Better Off Ted is really growing on me. I enjoyed it when it first aired, but I wasn’t super impressed with it. The more of it I watch, though, and the more I find myself laughing. I’m not sure if it’s me or the show, but I feel like it’s found its stride and is genuinely clever and funny. It was unique from day one, and continues to be.
This week was no different, after all is there any other word that you can use to describe a show that features the shaving of office furniture? It is definitely unique.
This week’s episode featured father issues. Really, there were enough father issues in this episode that I thought I was watching Lost for a minute. Most of the action this week focused on Veronica trying to figure out her relationship with her father after learning that he only had a year to live, and Ted trying to use a new hair growth formula to make his father proud of him. I thought both storylines were effective.
Veronica is a fun character, and I was a little torn about learning about her family. It almost would have been nicer to never learn anything about where she came from. With her being so odd and business-minded, I think it would have been appropriate for her personal life to remain a complete mystery. With that being said, though, I enjoyed seeing her interact with her dad.
It was nice to see Rose back on the show this week. I was beginning to get concerned that the brains behind Better Off Ted were trying to push her into the background. While that may be a good idea on a lot of shows featuring children, I think Rose is pretty cute and gives Ted another dimension outside of the office.
Finally, I notice this every week and have never written about it, but Better Off Ted is one of the best looking shows on television. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but the colors always look amazing, and cinematography is always impeccable. I really think it looks almost as good as Mad Men, and that’s saying something. Has anyone else noticed this?
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Jul 21, 2009 @ 21:46 EST5EDT
This is my new favorite comedy, but I loved it from the first episode. Like you, though, it continues to grow on me, but the fact that it’s unique worries me because it seems like those are the shows that get the axe. Even my teenage daughter, who is in that stage where she seems to hate everything the rest of the family likes sits down with us to laugh at Ted. So, for me the show has an extra bit of goodness that brings my family, aloof teenager and all, together for at least a little while.
I’m sorry to waste space with a useless comment, but I’m trying the addition of a custom avatar. Apparently, my name was already taken and gravatar doesn’t allow upper-case letters, so I’m trying this to see if it works. If so, I guess I’m “lennyb9″ from now on!
Okay, must’ve misunderstood something. That’s the problem with staying up late, being stupid and having a computer. Looks like Lenny gets the B9 robot after all. Danger!
Thank you, Keith, for all the help.
Just started watching the show in HD, and it really does pop. It’s a shame that only the SD version is on iTunes.
I don’t think it’s the color scheme so much as the strong delineations of black, white and gray. This is especially apparent in Phil & Lem’s lab and Veronica’s office. Ted’s home seems much more colorful in contrast, although it’s actually pretty muted. The jaunty music certainly helps invigorate every scene; maybe that’s it.
Yup, noticed that too, and the reason behind it is the idea behind the show – it’s a commercial for the company, Veridian Dynamics, which sports ad campaigns that are squeaky clean and full off nameless people-robots who are the most beautiful you can imagine and the most generic you can think of. Just look around on the show, even at the protagonists homes there are endless amounts of clear surfaces, large areas of same color, few set pieces, almost no plants.
The rest of the show _has_ to look that way, otherwise it would feel off. It’s another reason the show is “perfect”.
It’s also a reason why it comes across as the next “Arrested Development” because on that show everything was perfectly designed as a model home. Also almost no decorations, no pictures on the walls, everything uniform.
Gawd this comment was a bitch to write, same reason why I wasn’t able to write about BoT at all even though I wanted. I lack the right words to describe this show correctly. You simply have to see it for yourself. It rocks.
Oh and sidenote: “The first time it aired” sounds as if there are currently only reruns, which is not exactly true. They air 6 new episodes this summer after they only aired 7 during the second half of the regular winter season, and mix it with reruns when it’s necessary (for instance when Michael Jackson died)
You’re totally right about the set design on both shows. Of course, in comparison to Better Off Ted space-age aerodynamic lines, everything on Arrested Development, from the model home to Bluth Construction to Tabitha’s penthouse looked either shoddily-made or well out of date, in keeping with the story of the family’s fall from grace. You had to love Michael’s monochrome computer monitor and dot matrix printer, and how fixtures at the Iraq home would fall off for no reason at exactly the right moment.
The use of color/cinematography reminds me a lot of Pushing Daisies. Certainly for a different effect, but overall same technique. In BoT the surroundings are generally so monochromatic then using especially bold colors (often in Ted or Linda’s wardrobe) to set it apart, giving the contrast of The Company vs. The People. Daisies however used an overload of color to give that fantastical effect.
As for Veronica, while I do feel it would have been great to leave her family life as an enigma, thats been done before, a lot. It definitely provides some great uncharted territory to explore the human elements of this robotic character. Although, I’m not gonna lie, I would have loved it if they left her family as a running gag, only giving us crazy mysterious tidbits here and there (ex. “I used to feed my sister in her sleep to make sure she was fatter than me”)
*POST AUTHOR*
I have to say I just don’t see many similarities between Ted and AD, aside from Portia Di Rossi. I think they have very different tones, and the episode structuring and running jokes on Ted can’t hold a candle to the brilliance of AD.
The only show on these days that I would even think about comparing to AD would be 30 Rock. I think the comedy is similar on both shows: wacky, larger than life characters, one (mostly) sane character trying to keep all the crazies in line to keep the business running.
I just don’t see it with Ted, but I do like the show.
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