Hey gang, I’m going to be on Better Off Ted duty for the rest of what is likely the show’s final season, and I couldn’t be more psyched. I was pretty skeptical when I first started watching the show, given ABC’s poor marketing, but over the course of its first season, Ted turned into one of my favorite comedies. Its absurdist whimsy and lightning pace remind me of Arrested Development and, if it isn’t quite on that level, it is never less than hilarious and, at times, inspired (I think ABC is missing a big opportunity by not putting it on after Modern Family, although by programming an hour with the two most direct and competent Arrested Development clones, you’d probably be risking creating a ratings paradox that would result in the first time in history a major network had 0 viewers). Better Off Ted also reflects a relatively common TV paradox, which I’ve arbitrarily decided to name Great Episode Syndrome. When a TV show creates an episode as great as “Racial Sensitivity,” people tend to evaluate everything else it does against that one episode, which causes the rest to look unfairly poor in retrospect. I think subsequent episodes of the show may have gotten an unfair rap among fans and critics for not living up to the manic brilliance of that one episode.
But enough soapboxing, how about this week’s episode, which I’m going to ironically say is good, but not quite great. “The Lawyer, the Lemur, and the Little Listener” is all about the importance of having something that’s yours. No one likes to be totally defined by their job, especially if said job is anything like the ones at Veridian, but its not exactly in the company’s best interest to give its workers’ said personal lives.
Linda learns this the hard way, when she finds out that Veridian can control anything its employees create, including her decidedly non-sciencey children’s book, starting Phil as a lemur. To avoid detection, she feigns illness (“I need to go home for a few days and use the bathroom”), but has writer’s block until Phil comes over and helps find a happy ending for his little lemur. But, in a pretty inspired twist, Linda’s publisher turns out to be every bit as evil as Veridian, using her character to sell beer to children in Japan (where, Veronica longingly points out, companies can shoot their employees in the street). So, in perhaps the episode’s sharpest bit of satire, Linda has to beg Veronica to let Veridian take control of the lemur (“say it with me, ‘the glorious company’”).
Meanwhile, Lem strikes up a relationship with a Veridian lawyer/Jessica Simpson-lookalike (he would have introduced Phil to her, but his tongue was a little busy). However, Veridian bills its employees for all hours spent with the lawyers, even the pantless ones (“we haven’t been doing anything legal,” protests Lem), turning her into, essentially, a prostitute for the company. So, even though the idea kind of turns them both on for a while, Lem has to break it off for the sake of his paycheck.
And, as for Ted, Veridian, more specifically Veronica, starts cutting into his time with Rose when it turns out that she is getting a lot of insider information regarding the company’s impending round of layoffs in her day care. They use the information to save a man’s job in a meeting about the company’s amusing hushaboom technology (“war just keeps getting better.”) But things take a dark turn when something Rose overhears causes an innocent man to have a run in with Veridian’s CTU-esque firing troupe. Despite Veronica’s enthusiasm to continue getting information from Rose (“Everyone wakes up for pizza. Or candy. Or a signed picture of Zac Efron.”), Ted calls it off.
All in all, this episode wasn’t quite as funny as last week’s, although it definitely had a lot going on thematically. The satire was sharp, but more in a thoughtful way than a laugh-out-loud way. That said, Portia de Rossi was easily the highlight (“People always like to get their picture taken with me. Like a sunset.”) and I’m hard pressed to think of another sitcom airing right now that I enjoy as much as this one.
Jonah’s Score: 76
Tangled Up in Wires Grade: B+
Michael
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