{"id":42414,"date":"2024-01-19T18:44:17","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T23:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=42414"},"modified":"2024-01-20T09:29:03","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T14:29:03","slug":"the-peacocks-ted-is-better-than-the-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/01\/19\/the-peacocks-ted-is-better-than-the-movies\/","title":{"rendered":"The Peacock\u2019s \u201cTed\u201d Is Better Than the Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Now Streaming Exclusively on The Peacock. “Ted<\/a>” The Movie is Now Available.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s probably not much of a surprise to discover that Seth McFarlane\u2019s talents work much more when applied to serialized television than with feature length films. While \u201cTed\u201d has gradually evolved in to a favorite of mine, and \u201cTed 2\u201d is\u2014well\u2014good enough to pass the time, Seth McFarlane\u2019s transplanting of his concept to the small screen is very good. Often times it\u2019s great. This is also stunning considering Seth McFarlane\u2019s earlier humor was often so dark and nasty. \u201cTed\u201d actually manages to bring a lot of what we love about the humor from \u201cAmerican Dad\u201d and \u201cFamily Guy\u201d but also injects some actual heart and substance to McFarlane\u2019s bizarre formula.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Working as a prequel to his first two \u201cTed\u201d films, the series follows young teenage John Bennett who is living with his dysfunctional family and sentient teddy bear in 1990\u2019s suburbia (circa 1991-1994). After wishing his bear to come to life, the fame has worn off for Ted and now he\u2019s just a normal citizen living with John and his family. Looking for something to do with his life, Ted is encouraged by John\u2019s older cousin Blaire to enroll in high school and get an education. This is where the series takes off. For fans of \u201cTed\u201d this series doesn\u2019t depart much from what made the movies so popular.<\/p>\n

There are oodles of pop culture references, a ton of stoner jokes, a ton of raunchy sex jokes, and F bombs are dropped like they\u2019re trying to fill a quota. \u201cTed\u201d is so much like \u201cThe Wonder Years\u201d but re-imagined through the mind of some really fucked up comedian, and man, is it good. I think what really makes \u201cTed\u201d such a fun show is not just Ted but the supporting cast. McFarlane regular Scott Grimes is hysterical as Johnny\u2019s disgruntled father Mattie, while Alanna Ubach is hilarious as John\u2019s meek yet good hearted mother Susan. The stand out, though, is Giorgia Whigham as Johnny\u2019s older cousin Blaire. Not featured in any of the movies, Blaire is a new character brought in to the show as Johnny\u2019s cousin who lives with his family while she\u2019s going to college.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s the opposite of everything that Johnny\u2019s parents are, but a glimpse in to the kind of person that Johnny will soon become. As Blaire, Whigham portrays this rebellious, intelligent, and often outspoken foil to Johnny and Ted who thwarts their antics, but also lends them healthy advice whenever they need it. She\u2019s basically Meg from \u201cAmerican Dad,\u201d just nowhere near as obnoxious and sanctimonious. Blaire\u2019s back story is surprisingly sad and she contributes so much not just to the series\u2019 humor but the spirit of the family sitcom that McFarlane is obviously going for.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I want a \u201cTed 3\u201d and I want an older Blaire to be integrated in to canon, officially. It\u2019d be a disservice if McFarlane didn\u2019t flesh this out further.<\/p>\n

Max Burkholder is a top notch replacement for Marky Mark, playing the character so much better. His comic timing is not only sharper, but he feels so much more like a maladjusted individual and less like the man baby that we saw in the first \u201cTed.\u201d Although it\u2019s only seven episodes long, \u201cTed\u201d doesn\u2019t really rely on an interconnected arc, instead relying more on self contained episodes that develop Johnny and his family further with every installment. For an alleged limited series it works so well, and it amounts to probably one of McFarlane\u2019s best creative outputs in a very long time.<\/p>\n

I hope The Peacock builds enough confidence in \u201cTed\u201d to grant it a second season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now Streaming Exclusively on The Peacock. “Ted” The Movie is Now Available. It\u2019s probably not much of a surprise to discover that Seth McFarlane\u2019s talents work much more when applied to serialized television than with feature length films. While \u201cTed\u201d has gradually evolved in to a favorite of mine, and \u201cTed 2\u201d is\u2014well\u2014good enough to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[64,219,225,797,1308],"class_list":["post-42414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tv-tomb","tag-adaptation","tag-comedy","tag-coming-of-age","tag-prequel","tag-seth-mcfarlane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42414"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42425,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42414\/revisions\/42425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}