Ted Lasso S4!

[SeditiousPam]

It’s today! (And I refuse to feel ashamed of my excitement. 😂)

https://tv.apple.com/gb/episode/home/umc.cmc.7hog8d1yo3kydywk16dqr3ce9?showId=umc.cmc.vtoh0mn0xn7t3c643xqonfzy

And agree about the song at the funeral- it was beautiful

The Mary Oliver poem finished me off last night. It's always been one of my favourites.

When Death Comes
When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

It was fine as a finale. I don't really like the romancey vibe between Alice and Gemma though as we've seen Alice has a partner she seems to live with. Maybe that's in there as a future storyline about a conflict of interest and they'd break them up first.
I never want to see Zelda ever again. I'm fairly sure we saw more of her than Ted himself.

Yes, I think that's a weakness in the writing of Alice and Gemma -- it's not that it's deliberately keeping us guessing as to their precise feelings for one another, it's that the writers don't seem to have decided themselves so it sort of lurches about between proto-rom-com and purely coach-and-good-player.

I genuinely thought that when Alice stuck up the Post It with the number of days until the beginning of the next season, there was going to be some indication that either Alice or Gemma thought they would miss seeing one another over the summer, but no.

I also think that May would have laughed herself silly over the Mary Oliver poem and said 'What a load of old cobblers!' though I love that she left the pub to the three fans.

And I'm so over making a character Irish being lazy shorthand for 'a bit rough'. Leaving aside entirely the deeply odd casting decision to have an Irish actress playing an Irish character, and a Welsh actress who looks and sounds nothing like her playing her twin sister, we are not given, as adults, to continually getting publicly violent with our siblings. And 'The Parting Glass' isn't a funeral song. You can sing it at a funeral, sure, but it certainly isn't some kind of generally observed tradition.

You're right - I don't think they've decided yet about A&G. It was very rom-com when they were all dressed up on the boat and having a cozy chat on the deck (I think?) but much less so when Alice went to Gemma's house and shouted at her for quitting.

That's interesting @Tomfooleries are you Irish? I've heard the Parting Glass sung at several goodbyes and also at some funerals so have always had the impression it is a tradition. The Pogues sang at it Shane MacGowan's funeral for a start!

Isn't it originally a Scottish song? Think I read that somewhere.
It's lovely whatever and it worked well in that last episode.

You can of course sing it at a funeral, but it’s also often just sung at the end of a session, the end of a night. Folk and traditional acts would often do it at the end of a performance, or as an encore, hence its appropriateness for Shane McGowan’s funeral. It was sung at Glen Hansard’s funeral too, but partly because he’d often sung it. It was sung (started by GH) as the last song of a concert at the Albert Hall when Michael D Higgins was on a state visit to the UK around ten years ago.

Is Ted meant to be assistant manager for the women’s team now but back as manager for the men’s as well?

@NCTDN I interpreted it as he’s stepped back full stop. It felt like he wanted to have more time with his family. But other people have already pointed out that how something felt and what happened don’t always match this series. So who knows!

Didn’t the office door have him down as assistant manager under Alice’s name?

Yes that's why I said at goodbyes as well as at funerals.

Yes, he is Assistant Manager for the women. The men's team has nothing to do with it. If anything, and they can get Nick (the actor) back for a possible s5, Nathan might do it.

My point is that it’s an ordinary song, and not some funeral tradition. And yes, as a pp said, it’s Scottish.

But he asked Rebecca for Roy's job didn't he?
Do we assume she turned him down?

No, he did not. That was the "twist". This is from an interview with Brendan Hunt.

DEADLINE: Ted’s line to Rebecca about wanting “to talk to her about the newly open manager position” came just after Roy had resigned, so I assumed that was for the vacated men’s team job, and Ted was pitching himself or Nate who had just resurfaced. Instead, we got Coach Chilton promoted. Are the two things connected?
HUNT: He doesn’t say the men’s manager position.
DEADLINE: But why did he say “newly open”?
HUNT: Because he’s coming in to let her know that he is no longer the manager of the women’s team.

Oh I see!

I feel like this is the fault of the writers. Ted said to Henry he missed too many of his football games and was going to change things so that wouldn't happen any more, which obviously means he wouldn't want to be Manager of the men, or the women any more! But this was mentioned once, in the finale, so I think a lot of people glossed over it.

Loved the final episode, only just watched it yesterday so a little late but just thought it was a great finale. I'm realllly hoping for season 5 but so far nothing has been officially confirmed. If there is season 5 and they go with women's team, i hope they start working on some more proper stories for the women. Men's team obviously had Roy and Jamie, both very standout memorable characters obviously Roy became one of the main characters but Jamie was a very recognizable character with nice storylines. Sam, even Colin. I liked that we saw a bit more of Lizzie's homelife.

I get it now but it was pretty badly done because it was so easily missed.

And it had to be explained in this interview...

So he just resigned?!

No, he asked to be demoted so Alice is the manager and he and Beard are assistant managers. Did you genuinely not read the signs at the end that said - Women's Team - Alice Manager, Beard Assistant Manager, Ted Lasso Assistant Manager?

Ok. Having given it time to breathe, I thought episode 9 the best written episode of the season by a long chalk - although gutted to lose Mae - and only this, plus around half of episode 10, felt like Ted Lasso of old. The best scene in episode 10 was the Diamond Dogs scene with Alice asking to be The Cat People.

For me, there have been too many negatives and problems with this season.

Firstly, the show is called Ted Lasso but there were some episodes where he barely featured and there were very few scenes of him with Rebecca which were always the heart of the show. He rarely came out with anybody his little anecdotes to everyone, dispensing wisdom, which he always did previously; he's a life coach as much as a football coach.

Secondly, the writing just hasn't been as consistently good throughout. When it was good, it was great, but it didn't happen enough.

Thirdly, Waddingham overreacted at times and in the first couple of episodes didn't seem to have recaptured the Rebecca character.

Fourthly, Ullman was appalling. Way, way too broad.

Fifthly, too many scenes that were just two people. When there were scenes involving a group, they worked far better, there was more dynamism (hence The Diamond Dog scene and pub scenes working so much better, more interaction between characters).

On the plus side, Alice was a great creation, superbly played. While it's sad to lose Mae, they gave Annette Badland (always excellent) one helluva great episode and send off. Her scene with Higgins in the pub was one of the best of the season; Jeremy Swift is equally always superb but they should make more of Higgins. I liked the end with Ted opting to step back to spend more time with his son.

I think what bothered me through the whole series was that Ted seems fundamentally sad. He's spending loads of social time with his ex-wife who they tried to retcon into a nice person after all the stuff with the therapist. They never resolved his love life and/or who Beard was dating so I can only assume this has been left for a future storyline, but if this was it then his character arc feels very unfinished.

I read an interesting theory on reddit that the shares storyline was a bit meh at the end because it was meant to be Rupert coming onto the stage at the end having saved the club for Rebecca, but circumstances being what they are they had to change track at the last minute. Would make me sense if you're 'following your anger'.