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You might not remember the cantankerous, foul-mouthed fluffy bear Ted, but in the 2010s, he was everywhere.
From Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, the film broke the box office record for an R-rated comedy. It was Universal’s highest-grossing film of 2012. Paul Thomas Anderson put it on his list of the best films of the 21st century (some other odd picks made the cut).
Ted was a behemoth, and so was treated to a bafflingly bad sequel, as is the way.
The Ted team perhaps wanted to rectify the damage with a TV spin-off, the first season of which has landed on Netflix and is rumbling up the top 10 ranking of telly.
The weed-smoking, sailor-swearing CGI teddy bear had two seasons on US streamer Peacock, set in a 1990s high school. MacFarlane returned as the creator and pipes behind the Bostonian maniac.
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The premise that Ted came to life when eight-year-old John (played by Mark Wahlberg in the films) wished upon a shooting star is carried over to the show, with Max Burkholder playing John as a teen.
During the course of two seasons, Ted and John’s high school antics include trying marijuana for the first time, renting their first porn videos and racking up a massive bill for a phone sex line.
Despite the cuddly bear animation, this is not one for little’uns.
The show currently holds an 87 per cent rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with its second season clinching the coveted 100 per cent score (based on 14 reviews).
The Daily Beast praised the show for having ‘quite a few more chuckles than its big-screen counterparts’, while ScreenAnarchy encapsulated the mood of the more mixed reviews for season one.
Their review said: ‘Frankly, Ted is far too foul-mouthed, and strays too far into perverse behaviour, for my personal taste. Even so, the LOL moments are too frequent to ignore.’
What other TV shows can you stream?
- Elle. A Legally Blonde prequel starring Lexi Minetree as Reese Witherspoon’s pastel pink lawyer-to-be before we met her.
- The Bear. The fiery and sometimes shrill Disney Plus show returns for its fifth and final season.
- Every Year After. Adapted from Carley Fortune’s sensationally popular BookTok novel of a similar name, with a will-they-won’t-they love affair tale.
- Agent Kim Reactivated. A meek office worker sheds his unassuming skin to become Agent Kim, all in the hunt to find who took his daughter.
On IMDb, the show currently holds a 7.9 rating out of ten, with one reviewer saying they have ‘rarely laughed so hard’.
Kamal described the show as an ‘absolute game-changer’, adding: ‘I’m obsessed! If you’re a fan of Seth MacFarlane’s style, you owe it to yourself to check this out.’
James Edward wrote: ‘This might annoy some people but this series is honestly better than the first two movies in terms of its direction, humour & writing.’
Ted season one is available to stream on Netflix.