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On Television |
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“Better Off Ted,” premieres March 18 at 8:30 p.m. on ABC |
 JAY HARRINGTON |
Is this the age of miracles?
of TheColumnists.com
I love comedies.
Good comedies. But they are hard to come by on television these
days. CBS’ “Big Bang Theory” is funny; NBC’s
“30 Rock” is funny. The CW’s “Everybody Hates
Chris” is funny. The rest? Skip ‘em.
Which brings me to what I think is a really, really funny new
comedy--“Better Off Ted.” I loved it! But now comes
a disclaimer, you, the viewer, are either going to love it or
hate it. There will be no in between with this show.
Ted (Jay Harrington) runs the research and development department
at Veridian Dynamics. Yes, it’s a workplace comedy, but
a workplace comedy like none before it. Products that Veridian
develops can be, to put it mildly, morally questionable: pumpkins
as Wads, cow's meat grown in test tubes, and cryogenically freezing
a researcher for testing purposes. And then there’s the
children’s day care center where the teacher’s motto
is: “molding children of today into workers of tomorrow.”
Hence, Ted isn’t surprised to see his office trash basket
being dumped by a youngster.
But back to Ted. He’s a semi-single dad (his wife has gone
off to save the world or something) with a cute, and wise-beyond-her-years
7-year-old daughter Rose (Isabella Acres). Ted has had his self-imposed
one office affair with his brilliant, tightly wound boss Veronica
(a very good Portia de Rossi), and now he finds himself attracted
to a new co-worker, Linda (Andrea Anders), who enjoys small acts
of rebellion against Veridian.
In the two episodes I have seen so far, the opening scene of
each features a “commercial” for Veridian. These are
worth viewing even if you don’t watch the whole show. Here
are two examples: As the narrator goes through her spiel about
Veridian’s greatness she says “....everything we do
makes your life better, usually.“ Uh-huh.
And then there’s an even funnier, yet twisted one: “[Veridian]
works for every member of your family--even the dead ones. And
we’re working to bring them back and copy them in case you
lose them again.”
Traditional comedy? Hardly.
For everyone. Not likely.
Funny. YES. But in a very, very twisted way.
©2009 by Donna J. Plesh. The photo is courtesy of ABC. This column first posted March 9, 2009.
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