Mom City

The episode was directed by Declan Lowney and written by series co-creator Joe Kelly from a story by co-creators and main stars Brendan Hunt and Jason Sudeikis. This was Lowney's seventh directing credit, Kelly's ninth writing credit, Hunt's seventh writing credit, and Sudeikis' seventh writing credit.[1]

The episode featured an appearance by Pep Guardiola, Manchester City F.C.'s real-life coach, playing himself.[2]

"Mom City" received generally positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 88% approval rating for the episode, based on eight reviews.[3]

Manuel Betancourt of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "B" and wrote, "'Mom City' has bits and pieces of a killer Ted Lasso episode. But it has just as many of its many foibles. As a penultimate episode, it works perfectly to begin tying up many of its season-long (if not outright series-long) arcs all the while setting up what may be on the horizon in next week's finale episode." Betancourt also noted several references to The Wizard of Oz in the episode, suggesting they allude to Ted's desire to return home.[4] Rick Porter of The Hollywood Reporter was not convinced of Nate's arc, but praised Beard's conversation, "an effective enough speech to patch over some of the missing pieces in Nate's arc."[5]

Keith Phipps of Vulture gave the episode a 3 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Beard's learned the importance of forgiveness firsthand and offers it to Nate, who accepts it, and a job. One gentle head-butt later, they're friends again. And with that, Ted Lasso is positioned to bring the season (both the football season and this season of television) to an end."[6] Paul Dailly of TV Fanatic gave the episode a perfect 5 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "It's no secret that I've struggled with the longer episodes this season, but 'Mom City' didn't waste a single minute. It was a perfect episode of TV and might be my favorite episode of the series."[7]

Christopher Orr of The New York Times wrote, "When 'Man City' came out last season, it was the longest Lasso episode to date, at 45 minutes. 'Mom City' puts that number to shame, clocking in at one hour and nine minutes (the show's latest longest run time). Yet in contrast to several episodes this season, the extended length is spent not hopping among unrelated subplots but developing a relatively uniform theme."[8] Fletcher Peters of The Daily Beast wrote, "'Mom City' feels like far from the second-to-last episode of a beloved show, devoid of any grand gestures or character departures. In fact, it's quite the opposite: This episode proves that Ted Lasso can and should carry on without Ted. It's just the beginning for Roy, Nate (though the writers have a lot to work on with him), Rebecca, and Jamie in a post-Ted landscape."[9] Meghan O'Keefe of Decider wrote, "The divinely kind Ted Lasso might have the grace to forgive Nate his sins, but Ted Lasso didn't quite do enough to redeem him in the eyes of us crabby viewers at home."[10]

"Mom City" was chosen by Dunster to support his 2023 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.[11] In addition, Becky Ann Baker was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.[12]