Better Off Ted - best new comedy I've seen in a long time
I love
Better Off Ted. I know there’s only been four episodes, and it’s sometimes hard to judge a show off the first four episodes, but I think this show is incredible.
The show is about life at Veridian Dynamics, a completely immoral research and development company. The main characters are Ted, the head of R&D, Veronica, his boss, Lem and Phil, two of the research scientists, and Linda, the head tester.
Veronica is played by Portia de Rossi, who I absolutely loved in Arrested Development, and who does an incredible job as the immoral and insensitive boss. In one episode, she has Ted’s eight year old daughter fire people for her.
Lem and Phil are comedy gold. In the first episode, Phil was cryogenically frozen, and then accidentally thawed out too soon. The side effect of this was that Phil would emit high pitched screeching noises at random intervals. The company, via Veronica, said this was most likely due to an old football injury.
Phil acts as the show’s narrator and he plays the straight man who ties all the stories together. The only thing I don’t really like is that the only reason Linda’s character seems to exist is to create a love triangle between herself, Ted and Veronica, and I don’t like that very cliche plot device.
I loved the last episode. The company installed new motion sensors to open doors, turn on lights and water fountains, etc. Essentially, to run anything electronic. The only problem is that the sensors didn’t see black people. The company’s solution to this was to hire white people to accompany them places, turning things on for them, with hilarious results. Also, the phrase ‘penisly speaking’ was used.
If you’re not tuning in to Better Off Ted, I think you should totally check it out. Or download it. It is a smart comedy, and I think it has a lot of potential. Portia de Rossi is incredible, and Lem and Phil have a great antagonistic chemistry.
I’m not the type of person who laughs out loud at anything, but when I watch this show at work on my lunch breaks, my coworkers are constantly wondering what’s so funny. I’m not sure if I like this show more than 30 Rock, but it’s definitely in the same league.
I know that his name is Brian Austin Green, but he will always be 90210 guy to me.
In other TV news, I’m a little sad that
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles will be without Derek Reese from now on. I guess the magic hotness juice doesn’t protect your from bullets to the head ten minutes into an episode.
The Magic Hotness Juice reference comes from a conversation I had with Courtney about how pretty of a man 90210 guy has become, shortly before his death episode. Essentially, it was something along these lines:
Me: Man 90210 guy sure is pretty
Court: Yes. I wonder what he drank to turn him so hot.
Me: And I wonder where I can get some. We should totally market that. Magic hotness juice.
Then we spent a while discussing exactly what ingredients should be in the magic hotness juice, and it was decided that booze should certainly be involved, but that’s as far as we got.
Also, I’m concerned that Terminator is going to start sucking now that Riley, Jessie, Derek and Charley are all dead, and Sarah is in jail, leaving Cameron and EmoBoy John Connor all alone in a world that’s trying to destroy them with John Henry stuck in the basement playing with Legos and wondering why humans don’t have more ball and socket joints.
Here’s hoping there’s some Terminator ass kicking this week. I’ve missed that stuff a bit lately. Also, I hope Ellison grows a pair and realizes that Shirley Manson is a bad guy with a wonderful accent and crazy green eyes.
