The Joyless Return of ‘Ted Lasso’ - The Free Press

Ted Lasso stars Jason Sudeikis (left) as the titular hero and Hannah Waddingham as AFC Richmond’s owner, Rebecca Welton. (Apple TV)The show’s newest season replaces real character complexity, depth, and heart with big, sweeping political statements that stir progressive pundits and academics and precisely no one else. By Liel Leibovitz08.07.26 — Culture and IdeasNo description available.FOLLOW TOPIC --:----:--Upgrade to ListenProduced by ElevenLabs using AI narration343178READ IN APPREAD IN APPWatching the first episode of the new season of Ted Lasso, which dropped on Apple TV on Wednesday, is a little like running into your ex at the mall. There you are, minding your own business, when suddenly you see this person you haven’t thought of in years. First comes a burst of involuntary excitement—remember all those wonderful biscuits your ex used to bake? Remember all the gosh darn fun you used to have together? But then you take one close look at the person standing before you, and one thought alone prevails: Oh, NOW I remember why we broke up. For the few who do not know: Ted Lasso centers on a whimsical American football coach—named, if it needs to be clarified, Ted Lasso—from Kansas City, who flies across the pond to take over an English soccer team. When we last saw Lasso (Jason Sudeikis), it was sometime in the spring of 2023, and he was reclining on board a flight back home. His team, AFC Richmond, had nearly won the championship, yet he turned down a lucrative contract extension to return and be with his son, Henry. Because it’s been three years now, and because spoiler alerts have very short shelf lives these days, we can safely say that the previous season’s finale was, for us Lasso enthusiasts, a delight. Sure, it was thick with borderline idiotic set pieces—gruff players staging a perfect rendition of “So Long, Farewell” on the pitch, say, or a magical penalty kick that somehow tore through the net, curved upward, and ascended to the heavens—but only a dead-eyed cynic would mind the whimsy too much. And dead-eyed cynics, presumably, never made it very far with Ted Lasso, a show that, like its titular hero, wrestled you down to the ground and overwhelmed you with boundless kindness and folksy charm.