RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 12 sourcesCan the real Ted Lasso please stand up?
The show stopped feeling like itself in season three, although some might trace its problems back to season two , when the Apple TV comedy bit off more than it could chew in an earnest attempt to go beyond feel-good television. Ted Lasso began and blew up as a heartfelt comedy during COVID-19 lockdown; it retained that spirit in the sophomore run before gradually losing momentum with overlong episodes and a shift from thoughtful humor to meandering melodrama. By season three, those sluggish runtimes and stretched-out storylines made it nearly impossible to take the latest developments in the lives of Coach Lasso seriously. That awful CGI during Beard’s season-finale wedding in the finale was the cherry on top of a stale cake.
Over three years after it last aired, the show returns in what is meant to be a soft relaunch, with Ted training a new women’s football team. All the season four trailers and cast interviews have already laid this premise out. So it’s frustrating that the show—having apparently not learned a thing during its lengthy hiatus—returns with a 42-minute outing that spins its wheels to get to the point. I understand that series co-creators Jason Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt, Joe Keely (who wrote “Home”), and new showrunner Jack Burditt want to establish why Ted chooses to return to London with his family, considering he left to be with his son in Kansas two years ago. It’s necessary to show that for Ted, Richmond is, well, home.
However, in an effort to depict this obvious fact, the series premiere relies on similarly frustrating narratives, like the protagonists’ caricaturish turns (sorry to Ms. Keeley Jones!) or relevant developments taking place offscreen. If Ted’s son and ex-wife have seemingly agreed to join Ted in London this time around, isn’t that the conversation we should be seeing to understand their current dynamic better, instead of this major turn occurring at the end of the episode via text messages? “Home” takes other avoidable detours, too, like Rebecca and Keeley’s shopping trip or Higgins at the museum, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
The episode opens with Ted as an assistant manager at a grocery store, using his overtly positive methods to teach an employee that Stealing Is Bad. His relationship with Michelle isn’t exactly romantic again, but they’re on quite friendly terms, laughing over how Henry’s principal can’t distinguish 38-year-old Public Enemy lyrics from the poetry of a troubled kid in the 2020s. What is clear is that Michelle and Ted don’t love their respective jobs, and that Henry—about to graduate in a matter of days—is also unhappy (as suggested by his messy room and sullen attitude). It’s an effective setup for how this trio wants and needs a break from their current existence. Lo and behold, opportunity arrives in the form of Keeley, Rebecca, and Higgins.
They’re in town to recruit Ted as the coach of the soon-to-be-launched Lady Greyhounds. To be specific, Rebecca wants him to foster the same culture that he did for AFC Richmond’s men’s team. You’d assume that she’d opt for a female coach, but Rebecca swiftly dismisses a contender named Alice Chilton, who has thrown her hat in the ring. Rebecca’s flown across the Atlantic for a reason, after all. And it’s not just to enjoy the local barbeque (or spill it all over her expensive clothes, a recurring gag in this episode for some reason). Rebecca wants Ted back for the right reasons this time. As she tells her boyfriend over FaceTime, she is sincerely hoping that Ted will say yes because she’s seen how he can transform the players and turn them into winners. When Ted refuses because he needs to be with his kid, all she can do is remind him that sometimes, home is a state of mind.
And Ted’s mind has been only on football and his time at AFC Richmond, as evidenced by how his room is essentially a shrine to the team he once coached. There are framed photos of Roy Kent, Mae, Beard’s wedding (that he didn’t even attend!), and Earl the dog. (Who is keeping a picture of their best friend’s nuptials on their work desk? But the point is made, I suppose). Not to mention a lot of AFC memorabilia adorning his walls. Clearly, Ted wants to be back in the hallowed halls of this football club, exchanging banter over biscuits with his pals. He admits this to no one, despite Michelle and his mother, Dottie, urging him to follow his heart. Ted is understandably frustrated that the folks who wanted him close by are now encouraging him to go back to the U.K. On that score, his mom doles out some random advice: “A boy needs to see his dad do what he loves,” she tells him, ending with “You’ll figure it out.”
Again, it paves the way for Ted to accept the job, but “Home” spends a long time getting there, without digging into the emotional core of how and why Ted misses London and football. All we get are a few disjointed remarks about it, including the fact that he can’t coach Henry’s soccer team because it’s tough to delineate between dad and coach, as if he weren’t a pseudo-parent to the dudes of AFC Richmond. Either way, all of this ultimately ends with Ted realizing he’s gotta go back.
Before he does, though, Ted Lasso goes all in on the Kansas City of it all. It just comes across as too broad and gimmicky. Do Rebecca and Keeley really need a reminder of the value of “women helping women” from the owner of a boutique called Dazzle Me Moi? They’ve seemingly been working on the Lady Greyhounds for two years at this point, and they’re passionate enough to visit the U.S. to meet Ted. They know why they want to do this, even if financial reports suggest that women...
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