Ted Lasso scores with hotly anticipated Season 4: review

Believe. After a three-year hiatus, Apple TV’s Emmy-winning hit “Ted Lasso” is back with a fourth season that resets the show with a jolt of much-needed energy. Season 4 stumbles out of the gate with a tepid season premiere.When it finds its footing, it’s the best “Ted Lasso” has been since Season 1. Premiering Aug.

5, Season 4 sees folksy former college football coach Ted Lasso (series creator/star Jason Sudeikis) — who spent previous seasons as an unlikely Premier League soccer club manager in the UK — back in Kansas.His soccer days are behind him.The comedy initially aired for three seasons from 2020 to 2023.

In the world of the show, a few years have passed since the events of Season 3.Ted is working a mundane job and raising his son, Henry (played by Gus Turner from Seasons 1 to 3, now recast as Grant Feely). When his old friends and colleagues, including Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham), Keeley Jones (Juno Temple) and Leslie Higgins (Jeremy Swift), visit, they convince Ted to return to his old stomping grounds across the pond — this time, to coach their budding women’s soccer team. Unwisely, the season premiere takes nearly an hour to set that up, even though we all know that Ted coaching a women’s team is the premise of Season 4. It’s in the trailers! So, that’s a needlessly laborious note to start on. But, after that misfire, Season 4 has a similar format to Season 1, as Ted tries to assemble and motivate a team of underdogs and figure out how to make their clashing personalities work — and everyone has their own drama. Former player Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) returns as the men’s coach who is conveniently sharing the facility.This allows him to constantly pop up, like a foul-mouthed version of a sitcom neighbor.

He continues to have a “will they or won’t they” dynamic with his ex-girlfriend, Keeley. Season 4 is different enough that it doesn’t feel like the show is repeating itself (give or take some plot...