Better Late Than Never

Once in a while, a network will program a great, quirky show and have no idea what to do with it. Better off Ted, which we've recommended here before, has bounced on and off ABC for months. We can hunt down the episodes online, but — call us old fashioned — we like our minor cult hits where we know we can find them: on DVD (out December 1 and season 2 starts airing on ABC December 8).

The absurdist corporate satire focuses on Ted (dreamboat Jay Harrington), the head of Research & Development (and the only person with a conscience) at Veridian Dynamics, a proudly soulless conglomerate that makes, among other things, weaponized pumpkins and cow-free meat. Ted's proudly soulless boss Veronica (TV's other lesbian sweetheart Portia de Rossi) makes sure Ted's moral compass doesn't steer the company from its official motto. "Money Before People. It's right there on the lobby floor," she reminds him. "It just looks more heroic in Latin."

Endlessly quotable, the series features some of TV's most inventive and darkly comic writing, from the company's plot to freeze nebbishy scientist Phil (out actor Jonathan Slavin) "just to see if [they] can," to Veridian's insane response when it discovers the building's new sensors don't recognize black people.


Better Off Ted will be available on DVD December 1 from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Season two starts airing on ABC December 8.