TV review: 'Ted' series matches movies' laughs, plot issues

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Ted, premiering Thursday on Peacock, is a faithful adaptation of the film series. Some episodes try too hard, but overall, more are funny and endearing than not.

As the movies established, Ted the Teddy Bear (voice of Seth Macfarlane) came to life when John Bennett wished his Christmas toy would be alive. In the films, Mark Wahlberg played adult John but in the show, Max Burkholder is teenage John in 1993.

In the first episode, John's parents, Matty (Scott Grimes) and Susan (Alana Ubach), decide to send Ted to school with John. Ted's R-rated language and attitudes are right at home with a teenager in 1993.

John is a horny teenager at this point and Ted can keep up with the teenage libido and sex talk. John and Ted make fun of teachers together and have some laugh-out-loud zingers.

Other jokes are absurdly whimsical, suggesting how a talking teddy bear would play out in more family-friendly fare.

As a series, Ted is essentially a family sitcom, but with R-rated language and a computer-generated teddy bear. Ted was famous for coming to life in the '80s, but by 1993, his 15 minutes of fame are up and he's just part of the family.

The beginning of the first episodes tries a bit too hard to be edgy and offensive with the family discussing racism while being racist. Ted makes some gay jokes at John's expense, but later Ted turns it on homophobic bullies, and actually celebrates his gay classmates.

Ted makes some Jewish jokes too, but the show also comments on the inappropriateness of joking about Anne Frank. He is equal opportunity with remarks about Catholic Church sex abuse.

The rhythm of Ted and John's banter is seamless, which is impressive since all of Ted's lines are animated and were dubbed after Burkholder filmed his portion. There is some fun animated slapstick with Ted, too.

The show finds its footing when John and Ted get into episodic sitcom shenanigans like buying marijuana or pranking their bully. The prank is absurdly elaborate and even more absurd that they actually get adults to help them with it.

A great addition to the family dynamic is John's cousin, Blaire (Giorgia Whigham), who is in college but comes over for dinner. Blaire is both a voice of reason amid the absurdity, and a caring relative who tries, unsuccessfully so far, to save John from his and Ted's harebrained schemes.

There are some Easter eggs from the movies, like a Flash Gordon poster on John's wall. Memorabilia from the '90s shows up plentifully.

As the family sitcom dynamic suggests, Ted really should be under 30 minutes per episode. So, a 50-minute pilot and a 38-minute second episode are too long.

Ted 2 also became bogged down in a plot that didn't need to be 2 full hours. Tightening the episodes would both improve the comedy and get to the occasional moments of heart more effectively.

But, languishing seems to be in Ted's nature. So, in episodic chunks, albeit unusually large chunks, Ted has enough amusing bits to make it worthwhile.

Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.