When The Office brought cubicles back to sitcom prominence in 2005, it put a warm and fuzzy spin on life in the workplace. Now, ABC's new sitcom, Better Off Ted (Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m.), is covering the same territory, only with a much darker twist.
Focusing on the day-to-day life of a corporate manager and his rationalization of unethical decisions, Ted employs pithy writing and edgy satire to shed a sinister light on modern corporations. Starring Jay Harrington as the title character, Ted derives its humour from the plight of a corporate drone.
Five reasons why I liked the first episode of Better Off Ted:
1. This show has the perfect villain.
Veridian Dynamics is an unscrupulous multinational corporation that provides an all-purpose antagonist of unspecified evil. It's good for a show's longevity to have an unbeatable bad guy.
2. It boasts a marketable star like Portia De Rossi, most memorably of Arrested Development, Ally McBeal, and her wedding to Ellen.
3. Ted Crisp is a genuinely unique and interesting protagonist.
He's an unfeeling boss, an unapologetic corporate soldier, and a man who ponders the great questions of our time, like this one:
"Is it wrong to invent a deadly pumpkin - or an irritating chair that makes people work harder?"
Yet, as the single parent to a young daughter, Ted has a practical reason for being evil. So it's safe to like him - a little.
4. Andrea Anders finally got cast onto another network sitcom, this time as Ted's fiery love interest, Linda. It took her nearly five years to remove the stink of being on Joey.
Like Ted, Linda also enjoys vocalizing life's big questions:
"Do you know they send us the phone bills for our non-work related phone calls? They don't charge us for them. They just want us to know they know we're making them. Can a company be bitchy?"
Better Off Ted has the potential to be a smarter, darker version of The Office, and it may be TV's most satirical depiction of the corporate workplace yet. The Office is almost tripe by comparison.
Andrea Anders is getting a second chance on Better Off Ted.
