The first season
of Better Off Ted brings the show’s
first 13 episodes on a two disc set.
If you’re not familiar with the
show, Ted Crisp (Jay Harrington) is
the head of R&D at Viridian
Dynamics. A huge corporation that’s
a little evil and generally
heartless. The show follows his
weekly duties for Viridian as his
team of quirky scientists move from
project to project including
meatless cows and solar-powered
ovens. The general dilemmas that Ted
faces with his job are hilarious and
really make the show.
Where the show
suffers a little bit is the
portrayal of Ted’s personal life.
He’s a single Dad as well as being
the head of R&D, and his daughter
Rose is cute as a button. And I get
why she’s in the show- it’s to show
the dynamic between the innocence of
a child and the sometimes evil
nature of a corporation making
money… but him being a single Dad is
setup horribly and it would have
been a better show without him
having a child. Which is more
intriguing… a man with a moral
conscience because he has to have
one because he has a child or a man
with a moral conscience because he
generally has a moral conscience?
Even with that
problem the show is still a great
show and pokes fun at corporate life
in an intensely funny way. It’s
funny to follow Ted through an
absurd project and all of the
supporting characters in the show
are mostly well set-up and easy to
follow in side stories. Better Off
Ted is a show that’s both funny and
original and if you’re a fan of TV
on DVD then this will be a good
pickup for you.
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