I rewatched the first "Ted" film the other week and wondered as part of my review whether this series would be able top keep to the same sensibilities as that film had. To my surprise, largely it does - as the movement direct to the steaming service Peacock in the States (to Sky/NOW in the UK) mean that Network rules don't apply.
Set in the mid 1990's, with his celebrity status as a talking teddy bear now behind him, Ted (Seth MacFarlane) settles into life with the Bennet family. The family include his best friend Jon (Max Burkholder), Jon's Dad Matty (Scott Grimes), Mother Susan (Alanna Ubach) and Cousin Blaire (Giorgia Whigham). Sick of him sitting at home all day, Matty insists that Ted should go to school with Jon, which Jon is in favour of as he's getting bullied anyway, a fact that Ted is unable to really help with. They soon discover that the key to their predicament is one of life's great coping mechanisms, Marijuana.
This version of "Ted" is essentially a traditional sitcom. In the sense it largely resets itself after each episode, both in terms of character emotion and the overall plot. It's less traditional in that the episode lengths are inconsistent, which only a streaming service would allow them to get away with. I see some professional reviewers complain about the low number of episodes, but it has a main character who is almost entirely CGI, so I'd imagine the rendering on him alone takes weeks. I would say though that Ted doesn't look quite as polished as he does in the films.
It's a similar sense of humour to the films. It has its cake and eats it too by putting it's questionable lines and casual phobias in the voice of the dumber characters, usually Ted himself or Matty. I laughed quite a bit though and thought some of the stranger moments were pretty good. I don't necessarily buy that Max Burkholder's character is the same one as Mark Wahlberg's but I thought he was quite funny too.
It's been quite a success I think, so I hope that they'll get to make more. I guess we'll see.
Set in the mid 1990's, with his celebrity status as a talking teddy bear now behind him, Ted (Seth MacFarlane) settles into life with the Bennet family. The family include his best friend Jon (Max Burkholder), Jon's Dad Matty (Scott Grimes), Mother Susan (Alanna Ubach) and Cousin Blaire (Giorgia Whigham). Sick of him sitting at home all day, Matty insists that Ted should go to school with Jon, which Jon is in favour of as he's getting bullied anyway, a fact that Ted is unable to really help with. They soon discover that the key to their predicament is one of life's great coping mechanisms, Marijuana.
This version of "Ted" is essentially a traditional sitcom. In the sense it largely resets itself after each episode, both in terms of character emotion and the overall plot. It's less traditional in that the episode lengths are inconsistent, which only a streaming service would allow them to get away with. I see some professional reviewers complain about the low number of episodes, but it has a main character who is almost entirely CGI, so I'd imagine the rendering on him alone takes weeks. I would say though that Ted doesn't look quite as polished as he does in the films.
It's a similar sense of humour to the films. It has its cake and eats it too by putting it's questionable lines and casual phobias in the voice of the dumber characters, usually Ted himself or Matty. I laughed quite a bit though and thought some of the stranger moments were pretty good. I don't necessarily buy that Max Burkholder's character is the same one as Mark Wahlberg's but I thought he was quite funny too.
It's been quite a success I think, so I hope that they'll get to make more. I guess we'll see.
