Better Off Ted

This is a hilariously sarcastic show about the lack of morality in big business. It's about a guy named Ted who works in the research department for a huge corporation that does everything. The show looks at the struggle between big business objectives, and human morality... and how the two sometimes have trouble connecting. It plays with the idea that 'there is no right or wrong in business, only success or failure'.

It's a situational comedy, so each episode deals with some issue that may have moral weight, like race, or family, the value of an employee as a person, and the episode will centre around a product that the company wants to test. For example, in the first episode the company wants to test whether the technology for cryogenic freezing is ready for human testing, so they decide to freeze one of the scientists who work in the lab. They go ahead and freeze him, but then three days later an accident in moving causes him to thaw out and he thereafter makes this piercing howl unconsciously. Ted's boss then wants to fire him, but also doesn't want him to sue the company for freezing him. There's also another funny bit where Ted tells the scientists to created an office chair out of this very uncomfortable material. They're able to do it, but it's a very uncomfortable chair to sit in, and they discover that discomfort actually helps with productivity because people are too uncomfortable to daydream or waste time at work. Each episode has a funny invention that, though maybe making the corporation more successful, is actually worse for humanity/ the environment/ etc.

The two women in Ted's life are his boss, Veronica, and Linda, one of the testers who sometimes plays the role of the 'conscience' of the company to Ted. He has complicated relationships with both of these women. Veronica is hilarious. She completely embodies the morality of the company and seems to have to human emotion or sense of moral right and wrong. She is one of the aspects of the show that makes it worth the watch. The two scientists are also funny. They have an almost husband and wife relationship in that they're always bickering and fighting, but need each other to be successful. They're too academic to really fit into the business world, and so are almost as funny as Veronica in their failure to connect with 'humanity'.

The show was cancelled, with only two seasons made... but don't let that fool you if this has slipped under your radar. It is hilarious, and worth the watch.