TMC
03-19-2022, 05:16 AM
https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/better-off-ted-streaming-where-to-watch/
The Apple TV+ series "is an eerie, prestige-y update to what my basic cultural literacy understands to be a well-established dark office satire formula—that is, framing modern office work as a kind of imprisonment within a windowless, dehumanizing box in which blatantly meaningless tasks are performed for the merciless satisfaction of a blonde, power-hungry corporate ice queen," says Alexis Gunderson. "But it also owes something to one of its more ambitious (and equally bleak) forebears: ABC’s cult-favorite 'horrible corporate' sitcom, Better Off Ted (https://www.primetimer.com/shows/better-off-ted)," which aired for two seasons from 2009 to 2010. Gunderson adds: '"Created by Victor Fresco and starring Jay Harrington, Portia de Rossi, Andrea Anders, Jonathan Slavin, Malcolm Barrett, and Isabella Acres, Better Off Ted focused on the same question Severance (https://www.primetimer.com/shows/severance) has made so central to its identity ('who are we when we’re at work, and does that person even count as a person?') but ran it through the quirky single camera sitcom lens. Full of bright colors, an irritatingly catchy jingle-adjacent soundtrack, and the kind of hammy performances you find more often in theatrical productions than on network comedies, Better Off Ted made the existential horror of losing yourself inside a soulless corporate behemoth, well, fun."
The Apple TV+ series "is an eerie, prestige-y update to what my basic cultural literacy understands to be a well-established dark office satire formula—that is, framing modern office work as a kind of imprisonment within a windowless, dehumanizing box in which blatantly meaningless tasks are performed for the merciless satisfaction of a blonde, power-hungry corporate ice queen," says Alexis Gunderson. "But it also owes something to one of its more ambitious (and equally bleak) forebears: ABC’s cult-favorite 'horrible corporate' sitcom, Better Off Ted (https://www.primetimer.com/shows/better-off-ted)," which aired for two seasons from 2009 to 2010. Gunderson adds: '"Created by Victor Fresco and starring Jay Harrington, Portia de Rossi, Andrea Anders, Jonathan Slavin, Malcolm Barrett, and Isabella Acres, Better Off Ted focused on the same question Severance (https://www.primetimer.com/shows/severance) has made so central to its identity ('who are we when we’re at work, and does that person even count as a person?') but ran it through the quirky single camera sitcom lens. Full of bright colors, an irritatingly catchy jingle-adjacent soundtrack, and the kind of hammy performances you find more often in theatrical productions than on network comedies, Better Off Ted made the existential horror of losing yourself inside a soulless corporate behemoth, well, fun."