Last night’s premiere of ABC’s new half-hour comedy Better off Ted was a great showcase for what the network does best: shiny, high-concept fare with spot-on casting and clever scripts. The show takes place at a comically vague company called Viridian Dynamics (a cross between GE and Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory) where a charismatic R&D wiz (Jay Harrington) and his pathologically blunt boss (Portia de Rossi) work on projects like edible steel and pumpkin weapons.
Sounds cute, right? It is — but that’s the problem, too. With its bouncy make-believe world, and pathos-free characters, Ted has more than a little of the canned whimsy that occasionally overpowered past ABC shows like Pushing Daisies and Eli Stone — and we all know what happened to them.
Click here to check out Ken Tucker’s full review of the show in this week’s issue, and then let us know what you think: Is Ted a hit in the making, or would you be better off without it?
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I enjoyed it. It reminded me of ’30 Rock’ a little bit.
“Last night’s premiere of ABC’s new half-hour comedy Better off Ted was a great showcase for what the network does best: shiny, high-concept fare with spot-on casting and clever scripts.”
…before cancelling said promising shows in their first or second seasons.
Aw, I missed it! Poop!
I thought it was awesome. I’ll be watching esp since it comes on after Lost. Eli Stone wasn’t as smart as this show seems to be in regards to dialogue. It was fantasy, but grounded in a soap opera law firm story line. But I think the comparison to Pushing Daisies is sound. I think though that Better Off Ted is more cynical and grounded in familiar ideas: corporate america is bad! immoral! your place of work is hell! The bit where the company sent a memo detailing your personal calls but not charging–and then the worker character asking if a company could be “b itchy?” good stuff that A LOT of ppl relate to. I think Pushing Daisies didn’t relate enough to people. It seemed too out there (although I loved the show!)
As much as I wanted to like this show…I found myself getting bored with it. I couldn’t quite jump on board with any of the characters, and the child having more ethics than the adult? Hello, been done before..in just about any romantic comedy.
The show has promise but is trying to hard to be clever. The musical soundtrack is ridiculous (cue zany 30 Rock/Arrested Development x 100) and Jay Harrington is giving us his best George Clooney-in-a-comedy acting. The speaking to the camera doesn’t work. Portia de Rossi and Andrea Anders are great –just the perfect note of dryness. Despite being a cliche, the daughter had some of the funniest lines. The scientist supporting characters are run of the mill wacky. I’ll give it a few more episodes.
My wife and I really enjoyed it last night, fun character, great dialogue and just the right balance of weirdness. Of course, we were big fans of the Andy Richter show also. But about three quarters of the way through I turned to her and said that since it was funny, quirky, and more than a bit off the wall ABC would flush it down the tubes as soon as possible (yes, we’re still VERY bitter about Push Daisies). But hey, we’ll just enjoy it while we can.
I liked it. It was a little too whimsical, much like PD – but I think that’s partly because these creators are trying to drive the point home right away. PD got much better in the second season when they dialed down the cutesyness – just one more reason I wish ABC had given it a little more time
I think Better Off Ted will find its groove.
It was okay, not great. The whole time I was distracted thinking how much better it would be with Mimi Rogers in the Portia de Rossi role. If you watched The Loop (a really good show gone too soon) you’ll probably know what I mean. Did enjoy Andrea Anders though.
I wanted to like it more than I really did… I will give it the rest of the run to make my decision (but ABC will cancel it first).
I hated it. I thought it tried too hard to be quirky. Ted’s cute, but the rest of the show, blah.
Plus I really hated watching that guy being frozen. The whole concept made me very uneasy.
Wanted to love it and then ended up turning it off after 10 minutes.
I liked it. Especially the stuff about the uncomfortable chair and Phil being frozen. I laughed the first time he “Caw”‘ed in the meeting room. The second time wasn’t quite as funny and I’m a little worried about it being a running joke in future episodes, but overall, I like the show’s clever tone. Jay Harrington’s Ted is the everyman hero while Portia de Rossi plays the cold boss card to a tee. In a way, it reminded me of another ABC workplace comedy: The Drew Carey Show, which had a company in its mythos called DrugCo, the company that Lewis worked for and reminded me of Veridian Dynamics. Also had shades of Mad Men in the show, at least, that’s how I saw it.
I tuned this show in because I was eager to like it. After ten minuets I hated it. I really wanted to like it. I will not watch this show again. This show will hit the waste bin before five episodes.