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BETTER OFF TED |
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Ted Crisp - Jay Harrington Veronica Palmer - Portia Di Rossi Linda Zwordling - Andrea Anders Phil Myman - Jonathan Slavin Lem Hewitt - Malcolm Barrett Rose Crisp - Isabella Acres 
OTHER SEASONS Season 1 OTHER SCI FI COMEDIES Red Dwarf Quark Supernova No Heroics Hyperdrive 
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The Long And Winding High RoadTed and Pete's research teams have long been competing over rival projects and have resorted to all manner of underhanded tactics at doing each other down. The latest gizmo is a way of suspending children in mid-air for fun and Ted decides that it is time to end the cheating for good. Veronica and Linda don't agree and rope in Ted's daughter Rose to sabotage the testing. This episode was shown first in the UK run of second season episodes. It isn't one of the best, having a fairly straightforward storyline with no real innovation in it. Cleverness has been BETTER OFF TED's main weapon, trying to make up for the lack of actual jokes and this is very much a mid-season episode rather than a new season starter. The cast, however, remain on top form and it is they that keep the show going. TopThe Lawyer, The Lemur And The Little ListenerLem is having a passionate affair with one of the firm's lawyers only to find that the company is billing him for her time. Linda finds her children's character being used to sell beer to children in Asia and Ted and Veronica try to stave off redundancy using information gained from his daughter's creche. As the title suggests, there are three stories going on here and none of them crossover at any point, making the plotting more disjointed than before and, since the show is no funnier, this is more obvious. Lem and the lawyer is the funniest strand. TopBattle Of The BulbsTed's cherished long lasting lightbulb is nearing fruition when Linda comes up with the frivolous idea of scented lightbulbs. Veridian Dynamics drops Ted's project for her and whilst she is enjoying the corporate power that gives her, he worries that he is losing his touch. A more together episode in which the plots at least come together at some point, but this is the second week that the sex life of someone in Lem's family is part of the plot and there is an unwelcome edge of sentimentality about the resolution with his mother that a show like BETTER OFF TED cannot afford to have. TopIt's Nothing Business, It's Just PersonalVeronica's active social life with her boyfriend the magician is causing her work to suffer. Ted suggests to the man that he ought to allow Veronica to sleep at night occasionally, so the man decides to find other women to give her some time off, causing her to shoot him with a speargun. The plotting of this episode is a step up from the others this season, tighter and cleverer, though the number of outright laughs remains sadly low. Whilst Ted is wriggling at having to get involved in Veronica's private life and Linda dodges the blame, the scientists are being driven to distraction by the introduction of a new lab coat into their environment, a lab coat that is red and must mean something. The lab coat storyline is the cleverer and could certainly be seen as happening in the real world, but still doesn't manage to elicit much in the way of hilarity. TopThe Great RepressionLinda is accused of sexually harassing a colleague and when Ted tries to sort it out he gets accused as well. Veronica clears their names by getting the company to declare inappropriate sexual behaviour as a disease, meaning that nobody can be blamed for it. As her department melts down in a sea of lust, her previous tryst with Ted risks being repeated. The main plotline here is the kind of clever sideways thinking that is the cornerstone of the show and actually manages a few funny moments along the way for a change, but the support story of the two scientist trying to rebuild their spill-cleaning robot when it is replaced by a human janitor undermines everything by being neither funny nor clever. TopFlogging A Dead WorkforceWhen a generally disregarded employee called Jenkins dies at his desk during a period of late working to meet an impending deadline, Ted sees a need to get his workers to slow down and take care of themselves. Veronica sees it as an opportunity to get everyone to work even harder and ‘do it for Jenkins'. Apart from commenting on the way that everyone will suddenly remember good things about the dead and jump on the bandwagon of the recently departed and bemoaning the corporate way of exploiting just about everything for monetary gain, there is nothing here that stands out from the rest of the show. That said, Ted's triumphant walkout in front of a parade of applauding, admiring co-workers being interrupted by his daughter's need to go to the toilet is one of the few genuinely funny moments that the show has produced. TopChange We Can't Believe InWhilst Ted deals with a security guard who is so bored that he traps passing people in long, dull conversations, Veronica tries to get Phil and Lem to fix the pa system so that people don't keep evacuating the building because they can't understand what's being said. The BETTER OFF TED plots have always been its strongest asset, but this episode is just plain dull on just about every level. Top scientists fixing a pa system? Don't Veridian have electricians? Ted incapable of saying, ‘I'd love to talk, but I'm a bit busy this morning? Don't think so. This is thin and tired and just not funny. TopThe Impertence Of CommunicationalizingA typing error on an internal memo orders the staff of Veridian Dynamics to use offensive and rude language and, since the company refuses to acknowledge the mistake, they take to the new task with gusto. This is a one joke episode and the joke falls flat fairly early on as the insults that the characters use on each other really aren't that funny at the beginning, so by the end they are just plain tedious. This is thin and tired and just not funny. TopLove BlurtsA Veridian Dynamics programme in matching its employees with genetically matched suitors ends up with Ted pretending to be an indian after saying he loves his new girlfriend after sex on the first date and Linda dating a man who likes to dress as a bear and scare campers. There are some good lines in this episode, but the basic premise of the company matching up its employees really doesn't support the story. TopLust In TranslationVeridian Dynamics is trying to strike a deal with a German company and the main representative turns out to be gorgeous blonde with the hots for Ted. When the translator they use to talk to each turns out to have Phil's voice it has a dampening effect on Ted's ardour. The closest that the show has come to a truly funny episode, the set up of Ted and Greta talking through the truly impractical translator device is great and gets even better when they both try to talk dirty in Phil's voice. The supporting stories of Veronica needing to beat Linda at a truly stupid throw the bagel game and the scientist duo finally realising that everything they make turns out to be a weapon drag the fun level down. TopMess Of A SalesmanTed's brother comes into town, between jobs as usual. Ted sets him up as a salesman for the company that sells supplies to Veridian Dynamics. Before he knows it, Ted is having to explain the hundreds of lab beakers and one dead body that have been orderd by Phil and Lem. Eddie McLintock of WAREHOUSE 13 guest stars as Ted's brother and together they share the unfortunate habit of hitting each other in the testicles to display affection. This story, though, raises almost as few actual laughs as the supporting story of Linda and Veronica trying to raise money for a girls' charity. TopIt's My Party And I'll Cry If I Want ToTed and Veronica lie about their daughter and niece's liking for an executive's daughter in the attempt to land a prestige project whilst Lem and Phil's lie detector brings a few home truths out into the open. Well timed beeps from the lie detector prove to be funnier than the whole script in this penultimate episode of the season which is smartly plotted, as usual, but just not funny (as usual). TopSwag The DogWhilst a new productivity reward scheme runs amok, Ted has to reject Linda in order to prove a lack of favouritism and Veronica is forced to go on a treasure hunt with a previous CEO of the company threatened with being kicked off the board. More clever plotting and just as few jokes. When the highlight is the fact that the company belt buckles only carry the company's initials (VD) then you know that the show needs a new injection of comedy. Top |
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