The Case for a Smaller Ted Lasso

IndieWire's verdict on the fourth season of Ted Lasso is that the show found its way by settling for less. After a third season the critic calls disastrous, the return of Jason Sudeikis's warmhearted Apple comedy didn't take the big swings that helped make it a mega-hit; it moved into comfy sitcom environs instead, a little less ambitious and a lot easier to enjoy. Spoiler: nothing is spoiled, because the argument here is about posture, not plot — the show stopped trying to be an event and started behaving like a sitcom. The trade is real, and not only on television. Ambition is what gets a show noticed; it is also what makes it tiring. A series that stops swinging for the fences can start being good at the small stuff, the joke that lands because nobody is straining for it. The catch is that 'easier to enjoy' is a compliment and a shrug in the same breath. Pleasant is not the same as memorable, and a show that has stopped taking risks has fewer ways left to surprise you. Whether that's a fix or a surrender probably says more about what you wanted from Ted Lasso in the first place than about the season.