Better Off Ted Review

Fresco built a satire on one very good idea, that a research division would pursue any project, however monstrous, as long as the paperwork was in order. Episodes about a motion sensor that cannot detect black employees or a cryogenically frozen colleague are played entirely straight, and the flatness of the corporate voice is the joke. Portia de Rossi is the standout, delivering sociopathic management speak with a total absence of self awareness that makes her the funniest thing in every scene she is given.

Jay Harrington's narration to camera keeps the tone light enough that the cruelty stays funny, and Malcolm Barrett and Jonathan Slavin work as a two man engine for the show's best runs. The fake advertisements between acts are better than most sketch writing. It was made for almost no money, shot and lit like every other network comedy of its year, and the plotting rarely does more than deliver a premise. Twenty six episodes exist. That is the honest limit on how much can be claimed for it.