What I'm Watching: Better Off Ted

Better Off Ted: Season 2, Episodes 6 & 7 “Beating A Dead Workforce” & “Change We Can’t Believe In” (B+)

Two episodes of this show in one night is definitely a fantastic gift for the new year. Of course it means that the season will be over all the sooner (to make way for the return of “Lost” in the 9pm timeslot), but it should be great while it lasts. The first episode was full of terrific laughs, and the second wasn’t too shabby either. I enjoy Veronica’s relationship with Ted, and the banal way they interact. When Ted rounded the corner and spotted Veronica, her response of “you’re always coming to me with a problem” was hilarious and truly fitting for their dynamic. Her subsequent rant about praising her like a celebrity pop star was a little weird but still fun. Ted’s attempts to find a kindly counterpart to the horror of Stephen King with Stephen the Clown and a poorly-conceived effort to put Steven Seagal into that category were great. All of Veronica’s lines were spot-on, especially “he may not have been alive when we hired him” as the company’s defense for the employee’s untimely death. I laughed out loud at her inability to comprehend his name while announcing it, unwilling to toss out the Carl in his name despite the fact that it was Gordon Jenkins, no Carl. Other memorable quotes from Veronica in the first episode include: “this cartoon resonates with my experience of office life, but through a comical lens,” “the future is a cake which may never come,” and the whole “the moment is gone…savor it…it’s gone” manipulation of a rather violent Andrea. The second installment was enjoyable in the way that it allowed unprecedented interaction between Phil, Lem, and Veronica and her ill-fated efforts to separate them into two people so that she would only have to deal with one of them ever. Seeing how people find Ted and Andrea obnoxious is always a plus too.