Suburban Dad Pop

Evidently, I like dark television shows, or at least that is what my significantly pregnant wife tells me. Maybe she has a point. I re-watch The Sopranos every Sunday morning when she is at church and when she is not at church, I have recently subjected her to the most recent installments of True Detective and Fargo, which isn’t even to mention my petitioning for her company when I casually reenjoy Mad Men and The Americans.

Wait a second…am I depressed?

Nah, I am just drawn to good story telling, the pillars of which are plot, conflict, and character arc and those pillars just happen to be best contrasted against a dark, drama filled back drop. Well, at least that is how a suburban middle-aged dad who is insulated from the juicy, real world voyeuristic fruits presented to him in the medium of television fictions enjoys them the most.  

In an effort to make my beautiful, significantly pregnant wife happy, and to lighten our television watching mood, we recently breezed through season two of Life & Beth (Hulu) and the first, and so far only, season of Ted (Peacock). Surprisingly, these shows still had the plot, conflict and arc that I desired while not being as light hearted as we assumed they would be. Well, at least Life & Beth had that extra gear; Ted is about a magical, pot smoking teddy bear.

I really enjoyed both and here are my thoughts.

Life & Beth

It isn’t uncommon for television programs to take leaps in quality when transitioning from their inaugural season to their second season; what is uncommon is for said jump to be so extreme.

Season two of Life & Beth picks up where season one left off and finds lead Beth (Amy Shumer) struggling to find common ground with basketball obsessed boyfriend John (Michael Cera). In their 30s and struggling to find enough common ground to sustain their relationship, a date night gone wrong turns into a moment gone right which in turn leads to a hastily executed wedding.

As Beth and John work through the aftermath of their almost spontaneous nuptials, they deal with a cavalcade of emotions and situations, including an autism diagnosis for John, the spiraling agoraphobia of Beth’s sister Ann (Sussanah Flood), and the traumatic childhood moments that contribute to the trio’s difficulty with accepting and flourishing in their stations in life.

And this is all before Beth finds out she is pregnant.

Those dark themes I mentioned earlier? Well, they can’t escape this light-hearted comedy as the ramifications of becoming a parent trigger dark childhood memories. In John’s case, it is the death of his mother and the emotional distance his father puts between them. For Beth and Ann, it is the fallout of having alcoholic parents and the trauma associated with sexual assault.

These child hood traumas are presented in a series of teenage B-plot flashbacks that are quite frankly just as interesting, if not more interesting, than the adult led A-plot. So much so, that I found myself wondering if Life & Beth would have been better as a mid-90s period piece with brief flashforwards rather than the product I was consuming.

Not that the product is bad, because it is far from that. That stratospheric leap in quality I mentioned previously includes Shumer fully transitioning from comedian to accomplished actor, director, producer, and writer and Cera, turning in his best work since, and maybe even including, Arrested Development.

There, I said it.

It could be possible that my expectant wife and I are seeing Life & Beth through a relatable situation’s rose-tinted glasses, but I really don’t think so. Parenthood is hard. Relationships are hard. Having children is hard. Shumer, through her real-life experience in recently becoming a wife and mother, has shown us her universe via an incredibly funny, apt, and relatable lens. Don’t be surprised to see her name mentioned during awards season.

TED

Okay, you probably know the deal. Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane has created a movie and television franchise centering around a Teddy Bear who has magically come to life. In the television version (a movie prequel set in 1993), Ted (voiced by MacFarlane), along with his teenage best friend John (Max Burkholder), wreak havoc, exist in hijinks, and leave a physical and emotional trail of destruction in their wake. If you have seen the movies, with Mark Wahlberg as an adult version of John, you are familiar. If you haven’t, just know that underneath the raunchy humor and silly jokes, that it takes guts to attempt something this dumb and more importantly, brains to make it work.

That genius is rooted in television history while being well versed in comedic formulas and it is difficult to find someone who subverts tropes while paying homage to the medium as well as MacFarlane. Whether it is bringing jokes full circle at different points in the episode, the corny/nostalgic opening sequence and theme music, or making the viewer simultaneously squirm and laugh at dark jokes, MacFarlane and Ted more often succeed than fail.

Is it possible that this celebration of 90s nostalgia, coupled with the teenage John character being my exact age (with the exact shag green carpet in his living room), have spoiled my objectivity? Sure, but hey, this is a show about a pot smoking Teddy Bear and as the viewer, you have to be aware of what you are consuming. This ain’t Shakespeare, but it ain’t the ditch weed you bought at Lalapalloza either.

If you are a fan on the MacFarlane Universe (Family Guy, American Dad, The Orville, A Million Ways to Die in the West), odds are that you are going to enjoy this foray. If not, you probably won’t, and that’s ok. My wife didn’t finish the season, but I did catch her laughing at jokes she didn’t want me to know she was laughing at.

I imagine you already know where you stand on Ted and if it isn’t your cup of tea, maybe give the series an episode or two to see if this (very) slightly more nuanced version takes.

Or maybe just make your significantly pregnant wife a pancake and turn on The Young & The Restless like she asked you to do.

BASKETBALLS & BONG HITS

• Life & Beth has an incredible string of cameos including a busking Jimmy Buffet, a fortune telling Jennifer Coolidge, an opiod seeking Tim Daly, and a doctoring David FRICKIN’ Byrnes. None of these wonderful cameos are better than a wedding planning Amy Sedaris. Amy Sedaris is the Queen.
• Speaking of casts, the Ted cast is nothing to sneeze at and frequent MacFarlane collaborator Scott Grimes, who plays John’s father (and Ted’s by proxy foster father) Matty, steals most scenes and really bears down (no apologies) on his material.
• As someone who has, for almost two decades, worked with people diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Michael Cera should be praised for his realistic take, which accurately displays the behavior of some, while treating all with dignity. This nuanced and dignified performance is much more authentic and much less cartoonish than Dustin Hoffman’s performance in Rain Man.
• Fans of 90’s nostalgia, when tuning into Ted, are in for a real treat. Between the video store trips, the set designs, the clothing, the soundtrack, and pop culture references, the viewer may feel right at home in the American suburbia of 1993. Man, I miss video stores.