Ted Lasso is back. The fish-out-of-water sports comedy following a football coach turned futbol coach came to a complete conclusion in 2023, ending the story of Lasso as coach of A.F.C Richmond with Ted hanging up his whistle, returning to Kansas, and deciding that the most important thing to him was spending time with his son. Now the show is back after a three-year hiatus, flipping the script with Lasso returning to the UK to become the coach of the club’s women’s team.

The return of the show also means the return of our weekly reviews. James Dator and Mark Schofield are both avid Ted Lasso fans, and are once again diving in with the show’s return to give our takes.

I was both excited and retiscent about there being a fourth season of Ted Lasso. Naturally I wanted, needed more of the best sporting comedy ever to grace TVs, but there was a part of me that worried a fourth season was brought about for the wrong reasons. Was there really more of a story to tell with this cast of characters, or was this an example of the AppleTV content engine desperately needing more fuel, and willing to throw whatever money it took to make it happen?

After one episode I don’t have an answer to that question. The writing was there, the feel of a Ted Lasso episode was there, but something just felt … off about the first foray into season four, which centered on Rebecca, Keeley, and Higgins making a trip to Kansas City to try and court Ted to return to Richmond and coach its burgeoning women’s team.

There were some powerful moments to be sure, and others that wrestled a smile from the staunchest of faces — but all in all, “Home,” felt forced and manufactured in a way that is inherently unlike past seasons of Lasso, or producer Bill Lawrence’s other standout ensemble comedies (Shrinking, Rooster). There was a level of hesitation and nervousness which permeated the episode, as if everyone who had a hand in it also wondered if they were doing the right thing by reviving a series that had a clear, perfect conclusion in 2023.

This resulted in a lot of box-checking disguised as narrative. Ted is working a dead-end job as assistant manager of a grocery store, but displaying far too much enthusiasm. We were told that Rebecca and Matthijs were still together, that Keeley and Roy were still friends, Ted and Michelle were co-parenting exes, Henry is conveniently at a pre-teen crossroads where he feels out of place and in need of a change, hell, we even got a lingering shot of a newspaper explaining the Jamie Tartt transferred away from Richmond, justifying why we wont see Phil Dunster in the series. That’s my core problem with the show’s premiere: we were told all these things without anything unfolding organically.

One of the most beautiful elements of the first three seasons of Ted Lasso was the willingness for the show to take its time, to meander, to not answer every question the viewer had with a clear-cut response, but rather bathe in the ambiguity and allow things to be revealed naturally. Instead, “Home” was a formulaic slap in the face to make darn sure to tie up every thread. That’s before we talk about the self-aggrandizing elements of the premiere, which were much too on the nose.

We all know that Jason Sudekis is from Kansas City, and that he loves his hometown. We’ve seen him at Chiefs games, and repping Sporting KC — but his involvement in the show hit too close with “Home” being an over-exuberant love letter to Kansas City. Everything about the city was incredible to the three Brits who landed there as fish out of water. Rebecca was so overcome by BBQ that she couldn’t help spilling sauce on her designer clothes three times in as many scenes, completely incongruous with her character. Keeley found her Kansas City muse in a bedazzled boutique-owner who was the female embodiment of Ted himself, while also making sure she established herself as a girl boss. Higgins was the only character to face any kind of disappointment, upon learning that the jazz museum he planned to visit was closed — but it was okay, because he found a kindly man to teach him life lessons through the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, rich with Satchel Paige anecdotes.

The message of “Kansas City was amazing” ran over viewers with the subtlety of a freight train, and it’s impossible to imagine that would have happened without Sudekis being so intimately involved in the show as a producer.

Ultimately, we got the nice little bow put on everything that “Home” set out to achieve. Ted is going to take the job in London, with no difficult decisions, no tough choices — because Michelle and Henry are coming with him! What a stroke of luck that Michelle hates her job, and nothing is going right for Henry. One of the first things Rebecca said to Ted upon her arrival was that the first time she hired him it was for all the wrong reasons, but this time it was for all the right ones — how ironic that it stands in contrast with this season, with an opening that felt crafted for all the wrong motivations.

I’m willing to give Ted Lasso a little grace to show me more moving forward, because of my love for its overarching narrative — but I’ll admit I feel much, much more nervous about the prospects of this season based on the writing of its premiere.

We’ve all had a flight like this: Whether due to weather or some other reason, the plane is rocking and rolling during the climb out of the departure airport, and the seatbelt sign remains on as the pilots work towards cruising altitude.

And if you are a nervous flyer like I am, you’re waiting for the WiFi to kick in so you can refresh every turbulence-related website you can think of, to see if it will be like this during the duration of the flight.

There are not turbulence-related websites for television shows, but if there were, I would have been reaching for one during the opening minutes of the season four premier of Ted Lasso. Because it felt, to me, a bit rocky.

Let’s start with the setup. I found it tough to believe that a coach who delivered a national title to Wichita State, and then enjoyed some success in the Premier League, would be working at a grocery store. I know I’m not alone, as the wife of one of Ted’s former players – who he happened to bump into at said store – felt the same way. It made everything that followed a bit … easier to unfold. Now I’m not saying Lasso should have been working under Andy Reid with the Kansas City Chiefs, but a coach at a local college should have been on the table.

Instead, he’s teaching (coaching?) teenage co-workers not to steal and trying to convince people older not to smoke, while asking his boss if it is okay to leave early because of something that happened at your son’s school.

Because … it’s easier to uproot your life if you’re leaving a job that you probably shouldn’t be at in the first place.

The bumps continued when Rebecca, Keeley, and Higgins arrived to surprise Ted, and offer him a job coaching Richmond’s new women’s team. While there was a chuckle or two during the scene at the restaurant, the show did not start to pick up steam until our four heroes separated. Higgins’ tour of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum was solid, as was Rebecca and Keeley’s shopping experience.

But what really smoothed things out, at least for a moment, was Ted helping his mom at a yard sale, as Dottie prepared to move into a new community. (The scene of Ted walking into his childhood bedroom, complete with a dartboard on the wall, truly worked. As did Dottie’s pep talk to try and prod her son to take the job).

Ted is still not convinced, and after seeing his three former colleagues off at the airport – and accepting a gift from Rebecca – he finally makes his way into the office at his new house, and surrounds himself with old Richmond memories. You know where this is going, as he pulls his phone out of his pocket to text his ex-wife about the possibility of moving to London. The response is an immediate yes – we learn second later it is actually Ted’s son saying yes – but of course Michelle is a yes too.

Again, it is all very easy and convenient, and if there have been criticisms of Ted Lasso over the years, they follow this line: Conflict is hard, it is easier to just … continuing the flight analogy … fly around the storms than through them. Having Ted in a job he actually enjoyed would have made this a tougher choice. Having Henry or Michelle at least hesitant about the idea would have made this tougher.

But in the end, the Lassos are headed back to London.

Now, maybe the flight path is smooth from here. Once the show gets back on Richmond footing, the things that made us all fall in love with Ted Lasso return, and the show hits its stride.

But sometimes, the bumps persist.