Better Off Ted

A very funny comedy.

Better Off Ted is certainly the most original sitcom to come along in a while.

It's the clever satire for which we've all been waiting.

Set in the offices of Veridian Dynamics, a behemoth conglomerate, this single-camera, laugh-track-free comedy is the funniest show ABC has birthed in quite some time.

Better Off Ted may be a little too right for comfort about the work many of us do and the lives we live. But it's also funny.

Better Off Ted is more funny than not, rushing into absurdity with abandon and playing at stylized comedy in a completely fearless way. The pacing doesn't allow for regret.

Ted, like most such single-camera sitcoms, is just too mannered and cold, though warming signs do appear in later episodes. Happily, despite its flaws, it's well-cast and reasonably entertaining.

The new ABC show is significantly better than its corny title promises.

Better Off Ted is funny, it's just not as funny as it might be, or should be, or, with any luck, will be.

A funny, fast-paced and rather refreshing new ABC sitcom that looks at contemporary office life in much the same way as the comic strip "Dilbert."

If it isn't pure gold, it still has bright, shiny moments--and unlike so much of what's on TV these days, it's much more likely to make you laugh than cry.

At its best, Better Off Ted is like some of the better new comedies on NBC and CBS, shows that blend mordant satire with odd, endearing characters that viewers want to keep watching. Ms. Anders in particular is a very funny, appealing actress who makes even dull patches of dialogue amusing; Mr. Slavin and Mr. Barrett bring comic heft to their small roles.

For the seven of you who remember "Andy Richter," Better Off Ted isn't quite as good--in part because star Jay Harrington isn't as innately funny as Richter (and he's mainly used as a straight man), and also because Fresco ditched the fantasy scenes that were often the most memorable part of the earlier series--but it's still a breath of fresh air in the present stale environment for TV comedy, as well as an accidentally timely show.

Honestly, it's a complete oddball with some charm and a few good lines.

Better Off Ted, which feels more devoted to establishing its cool than earning some laughs, is hardly so bad to deserve a bleh from halfway-discerning viewers. Eh or meh would be closer to the mark.

So thus far, anyway, it's a promising concept inconsistently executed, and perhaps a trifle miscast.

NBC has some good workplace comedies, most notably "30 Rock" and "The Office." If you do watch Better Off Ted, there’s a good chance you’ll find yourself comparing the ABC program to those two shows and finding Ted wanting.

Watching Better Off Ted is a bit like reading old Dilbert comic strips--amusing, but the punch lines seem awfully familiar.

Hip TV heads may see strains of "Andy Richter Controls the Universe," a 2002-03 workplace quirk-a-thon that was seriously more amusing because its absurdity sprang from its central character's vivid fantasy life, not from a reviled institution.