch.
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. The show’s core morals – that people should be treated with kindness and respect for the hidden battles they’re fighting, and that community and collective achievement are more valuable than individual success acquired at others’ expense – remain admirable.
And this year, they have an extra edge thanks to the gender shift: Lasso has always been good at treating equality of various kinds as an obvious non-negotiable, so it’s well placed to directly tackle outdated attitudes towards women’s sport. It helps that it’s never too much of a goody two-shoes, its frequent blasts of swearing and scorchingly rude jokes among the homilies and camaraderie ensuring that it doesn’t become too squishy. And it really knows how to work a will-they-won’t-they romance, which remains satisfying even when it’s Roy and Keeley, who feel like they’ve had that status forever.
Not the same, but not fundamentally different is how a show that’s now (superficially) about women’s football instead of men’s should feel, and the new Lasso has that balance right. It’s another winning season.
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Ted Lasso season 4 arrives on Apple TV from 5 August.
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Authors
Jack Seale
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