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Funny stuff can be weird. And weird stuff can be funny. But there's a fine line in there somewhere, and it's very easy to veer into the territory reserved for just plain strange.
The new ABC comedy Better Off Ted flirts dangerously with the fringes of the funny-weird/weird-weird divide, and while it manages to keep at least one foot grounded in amusement, it's pretty safe bet that it'll prove too unusual for many viewers' tastes.
Better Off Ted, which premieres tonight at 7:30 on ABC, is a decidedly unconventional workplace sitcom about a guy who's beginning to question how far he's willing to push his personal moral/ethical limits for the sake of his job.
Ted (Jay Harrington) is a pretty normal guy -- bright young executive, single dad -- who works for a very unusual company -- Veridian Dynamics, a major multinational corporation that has a stake in everything from food science to agri-business to synthetics development to military-armaments provision.
As head of Veridian's research and development department, it's Ted's job to turn the whims and often-nightmarish dreams of his bosses into reality. Mostly, he's OK with their demands, having long since concocted the necessary moral justifications that will allow him to continue with his work, but...