The Morning After: Reuni-Ted

Better Off Ted—now an official Tuned In Show of the Year Honorable Mention™ winner!—returned to ABC last night with an episode that showed how well its corporate satire and roster of characters have come together over the year. It’s still a bit of a doughnut show for me: i.e., a show in which I’m least interested in the character at the center. The show draws a lot of comparison to Arrested Development, but one of the many differences is that, compared with Jason Bateman’s Michael Bluth, there’s a coldness to Ted that I find hard to connect with. The performances around him and the quality of writing, however, are generally so high that I don’t care, and Portia de Rossi plays Veronica each week with a with a gleeful rapaciousness, as if she can’t believe she’s getting paid to have such a good time. Was a good time had by all?