Now Streaming: TED, Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut

Seth MacFarlane was born for TV.

Ted
Both seasons of the comedy series are now streaming on Peacock TV.

"Seth MacFarlane has cheerfully stretched the boundaries of U.S. network television 'standards and practices' as far as they can go with his animated TV series Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show," I wrote in 2012. "So it's not terribly surprising that MacFarlane's feature directorial debut, Ted, reflects an 8-year-old boy's exuberant delight in being told he can do (basically) whatever he wants to do, with millions of dollars at his disposal. With such unfettered freedom, the sky's the limit! Mostly, though, the kid wants to swear and tell dirty jokes."

As I pointed out, however, "the narrative needs of a feature-length film began to weigh down the concept" and that's when "the sitcom sensibilities of MacFarlane and his fellow writers Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild [began to] rear their ugly, 22-minute heads." Indeed, MacFarlane has yet to crack the feature-film game, as evidenced by the diminishing creative returns of A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014) and Ted 2 (2015).

His return to television with The Orville floundered under its sci-fi parody conceits, which did not make me especially eager to sample his prequel series Ted when the first season debuted a couple years ago, though I eventually watched it and fitfully enjoyed it. A similar pattern followed when season 2 debuted last month; I took note of its premiere but was otherwise occupied.

A weekend binge-watch has changed my mind. It's not that Season 2 changed its colors: it's still a series that is childishly preoccupied with flinging its own feces at the audience, sometimes literally, but more often through its steady stream of profanity-laced dialogue, in which obscene language is substituted for genuine wit.

From its characters' perspectives, though, the profanity is used as a weapon. Teenage John Bennett (Max Burkholder) doesn't know how else to express his unhappiness with the social order in high school, which has placed him at the very bottom, leaving little resort but to smoke pot and masturbate. His only friend is Ted (voiced by Seth MacFarlane), who supports him and encourages him; he's a true emotional-support animal, only in the form of a talking teddy bear, who is accepted by John's parents as a member of the family.

In this 90s version of All in the Family, John's father Matty (Scott Grimes) is the sole provider, whose profane language and mucho-macho bluster is cover for his feelings of inadequacy; in other words, he's the equivalent of Archie Bunker, a rabid Republican conservative. His wife Susan (Alanna Urbach) is the equivalent of Edith Bunker; she likewise a go-along to get-along calming presence, who loves and supports her idiot husband because that's what is expected of traditional wives.

Cousin Blair Bennett (Giorgia Whigham) is the Michael Stivic equivalent, a liberal-minded, sexually-fluid, and outspoken person who is always ready to stand up for her beliefs and argue vociferously with Matty; she's also always ready to smoke pot with John and Ted, and tell them when they're acting stupid.

Grimes, Urbach, and Whigham all give standout performances, bringing authentic conviction to their characters, though, obviously, it's easiest to root for Whigham as she endlessly centers everything morally, doing so with a lovely joie de vivre. Somehow, though, Grimes and Urbach invite empathy, even as their characters often exasperate.

Frankly, Ted is far too foul-mouthed, and strays too far into perverse behavior, for my personal taste. Even so, the LOL moments are too frequent to ignore.

Now Streaming celebrates independent and international genre films and television shows that are newly available on legal streaming services.