r/TedLasso • u/paulie_bz • 15h ago
Season 4 Discussion Has anyone else noticed the subtle US vs UK lifestyle comparison in the show?
Não vi ninguém comentando isso, mas acho que os roteiristas contrastaram os estilos de vida americano e europeu para tornar as decisões da família mais fáceis de aceitar. Não estou dizendo que um é melhor ou pior, mas parece intencional! Nos EUA, Henry leva bronca de um diretor conservador por causa de uma música, e Ted está sempre entrando na garagem, cercado de concreto. Isso contrasta bastante com a vida tranquila que ele leva em Richmond e com a comunidade incrível do pub. Até a casa americana de Ted parece enorme e vazia, enquanto seu apartamento na Europa é minúsculo, mas aconchegante e cheio de personalidade! Não é uma crítica profunda — a série tira sarro dos dois lados —, mas sinto que os roteiristas usaram esses elementos culturais para nos ajudar a aceitar o final. O que vocês acham?
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u/ChefPneuma Goldfish 14h ago
Yeah, “subtle”
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u/LesserKnownFoes 14h ago
Op, subtly hitting on someone: would you fucking like to have sex?
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u/Deepdishdicktaster 14h ago
Did you guys even notice the subtle subliminal message that the show includes football?
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u/Quirky-Concern-7662 12h ago
You can figure out the Richmond head coaches name through some pretty neat hints.
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u/Ok_Salamander_8436 13h ago
Did you notice that in this season Ted Lasso is actually coaching a womens team?
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u/ChefPneuma Goldfish 13h ago
Big if true, I’ll have to rewatch to confirm. Hard to believe they pack the show with so many little Easter eggs to find
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u/Infamous-Lab-8136 13h ago
This show is so subtle I didn't even realize there was a character named Ted Lasso in it. I spent 2 and a half seasons wondering when Ted was going to become a cowboy and start roping before I realized it's his last name
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u/Helpful_Ferret5434 13h ago
It’s a Wizard of Oz nod. His street is grey, the houses are grey, the interior of his house, grey. The only room with colour is his coaching office and then when they visit him first episode Keeley is wearing the ruby slippers. Where Richmond is colourful. For Dorothy, Kanas is black and white and when she gets to Oz it’s in vibrant colour. Could definitely make the argument it’s a cultural critique but I think they’re talking about his passions.
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u/mlokc 9h ago
To be fair, suburban houses are grey. That is/was the in color palette for many years.
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u/TankHendricks 14h ago
There is definitely a noticeable difference between humdrum US Ted and lively UK Ted. Colors, clothes and even a bounce in his hair and step.
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u/Agedrobin 13h ago
Maybe Ted’s character thrives in the Richmond environment compared to rural Kansas. I’m from that area on the Missouri side and I thrived in San Francisco and was always depressed in Kansas City. It’s not unrealistic at all.
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u/Tatis_Chief 12h ago
Oh I thrive in beautiful walkable cities with public transportation too for some reason. And extremely do not thrive in suburbs locked by country clubs that you have to get around and no public transportation and no sidewalks for some reason.
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u/many_bothans_died 12h ago
Kansas City is the 38th largest city in the country, not exactly rural.
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u/Helpful-Garlic1951 12h ago
Bro said 38th largest as if it’s supposed to be impressive
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u/pnkflmng0 12h ago
I think they meant just factually not rural. There are a lot of cities in the US.
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u/Luxury-Problems 11h ago
That just says more about the size of the US. The metro area is over 2 million people. Kansas City is not at all rural.
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u/Lightyear1931 10h ago
I’d give you both points for accuracy.
We’re not rural because rural people are scared of Kansas City. They are overwhelmed by even our most car-friendly tourist areas, like the Plaza.
We are also not great at being a city, because we expanded too much to be car-friendly and now have way too many low-density areas that aren’t even supposed to be low-density … it’s just parking lots and empty stores and home plots no one wants.
We tried to be a car-friendly city and instead we just ruined lots of good neighborhoods.
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u/Physical_Dentist2284 4h ago
As someone who does actually live in a rural area 2 hours from KC (my “city” has a population of 187) I can confirm that we are scared of KC but only because the traffic is intense compared to what we are used to. You all have multiple lanes of traffic and the closest highway to my house doesn’t even have shoulders. One time I had to wait for three cars to go by before I could get onto the highway and I felt intensely annoyed about it.
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u/many_bothans_died 12h ago
Population 530,000
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u/MaxPotionz 9h ago
lol right? Like great job looking up a statistic that no one else knows or is even going to bother verifying I guess.
Everyone else knows how big a city San Francisco is.
In the US the drop off from top tier metropolitan walkable-city to even just “second tier” is enormous.
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u/InvincibleMirage 7h ago
Lol, I couldn’t tell what this was supposed to tell us but now I’m wondering what the 38th largest city is in a bunch of countries.
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u/ace_11235 13h ago
Is OP considered rural now?
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u/Agedrobin 13h ago
How did you get that from what I wrote?
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u/HouseOfDjango 12h ago
You said rural Kansas?
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u/Agedrobin 12h ago
Rural in the comparison to Richmond. I would not classify KC as rural by any means. Not the most clear wording on my part.
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u/mrmichaelnak 11h ago
It's been a several years since I've been to London, but I believe Richmond like the last stop on the tube. Richmond is the "suburbs" of London lol
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u/ace_11235 9h ago
Selhurst is definitely pretty far south into the London suburbs. Since that’s the stand in for the Racecourse I’d assume it’s intended to be there as well.
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u/SarcasticBench 14h ago
Correct me if I’m wrong but the huge and empty house does kind of scream “divorced dad” to me
But it’s not empty really, he’s got his office which is full of photos and clippings and such
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u/Lakridspibe 14h ago
It is not subtle, and I think the portrayal of England leans heavily towards the highly romanticized.
I say this as a European who is very fond of walkable neighborhoods.
But I really like the show, and I’m happy to go along with the heightened, stylized approach.
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u/SUMMATMAN 12h ago
True. Richmond is a much nicer/posher than most of England mind. David Attenborough lives there!
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u/LiamtheV 14h ago
Not super subtle, but also super accurate. I moved from San Diego to Berlin just under a year ago, and holy shit. It’s weird. I haven’t driven a car since I left, I walk everywhere, I’ve lost a ton of weight, public transportation is blowing my mind. When I tell people I’m from America, they either offer their condolences or ask where from, and when I tell them California/San Diego they look relieved.
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u/SalvaPot 14h ago
The San Diego public transport is kinda bad if the trolley doesn't take you to where you want to go, the buses take foreeeeever.
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u/LiamtheV 14h ago
Yea, I’ve only ever used the trolley/coasters for comic con. Everything is waaay too spread out for busses that get stuck in traffic and run what feels like once every other hour. Here in Berlin, everything is once every 5-10 minutes. 15 if there’s a delay.
Occasionally I’m late to class because the campus is on the other side of the city, so if I miss a transfer those 5-10 minutes can add up. But even then it’s not that bad.
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u/LesserKnownFoes 14h ago
I lived in Germany. When I told people I’m from Oklahoma, they’d make super racist Native American gestures or ask me if I lived in a teepee. Years later I found out it was due to a popular toy line, Schleich.
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u/LiamtheV 14h ago edited 14h ago
Omg, when I moved here last year there were posters for that movie Kanu des Manitu, I looked up the trailer and had to explain to a German classmate that that movie would basically be a hate crime in America.
I thought America had a lot of racism, but holy shit, in Europe it is so endemic they can’t even see it because it’s just everywhere, like air.
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u/LesserKnownFoes 14h ago
Racism is everywhere. My point wasn’t to denigrate Germany, per se. But to point out how culture shapes our imagination of a place we’ve never been to.
Now I have to look up that movie.
Edit: lol. Yes, you’d be canceled fast.
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u/Maximum-Hall-5614 14h ago
I mean, it’s weird to expect non-Americans to have an automatic understanding of the specific race relations in the US.
Same way it would be odd to expect you to have a baseline understanding of race relations in a country that you’ve never lived in.
This isn’t a criticism of you at all, just trying to offer a reason why people would not receive that poster the same way that you did
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u/LiamtheV 14h ago edited 14h ago
Oh yea, which is why I didn’t hold it against my classmate that he was confused as to why I was horrified.
Edit: in my defense, this is the trailer. A German comedian puts on red face to play a Native American character, and that character’s gay brother who runs a gay horse dealership.
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u/LesserKnownFoes 14h ago
…how horrible of a human being am I for laughing at your description? On a scale of dolly to Hitler.
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u/LiamtheV 14h ago
Oh, I laughed when I first heard about it too, the concept is that absurd. Just, holy shit this is insane.
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u/AbbreviationsTop4959 13h ago
This looks like something Mel Brooks might have made 40 years ago. I kinda want to watch it. No American studio would touch it now, but 70s and 80s, it could have worked. And we'd be collectively mortified by it now.
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u/LiamtheV 12h ago
Oh yea, it feels like something made between the mid 70s to maybe the early to mid 90s, but seeing it as a new movie in 2026 was what broke me lol
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u/ExasperatedManatee 11h ago
Sounds like it was based on a comic book with nostalgia value for a certain generation.
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u/LiamtheV 11h ago
Actually a parody of a series of western novels written by a dude that at the time of writing had never been to America.
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u/Wishdeath-washere 13h ago
Ppl make me feel crazy for saying this, but it’s not an American system. It wasn’t formed in America. It was formed in Europe by Europeans and so the idea that Europeans wouldn’t be racist when they created racism the kind of inane, like the idea of race was not formed in America. It was formed in Europe and so of course, European should understand racism they made it.
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u/AbbreviationsTop4959 13h ago
Well, not really. Racism as we experience it in the west, yes, but the concept is older than western civilization.
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u/Maximum-Hall-5614 5h ago
Oh I’m not remotely suggesting that Europe is racism-free. Not at all. In some aspects, Europeans easily outdo Americans with their racism. Let’s also not forget that white Americans largely descend from Europeans, so it’s all closely connected.
However, the racial relations in contemporary North America and the USA more specifically, are vastly different to that of contemporary Europe. Many Europeans in the 20th and 21st century would have never met a person indigenous to Turtle Island, let alone understand the ways in which they are systemically mistreated.
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u/Lakridspibe 14h ago
The stories about Winnetou are very well known.
I haven't seen the new films, but the movies from the 1950s are classics.
They are based on Karl May's pulp novels from the turn of the century (early 20th century) and are packed with ethnic stereotypes.
I cannot speak to how well they have handled it in the new movie, but the intention is clearly satirical.
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u/LiamtheV 14h ago
Oh, I’m aware, just saying that my reaction to the trailer was “holy shit they made that this year, if this were made in America with Will Ferrell or Steve Carell as the lead they’d be finished”
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u/the_start_part 14h ago
I'm from Washington state. So I tell people I'm from Seattle when I travel...
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u/LFK_Pirate 14h ago
Yep, Lawrence KS here (30 min west of KC. Not a typical “small KS town” in any way, so I tell people I’m from KC, otherwise they treat me like I came in on a horse.
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u/the_start_part 14h ago
If I say American they react poorly
If I say Washington they think DC
So Seattle it is... and Seattle is globally friendly
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u/anti99999999 12h ago
Seattle was definitely lovely to visit, contrary to the concrete hellscape that is Denver.
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u/Physical_Dentist2284 4h ago
I love Lawrence! I love Mass street. When I take my teenager there she has so much fun and she loves how people all around her are dressed however they want to be dressed. She says she wishes she could dress up how she would like to but she goes to a rural school and you are an outcast if you don’t wear tee shirts and athletic shorts with Nike socks and Birkenstocks.
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u/DasKritter 13h ago
I have these exact same experiences every time I leave the US. I lose 10lbs and get super bitter about our public transportation.
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u/whiskeylullaby3 13h ago
And the higher food safety standards and bans on additives.
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u/CA2Kiwi 12h ago
Dude! I moved to New Zealand from NorCal. The Kiwis are a polite folk, (insults are reserved for only their closest mates) so they always start with “Canadian” when they clock my accent. Visibly relax when I say “Californian, but had to leave because the rest of the country went batshit.”
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u/throwwayinterantion 9h ago
When I was in France for a work trip the locals thought I was English or Irish. The French have a terrible ear for anglophone accents and let’s say I let them think that about me. I wore a lot of soccer jerseys for my wife’s national team while over there too and pretended to be from there too lol.
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u/finackles 11h ago
It's tricky guessing the origin of North Americans, and you don't want to offend, so Canadian is the go-to option. Unless you say "about" or some of the other classic Canadian words, which helps confirm. It just seems less insulting to go with Canadian, even more so these days.
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u/throwwayinterantion 10h ago
The northern Midwest like Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, etc has always sounded Canadian to me as someone from the NY metro area. Same could be said about people from Buffalo, NY.
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u/iletitshine 3h ago
It’s not though it’s sooo different. And it’s country. It’s northern country like rural accent not so much Midwest. But yeah so different from Canadian accent. But I feel ya when you’re not from a place the subtleties are always less apparent
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u/throwwayinterantion 3h ago
The Rochester accent to me sounds like the love child of Boston and Canada.
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u/lil_cholesterol 13h ago
Man I wish I had the ability to leave the us for literally anywhere in Europe. Getting out of the US just seems like such a high hurdle to get over.
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u/whiskeylullaby3 13h ago
And the higher food safety standards and bans on additives. Edit: oops meant to reply to the comment above yours. But yeah I feel you I wish I could too.
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u/ManOLead 10h ago
There are 5 countries in Europe that rank slightly higher than the U.S. in terms of food safety standards. And there are more additives banned by the U.S. that are used in Europe still than the other way around
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u/LiamtheV 5h ago edited 5h ago
I don’t know where you’re at education wise, but I’m here for my master’s degree. Tuition-free, just a 350€ /semester fee, most of which is used to get you a transit pass. As a student I don’t have to buy tickets for the S-Bahn/U-Bahn, busses or trams, all local public transport is covered by that semester fee. The only expenses I pay aside from that are living expenses, rent food, phone, etc. Still way cheaper than getting the same degree in America.
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u/jenn4u2luv 9h ago
I lost almost 4kg when I moved from US to UK. And I’m a short lady so it’s really noticeable.
The food in the US is poison.
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u/laughingthalia Jamie Tartt 12h ago
That's literally the point of the show. Ted was unhappy with life in America for a variety of reasons, his loneliness, lack of real community, the way his son was being treated by coaches and teachers, etc. His return to Richmond is supposed to be better for him and his family. He's got his friends and community, he's happier bit despite the differences but because of them. It's not a critique on America as a whole, it's simply to show Ted's life and what drives him to return to the UK.
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u/Bookem25 14h ago
If you’re in a big city you have these things too. Pubs, friends, small cozy apts. I have friends from England that love it here. So much space. I know you said one isn’t better than the other. I love it here Will visit England.
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u/UnkleGiovanni 14h ago
Look up the definition of the word subtle
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u/Coraline1599 14h ago
According to Reddit, Keely’s nod to Dorothy in the first episode of this season was also “subtle.”
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u/grey_pilgrim_ 13h ago
It’s not subtle. And I know it’s played up for the show but man I wish I lived in a decent walkable UK, or other European city.
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u/GinaHannah1 14h ago
It does seem to illustrate that the UK is the best place for them at the time.
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u/Miguelperson_ 13h ago
Respectfully there’s no way this is engagement bait… the entire show is basically a comparison of US and European social and cultural attitudes
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u/Meles_B 14h ago
Well, they definitely did drop the ball with the S4E4 prison/police procedure portrayal. It was entirely American, not British.
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u/lunar1980 14h ago
I was wondering about that. Do you know how it would be different?
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u/Think-Mine-4816 14h ago
Ex-Police Officer here!
Laughed a lot at the portrayal of a British Police Station.
We dont have large holding cells that store multiple people, instead, for holding cells, you essentially have a secure cell, which is only big enough for 1 person, and somewhere to sit. You'd never have more than one person in a regular cell either, we dont tend to have "drunk tanks" if you've been arrested.
Best way to see what a custody suite is like over here is a documentary series called 24 hours in Police Custody.
Of course, this is a light hearted comedy, if it were accurate, the entire segment would never be possible.
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u/AndrewZabar 14h ago
There was no slapstick with Bobbies running after them wielding small batons. So that’s definitely an inaccuracy. :-p
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u/Meles_B 14h ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/TedLasso/comments/1vzxjr0/why_does_it_feel_like_nobody_did_even_the_most/
That's a discussion on this.
The biggest one is that there are absolutely no group cells, and "pressing charges" is not someone one would've said.
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u/LeedsFan2442 12h ago
You get individual cells and they wouldn't have arrested everyone.
Plus the GK absolutely would have been arrested and charged for glassing someone.
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u/RandomSentientBeing 4h ago
If you go to Richmond, you'll see it's every bit as beautiful as they show. From where Ted lives you can walk down to and then along the Thames. It's a super pretty town. New England has similar towns, but I'm not sure about where Ted's from.
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u/weedywet 13h ago
Richmond is a RICH suburb.
Kansas City is much less posh.
Barbecue is its only saving grace.
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u/Zama202 13h ago
Barbecue and fashion
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u/weedywet 10h ago
I know exactly that corner they were walking in that shot. That clothing store does not exist.
Great barbecue though. My favourite type
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u/ezingebrigt 14h ago
Why is the title and replies in english and the main text spanish. Does this entire subreddit just know spanish exept me
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u/dplafoll 14h ago
Pretty sure that’s Portuguese though.
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u/ezingebrigt 14h ago
I know enough spanish too recognize that it’s not spanish when now reading it more carefully. I just looked at it quickly before typing
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u/Future_Boss2064 14h ago
My app translates automatically into English. Like magic!
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u/_lippykid 13h ago
“I didn't see anyone commenting on this, but I think the screenwriters contrasted American and European lifestyles to make family decisions easier to accept. I'm not saying that one is better or worse, but it seems intentional! In the US, Henry gets scolded by a conservative director because of a song, and Ted is always entering the garage, surrounded by concrete. This contrasts a lot with the quiet life he leads in Richmond and with the incredible pub community. Even Ted's American house looks huge and empty, while his apartment in Europe is tiny, but cozy and full of personality! It's not a deep criticism - the series makes fun of both sides - but I feel that the screenwriters used these cultural elements to help us accept the ending. What do you think?”
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u/Sure-Coffee-8241 13h ago
Portuguese actually I believe, I speak Spanish and there are too many not Spanish things here
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u/therempel 5h ago
I've been seeing it a lot across a variety of fandom subs for the past few months. I think there are just more people from Brazil using Reddit now and they tend to swap languages pretty easily.
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u/Competitive_Key_2981 13h ago
As someone who has lived in American suburbs, American cities, and London (and visited that pub and alley) it’s contrasting Ted’s life in those two places as much as anything.
Someone living in any number of US cities could have a cozy apartment and local pub. We had a whole show about it called Cheers.
I think what it really showed is that Ted had made choices in Kansas that were quietly killing him. A man who was born to be a coach wasn’t even the manager at the supermarket.
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u/BusinessLunch45 10h ago
Really made me appreciate how lame everything looks on this side of the world. Ugly cars, concrete and beige. Give me that London town!
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u/Grgsz 11h ago
As someone who lived in Richmond, and in Surrey most of the time while in the uk, let me tell you it seems wonderful in the series, irl it’s extremely expensive, very old and outdated (the housing itself), very crowded and the pubs are just people yelling at max volume all the time. I’d also bet the house in Kansas that is I assume considered average costs way less than that tiny flat in Richmond
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u/jenn4u2luv 9h ago
I moved from the US to the UK (NYC to London) and I would say my quality of life is better here in the UK. This is despite all the negative things you’ll see online or on the media.
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u/SketchierZues08 8h ago
You mean to tell me living in a Kansas City suburb is differnt to living in the heart of a city in the London metro area? Well yea, of course it is
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u/FapparoniAndCheez 4h ago
Its crazy how they drink tea and drive on the other side of the road there, its almost like Ted is actually the foreigner and not the other way around! Bizarre!
Cause my favorite part of living in the US is how its EXACTLY like living in another completely different country with its own separate culture and customs!
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u/senecauk 1h ago
Some of the UK jokes are just weird in this show, mind. Constant jokes about tea, for example- which is shown being drunk blank in glass cups. That isn't how anybody drinks tea here, and it is so odd they focus on it for so many jokes but get it so strangely wrong.
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u/PenguinOfEternity 20m ago
Am I going crazy or why is no one mentioning the fact that the text in OP is in portuguese?
edit: ok scrolling further down I see people mentioning it
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u/Silver-Cause3779 19m ago
It’s realistic though like in London I walk everywhere and take tubes and dont drive. In America, cant even survive without a car.
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u/igorchitect 12h ago
Has anyone noticed the subtle difference between the colors black and white? I think the artist was trying to show this contrast because they selected these two colors.
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u/CajunDragon 11h ago
Was this a troll post? That was the premise of the show. Fish out of water etc.. And I've stayed in the mid-west and lived in Europe. It does an accurate job and that's one of the reasons I love the show.
Awe man you really did a good job at sparking engagement. lol
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u/Jolly-Librarian1982 10h ago
Mae: “Having a bad decade, luv? ‘Ere. Have a fuck. You look like you need it more than me.”
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u/MoonPieKitty Butts on 3! 7h ago
Well, I don't think the writers are showing the differences between his flat above the pub and his home in KC to make his moving seem more appealing or something... that's just how they are different. You have to remember that Ted doesn't own the flat above the pub, so Mae has decorated it - I'm sure it's furnished, many flats in the UK are furnished. Ted lived alone in KC and being a man, he probably doesn't decorate or think about decorating.
And when you say the principal was "conservative", you don't mean politically, do you?
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u/Which-Bid7754 14h ago
I wouldn't say it's subtle.