Better off Ted

Show: Better off Ted, ABC (2009-2010)
Streaming on: Netflix
Episodes: 26

Remember a few posts ago when I discussed the animated sitcom Dilbert? What if I told you that there was a workplace comedy that's essentially a live-action Dilbert?

Better off Ted is set in the evil corporation, Veridian Dynamics. This is a company that isn't agaisnt:

A) Cryogenically freezing employees
B) Building killer robots and pandas "in case of peaceful, government overthrow"
C) Manipulating global elections in it favor
D) Boasting in their commercials that it (Veridian) is so powerful that there are only "three governments left in the world" that can take down Veridian
E) Ordering male employees to receive vasectomies 

You get the idea.

The show focuses on Ted Crisp, the head of research and development department. Ted serves as  our narrator, often breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the camera to address us the viewers.

image via: abc.com

As a single father, Ted struggles balancing working for such a shady organization while still being a moral role model for his daughter. 

Another important character is Ted's superior, Veronica Palmer, played by Arrested Development's Portia de Rossi.  Veronica is an ambitious, competitive woman (Veronica secretly feeds her sister while she's asleep in order to remain the "thinner sibling.") 

Other characters include Phil and Lem, laboratory scientists who are essentially nerdy versions of The Simpson's Lenny and Carl, and Linda, who works in the experiment department. She and ted share a mutual attraction but don't act out on it due to Ted not wanting a second "office affair."

Thanks to its surreal, satirical setting and it's quirky cast of characters, Better off Ted is easily one of the most original comedies in the last decade.

Despite a ton of critical acclaim though, the show never broke out as a hit and was later cancelled. Thankfully it now has a second life on Netflix.

Also, each episode features an mock ad for Veridian Dynamics that spotlight their latest breakthrough, or works as a piece of propaganda for the company. Check this one below:

Happy Endings

Show: Happy Endings, ABC (2011-2013)
Episodes: 57


What would happen if, at the day of your wedding, your other half leaves you at the altar? How would this affect you and your friends? Should you all try to remain close together, or pick sides?

This is the dilemma that is raised in the pilot for Happy Endings, one of the most criminally underrated shows in history. 

When it first premiered, Happy Endings was negatively compared to buddy comedies such as How I Met Your Mother and Friends. However, as time went on, the show became a critical smash, appearing in several Top 10 lists for all the three seasons the show aired.

Plus, unlike other buddy comedies like How I Met Your Mother and Friends (which frankly, hasn't aged well) the characters here are people that you'd actually want to spend time with.

abc.com

First up, we have the ex-engaged couple Dave and Alex. Alex is a the ditzy member of the group while Dave is the self-appointed "cool guy" of the group, which amuses everyone since they don't consider him like that at all.

We also have Max, an uncultured, lazy, freeloading irresponsible gay man. Personally, the fact that Max displays such non-stereotypical qualities of a gay man is hilarious and practically groundbreaking. 

Gay men on TV are usually portrayed as rather feminine, so to see someone destroy every single one of those stereotypes (and have the rest of the gang be so cool with his sexuality) is refreshing. Also, the fact that the show's straight male characters are incredibly metrosexual makes him the straightest man in the group is hilarious. As one friend points out, he's "a straight guy who happens to like penises."

We also have married couple Brad and Jane who, despite being several years into their marriage, they're still in love and there's never in danger of their flame burning out. A refreshing thing to see since comedies usually depicts struggling marriages. Here, the humor comes from how insanely perfect Brad and Jane are together.

And finally, we have the  the ambitious, talented, but perpetually unlucky in love Penny, one of this decade's best characters in a comedy series. 

A third of the way into the show's first season, Happy Endings ditched its breakup storyline in favor of revolving the episodes around the characters dysfunctional adventures (the search for the perfect restaurant to host a birthday dinner, a kickball battle, a date with a guy who has the misfortune of having Hitler as a last name) and more. 

Thanks to these storylines, the show developed a fast-paced, witty tone that's reminiscent of such classic shows like 30 Rock, Scrubs and Arrested Development. 

Sadly, Happy Endings ended up getting cancelled at the end of its third season, a victim of ABC's erratic scheduling (the third season was rescheduled four times without any warning, causing viewership to plummet.) 

Even sadder, the show is only available on DVD, but have no fear!

This week, VH1 announced that they've bought the rights to the show, and will exclusively air it, starting with a series long marathon on New Year's Eve. Catch it then!

Below is a clip from a season 1 episode, in which Penny discovers she can speak fluent Italian when drunk.

Pushing Daisies

Show: Pushing Daisies, ABC (2007-2009)
Streaming on: thewb.com
Episodes: 22

Meet Ned.
He's a pie maker.
He also happens to have a Midas touch in which anything or anyone that's dead comes back to life.
He uses this gift to solve crimes with a PI.

That's the plot of Pushing Daisies, a fantastical police comedy that's the perfect definition of "whimsical."

The series, which is narrated by Jim Dale, is one of the most bizarre oddities to ever air on TV.

The best way to describe this show would be that it's an amusing mashup of the dreamy French film Amelie and Tim Burton. The show features such elaborate, fantasy-oriented sets and eye-popping visuals and dialogue that's fairy-tale like. Check out the image below to get an idea of what the show's like.

abc.com

The pilot kicks off when Ned attends the funeral of his childhood sweetheart, "Chuck." In a completely spontaneous move, Ned ends up resurrecting her, despite the consequences.

You see, whenever Ned brings someone to life with his touch, he can't touch that person again, because a second touch will bring about permanent death.

The couple have no choice but to have a hilariously chase love life in which they're both cursed to not even touch each other and distract themselves by solving cases.

It's a quirky TV show that truly is unlike anything ever seen on television and we've yet to see anything come close to matching it in terms of quality, quirkiness and uniqueness.

Despite strong critical acclaim and healthy averages in its first season, the show was cancelled in its second season due to dwindling viewership. This is often attributed to the nearly year-long wait between season 1 and two and a lack of promotion from ABC.

Thankfully, creator Bryan Fuller (the genius behind Dead Like Me, a brilliant workplace comedy about grim reapers, and NBC's Hannibal, the best drama on network TV) has plans of resurrecting the show via in comic book format or as a Broadway musical. I vote for the latter.

Below is a trailer for the show, just so that you can get an idea of the series.

American Horror Story: Asylum

Show: American Horror Story, FX (2012-2013)
Streaming on: Netflix
Episodes: 13 


Usually, this blog covers shows that are cancelled. American Horror Story is still airing.

However, I decided to write about this show because it's an anthology series, meaning that each season is a completely different setting and story with a new cast of characters.

Therefore, I'm writing about the show's second season, which is its best yet.

The first season, set in a haunted house, is incredibly uneven (though the fact that Dylan McDermott is usually naked makes up for it) and the third season, Coven, is incredibly underwhelming.

However, Asylum is all kinds of awesome. 

Asylum switches back-and-forth between the present day and 1964 at the Briarcliff Mental Institution. In 1964, a serial killer known as Bloody face is skinning women alive. During the investigations, reporter Lana Winters (Sara Paulson) ends up getting locked up at the asylum by the stern Sister Jude (Jessica Lange) over Winters' lesbianism.

As Lana tries to escape, we meet the rest of the characters like Kit, an inmate who is framed for Bloody Face's murders, Sister Mary Eunice, a saintly nun who ends up getting possessed by the Devil, and Dr. Arden, a possibly former Nazi scientist who is doing gross experiments on the inmates.

image via: fx.con

Despite a shaky start in which waaaaayyyyyy too much stuff happens (murders, alien abductions, etc.) 

the show evolves into a smart, confident, and ultimately scary attack on the nation's mental health institutions and how it treats its patients. And it does so with Nazis and aliens and a murderous Santa Clause, one flashy musical number and more.

This is a season in which we actually care about the characters and are legitimately terrified of their outcome. Also, the season provides some amazing sequences and visuals. The penultimate episode "Continuum", is a delirious episode from the point of view of a mentally insane character. the result is an almost hallucigenic, dreamlike episode that flashes back and forth between the past and present with such daring jump cuts and shocking twists that it makes the season worth watching.

My So-Called Life

Series: My So-Called Life, ABC (1994-1995)
Streaming on: Hulu and YouTube
Episodes: 19
Time it took to binge: Watched it during Black Friday instead of shopping

Meet Angela Chase (Claire Danes in her breakout role), a teenager starting her sophomore year of high school. Like the average teen, she's conflicted and uncertain about herself and wishes to forge her own identity. This leads to her dying her hair red, disobeying her parents, abandoning her old friends and hanging out with her rebellious classmate Rayanne Graff and gay outcast Rickie Vasquez.

image via: startkedwitch.com

Angela, who narrates the series, pines for bad boy Jordan Catalano (played by Jared Leto, so all the stupid things she does to get his attention is totally acceptable.) Unbeknownst to her, however, is that Brian, a childhood friend of hers is in love with her

Reading this, you're probably thinking that show is nothing more than a silly soap opera.
Yes, the show indulges in some soapy conventions, but it's so much more than that.

The show deals with several important issues, which range of self-esteem, homophobia, child abuse and homelessness. However, unlike other shows that do a horrible job of dealing with these issues via "a very special episode (looking at you Glee))that solve these problems with a happy ending at the end of the episode. My So-Called Life did just the opposite. These were issues that were there throughout the series and sometimes took episodes to find something close to a solution. Sometimes one wasn't found.

The show succeeds by treating all these issues and more with such depth and complexity that we realize why these issues are such a big deal for these teenagers that even something as dumb as a zit becomes a life-or-death situation.

It helps to that the characters, from Angela, her friends and her family, are such great characters that are totally reletable.

Of course, with a show that is at times so painful to watch, it shouldn't be such a surprise that the show received such low ratings (it aired at the same time as NBC's Friends and Mad About You.) However, according to some reports, and a 2004 article by Entertainment Weekly, ABC was willing to keep the show alive thanks to its devoted fanbase and critical acclaim (at 15, Claire Danes received a lead actress Emmy nomination, becoming the youngest woman to receive such an honor.)

So what led to the show's cancellation? Homework.

image via: ign.com

Reportedly, Danes and other cast members wanted to focus on their schoolwork and were having trouble balancing high school with filming, leading to them not being enthusiastic for a second season. The show was then cancelled, despite the fact that a huge online campaign popped up to save the show (the first time this happened in the history of television and the internet.)

Good thing then that the show is still being talked about nearly 20 years after cancellation, proving that it's stood the test of time as a classic television show.