TV Review: ‘Better Off Ted’ Could Be Worse But Far From Best

BrianTT — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:57:11 -0600

Television Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – In a landscape of increasingly lower ratings for quirky TV comedy (talk to the producers of “Scrubs” if you don’t believe me), I’m kind of amazed that “Better Off Ted” made it to the air. If “Arrested Development” and everything Andy Richter has ever tried couldn’t find an audience, who thought people would be attracted to this left-of-center workplace sitcom? And the fact that it doesn’t live up to the potential of its concept means the show’s thin chance of survival just disappeared.

Jay Harrington plays the “title character” of one of the most poorly-named shows in the history of television, Ted, a worker in research and development at a massive conglomerate named Veridian. Ted works with the vicious Veronica (Portia de Rossi ), sweet love interest Linda (Andrea Anders), and scientist scene-stealers Phil (Jonathan Slavin) and Lem (Malcolm Barrett). Like Jason Bateman on “AD,” Harrington’s Ted is the straight man of “Better Off Ted,” the nice guy surrounded by general chaos, quick editing, and tons of narration.

The cast of Better Off Ted.
Photo credit: ABC

What does the company that Ted works for do? Everything. In the first episode, after trying to find a heat-resistant mouse (tune in to see if it’s “computer” or “live”), the team moves to trying to freeze a human being. Poor Phil draws the short straw, suffers some odd side effects, and faces termination.

In the second-and-superior episode, a series of false alarms have forced the company to consider terminating the procedure of putting on hazmat suits every time because of the working hours lost. Of course, they’re not real concerned about workers not having suits on if the false alarm rings true. Ted also brings his precocious daughter to work and she bonds with Linda.

“Better Off Ted” has a decent concept - sort of a “Dilbert” for a new age or an “Office” with a twist - but the execution ranges from so-so to bad. There’s far too much narration by Harrington (the first seven minutes of the first episode are nearly nothing but) and too many of the jokes hit the floor. It doesn’t help that Harrington and Anders have yet to develop the chemistry to give the workplace romance heat (although Ted does have an easy-going repartee with his daughter, who plays a bigger role in the vastly superior second episode next week), leaving the show without anyone to care about. In “AD” terms, there’s no George Michael.

Better Off Ted.
Photo credit: ABC

Barrett and Slavin are fun, Anders is beautiful and charming (she’s been wasted in bad comedy before on “Joey” and “The Class”) and there are a few clever quips, but “Better Off Ted” suffers from a common problem in satirical comedy - too much winking at the audience. “Ted” thinks its smart, clever, and brilliant and it may be at times, but it’s just not consistently funny and too often telegraphs how highly it thinks of itself. De Rossi’s heartless gig is already tired after two episodes, the office romance feels inevitable, and the promising concept hasn’t been well-executed.

The creator of “Better Off Ted” also made the similar-but-superior “Andy Richter Controls the Universe,” which is finally coming out on DVD next week, but that show had critical raves and couldn’t find an audience. It’s hard to believe that this inferior version with the low-rated lead-in of the plummeting “Scrubs” will be around long enough for audiences to find it. “Better Off Ted” needed a bit more research and development of its own.

‘Better Off Ted,’ which airs on ABC, debuts on March 18th, 2009 at 7:30PM CST. It stars Jay Harrington, Portia de Rossi, Andrea Anders, Jonathan Slavin, and Malcolm Barrett. It was created by Victor Fresco.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Blu-Ray Review: ‘Burn After Reading’ Hilarious Movie, Horrible Blu-Ray

BrianTT — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:23:27 -0700

CHICAGO – It’s impossible for a critic to thoroughly defend something he finds funny but fully realizes that a large majority of the audience may not. Sometimes a film just hits your funny bone in right way. “Burn After Reading” does so for me, but may not for audiences without a little bit of a mean streak.

Fitting snugly into the Coen Brothers’ resume of slightly-demented comedies, “Burn After Reading” disappointed audiences expecting “No Country For Old Men 2”, but like “Raising Arizona”, “The Hudsucker Proxy”, and “The Big Lebowski”, should have an extensive life on the home market.

Every time the Coens have made a “serious” movie, they’ve followed it with a lark of a comedy. “Arizona” came after “Blood Simple”, “Hudsucker” followed “Barton Fink”, and “Lebowski” was an odd choice after “Fargo”. They’ve all thrown audiences for a loop. It happened again with “Burn After Reading”, a dark, vicious comedy about people who think they understand espionage because they’ve seen a lot of spy movies. The Coens have often been accused of making fun of their characters and I’ve usually defended them as laughing with their lead. Not this time. They’re laughing at these morons.

The morons in question include an all-star cast headed by Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, J.K. Simmons, and John Malkovich. The entire ensemble is clearly having a blast and it’s infectious. Some critics were upset at not being able to find the deeper meaning in a story about a disc of government secrets that makes its way into the hands of some stupid fitness experts. Guess what? There is no deeper meaning. That’s the point. Just have fun with “Burn After Reading”.

Perhaps Universal knows they have an eventual cult hit and held back the special features for an inevitable special edition but that kind of double-dipping is getting really old. Universal has been consistently releasing the most comprehensive and well organized Blu-Rays of the season, so we’ll forgive “Burn After Reading” as the exception. Special features? Three lonely featurettes - “Finding the Burn”, “DC Insiders Run Amuck”, and “Welcome Back, George” - don’t really qualify as “special”, especially considering they run less than twenty minutes COMBINED.

“Burn After Reading” does include Universal’s BD-Live functionality that allows viewers to cut their favorite scenes and send them but this common addition doesn’t really qualify as a special feature. It’s really just bookmarking with an internet connection.

Technically, “Burn After Reading” looks and sounds great with a 1080p HD Widescreen transfer in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and an audio track an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Both the video and audio won’t be used to show off new home theaters, but are also never distracting.

Universal clearly intended the Blu-Ray release of “Burn After Reading” to be a rental. If they wanted more purchases, they would have put more effort into the special features. Luckily, the movie itself is funny enough to make the dearth of bonuses easier to overlook.

‘Burn After Reading’ is released by Universal Home Video and stars Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, John Malkovich, J.K. Simmons, David Rasche, and Richard Jenkins. It was released on December 21st, 2008.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Comedy

TV Review: ‘Better Off Ted’ Could Be Worse But Far From Best

Blu-Ray Review: ‘Burn After Reading’ Hilarious Movie, Horrible Blu-Ray