People-Skinning Laser

I recently finished watching, in a psychotic two-day spree, the entirety of Better Off Ted, a recently (and sadly) canceled ABC sitcom. I've been meaning to watch it for a while; Victor Fresno, the creator and executive producer, was also responsible for one of my all-time favorite sitcoms, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, and Ted clearly follows in a similar vein.

The office setting is the same, both Andy and Ted working in an enormous global corporation that makes, among other random consumer products, death-machines for the military. CJ has referred to it as a “cyberpunk office sitcom,” and the nature of the company certainly lends to that. One of my favorite lines comes from Phil, a research scientist, accusing his lab partner of using science for evil and reminding him that “we took an oath we would try to do that less.” Another line features a member of the hallowed upper-management jokingly stating that he's "going back to do more evil," in front of a very accurate lie detector, to no effect.

Instead of Andy's position as a schlubby technical manual writer with aspirations of being a writer, Ted is a capable, happy, attractive, middle manager (and single father!) perfectly content with his position as the head of a successful R&D department. This was a ballsy choice on behalf of Fresno – Ted clearly has his faults, but he's more of an ideal modern man than a remotely relatable character. Fortunately, that aspect isn't entirely forgotten and simply shuffled off onto his quirky-yet-not-annoyingly-so product tester Linda, who a both moral misgivings about working for a company which cryogenically freezes its employees and weaponizes pumpkins. She also has a obvious and vocal attraction to Ted, the nature of which creates the necessary Sam-and-Diane part of the show.

Mirroring Andy's Jessica, the cold, logical superior, Veronica, is played by Portia de Rossi, who has clearly devoted her acting career to humanizing (and sexualizing) otherwise unlikable female characters. The interaction between her and her team, no matter the moral or corporate conflicts, is that of genuine camaraderie, which was one of my favorite parts of Andy. Unlike The Office and disregarding mandates from upper management, it's the main characters against the world, and everyone looking out for one another.

The series' two breakout characters are Dr. Philip Myman (played by Jonathan Slavin, Andy's nearly-identical character Byron Togler) and Dr. Lem Hewitt, the scientists on Ted's R&D squad. They're socially maladjusted geniuses, and much of the comedy comes from their unique brand of brotherhood set against the diehard corporate culture. They deify both Ted and Veronica, while working hard to please the former and being abjectly terrified of the latter.

Both seasons are up on Netflix Instant Watch right now and may eventually come back to the Hulu page.

Related posts:

1. Where The People Are Entertaining
2. The Continental CPA