TV

“Better Off Ted” a Comedy Ripe for the Times

Americans don’t have a great track record of embracing sophisticated deadpan comedies.

But during depressing economic times, there are two things Americans want to do most (besides feed their families and keep their homes): laugh, and confirm their suspicions that large corporations are evil.

ABC’s new satirical workplace comedy Better Off Ted accomplishes both – which is why it might actually survive.

Created by Victor Fresco (Andy Richter Controls the Universe) Better Off Ted stars Jay Harrington (Private Practice) as Ted, a moral man working in the R&D department of an immoral company, Veridian Dynamics. Out actress Portia de Rossi (Arrested Development) is his morality-free boss, Veronica, Andrea Anders (The Class) is his co-worker and love interest, Linda, and and Malcolm Barrett (My Best Friend’s Girl) and out actor Jonathan Slavin (Race to Witch Mountain) round out the cast as Lem and Phil, respectively, two of the lab’s bickering, disgruntled scientists.

Ted draws from the same awkward-humor well that shows like Arrested Development and The Office do, but is more fast-paced, and more over-the-top, which might help it draw a bigger audience.

At Veridian Dynamics – a company that makes everything from food products to bioweapons – employees are used as test subjects, the daycare center is used as a labor pool, and private phone calls are tracked and reported just so employees know the company is watching them.

“Can a company be bitchy?” Linda asks, as millions of Americans who have worked for large corporations shake their head yes. (Linda’s revenge against the company? Stealing creamer.)

Ted asks Linda to create an intentionally uncomfortable chair, cryogenically freezes Phil, and brainstorms ways to weaponize pumpkins. (Why? Because, Veronica informs him, “there’s a country with whom we do business that grows a great deal of pumpkins, who would welcome additional uses for them. As well as cheaper ways to kill their enemies.”)

As always with shows like this, the devil is in the details, the writing, and the timing, and Better Off Ted has all three down almost perfectly – from the fake Veridian Dynamic commercials and Ted’s monologues to the camera, to Veronica dropping in and out to deliver marching orders and Phil and Lem bickering as over minutia like office lunch etiquette and who gets to wear the hazmat suit during a biohazard drill.

The acting is strong across the board. Although this is Ted’s show, de Rossi shines as Veronica, a smart, accomplished woman who takes everything too literally and too seriously. She’s like a cross between Ally McBeal‘s Nell, Arrested Development’s Lindsay, and Star Trek‘s Seven of Nine.

In a recruitment video, for example, Veronica encourages potential employees to apply for jobs with Veridian Dynamics because, “we’re working every day to make the world a better place – at least, the parts of the world we care about.”

In the second episode, when Veronica takes care of Ted’s 7-year-old daughter Rose for the day, she gives the bored girl a copy of The Art of War to read. When Rose protests, “I don’t want to read this,” Veronica tells her seriously, “Trust me, your enemies are reading it.”

Then she teaches Rose how to fire people.

Linda is a stand-out character, too. Anders and the writers give her just enough edge to make her more than just the cute co-worker Ted has a crush on.

The writing in Ted is excellent overall, with more funny one-liners and social and political commentary than you can catch in a single viewing, particularly coming from Veronica and Linda. “Money before people,” Veronica intones, repeating the company motto. “It’s engraved right there in the lobby floor. It just looks more heroic in Latin.”

What really saves this show from being as soulless as Veridian Dynamics is the hint of sweetness beneath the satire – in Ted’s relationship with his daughter, for example, and in his flirtation with Linda. Even Veronica becomes likeable in her own way, as we see her encouraging young Rose to express confidence when she fires people.

The storylines are also nicely balanced between the absurd (weaponized pumpkins) and the ordinary (office romances, getting along with co-workers).

Will all of this be enough to keep the attention of an American public that has generally indicated a preference for comedies that are less nuanced?

Maybe. I hope so.

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button