General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"BETTER OFF TED" for worn out Scientists/Marketers and the Rest of Us:
I dunno' just sort of tired of Politics at this moment in time...and, thought I'd throw this out to you all...for a break.
Better Off Ted focuses on the protagonist, Ted Crisp (Jay Harrington), a single father and the well-respected and beloved head of a research and development department at the fictional, soulless conglomerate of Veridian Dynamics. Ted narrates the series' events by regularly breaking the fourth wall and directly addressing the audience as the show's on-camera narrator. Supporting characters include Ted's supervisor Veronica Palmer (Portia de Rossi), co-worker and love interest Linda Zwordling (Andrea Anders), his daughter Rose (Isabella Acres), and laboratory scientists Phillip Myman (Jonathan Slavin) and Lem Hewitt (Malcolm Barrett).
Plot
Better Off Ted revolves around the employees of a stereotypically evil company. The company, Veridian Dynamics, experiments on its employees, twists the truth, and will stop at nothing to achieve its goals. It has been mentioned that Veridian has swayed presidential elections, created killer pandas and robots, weaponized pumpkins, and that there are only three governments left in the world which are more powerful than Veridian. Although not promoted as such, and rarely the focus of storylines, the show's frequent references to futuristic technologies, killer robots, sentient computers, etc., places Better Off Ted at least partially in the science fiction genre.
Most of the characters are fully aware of Veridian's nature, and often try to manipulate the system in order to stop bad things from happening to them (and sometimes to mitigate the evil effects of some of Veridian's projects). They are also all susceptible to the potential rewards the company can offer despite the consequences of their actions, such as the company's attempt to hire Lem's mother, or the company's introduction of scented light bulbs with known flaws. Much of the comedy of the show comes from the characters' navigation of these morally ambiguous areas.
Jay Harrington, who plays Ted Crisp on the show, serves both as a main character and as an on-camera narrator.[10] Throughout the show, he breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to viewers, offering inside information and observations while the action continues around him. Another plot element involves the use of mock commercials for Veridian Dynamics, thematically related to individual episodes and placed at the end or beginning of actual commercial breaks in all but a couple of episodes.[10]
CHECK IT OUT ON "DU NETFLIX GROUP" for REVIEWS from Fellow DU'ers, HERE:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11432774
TDale313
(7,820 posts)Really clever, and really funny. Wish more people had found it when it was on the air.
mattclearing
(10,091 posts)A shame it didn't get to stick around. It might have thrived on cable.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)on MSM. And, in these gloomy, challenging times...it doesn't disappoint with lots of humor...for a feel good.