Great, but no "Andy..." Better Off Ted is a sitcom centered in an office of a heartless company- Veridian Dynamics. Most of the episodes are narrated by the titular character- Ted, portrayed by Jay Harrington in "High Fidelity" style. The only reason I started watching Better Off Ted is because it came from the same mind that brought us "Andy Richter Controls the Universe", a genius sitcom, that sadly got prematurely cancelled. And while "Ted" is a good TV show, and it's definitely better than most of what passes as comedy these days on TV (The Office, season 9 of Scrubs- I'm looking at you), it didn't live up to it's predecessor. But enough Ted-bashing, let's review the thing, Pro-Con style:
Pros: Cast (For the Most part- more on that later).Lem, Phil, Veronica- these three character are the highlights of the whole series. They are what Fonzie was to Happy Days. The two geeky scientists portrayed by Jonathan Slavin and Malcolm Barrett provide great laughs and get most of the better story lines, like when they realise that most of the things they invent are used to murder people. Portia de Rossi, mostly know for playing Lindsay Bluth on Arrested Development, out-shines every cast-member as Veridian's middle management- Veronica. She delivers her lines with perfect comedic timing and nails the heartless company executive persona. Titular Ted although gets plenty of laugh-out-loud hilarious lines, but Jay Harrington mostly shines when he's a straight man for above characters. Ted's daughter- Rose, is pretty good too, at least she's not a too-smart-for-her-age kid that is usually present in sitcoms.
Great story lines- when it came to them this show was pretty original, and through that - funny. Highlights include office motion detectors not detecting black people and Veridians tactic of using the death of an employee that no one knew to motivate it's employees to work ("FOR JENKINS!"- Veronica screams, channeling Braveheart).
Spoof commercials- it's hard not too laugh at the little commercials of fictional company Veridian Dynamics. The mixture of Portal's GLaDOS with stock footage and music is a highlight of almost every episode ("Veridian Dynamics - Don't cross us. Ever. Seriously. Just don't.").
Cons:
Andrea Anders- this lady almost ruined the show for me. She's better off in regular sitcoms, not in a fast paced comedy like this one. On her own, she sucks, but because the actress is backed in most of the story lines by more competent cast members (like when she pairs up with Veronica, or with guest-starring Taye Diggs), she's almost bearable, and funny on rare occasions. She's also a part of another of this show's problem, which is...
A shoehorned "will they or won't they" storyline- from the get go, the show is trying to sell us the chemistry between Ted and Linda, which doesn't work in the slightest. Not only is this show forcefully keeping them apart (Ted having a limit of one office romance, Linda getting a boyfriend to make Ted jealous, but then staying with him), but the actors have no chemistry whatsoever. Harrington is excellent, and probably would do excellent work with an actress more competent, but Anders usually wrecks the scenes where Ted and Linda are talking to each-other. It's less like Ross and Rachel, and more like Michael and Rita (look them up!).
Overall Better Off Ted is an excellent TV show, even though it wasn't perfect, it's still a shame that it was cancelled. Given enough time it sure would attract a more sizable audience, which while not being extremely big, it would be loyal and enough to warrant the series new seasons.