Better Off Ted: Father Can You Hair Me

While I appreciate that Better Off Ted is mostly just there for the laughs, I've always liked getting some character development along the way. Even last week's silly inconsequential bits, like Veronica stealing her iconic hair style from Linda or Phil's secret education in Aruba, gave some welcome (if not entirely necessary) depth to the show. So, while I didn't get any belly laughs from "Father Can You Hair Me" it was still a top-notch episode.

Much of this episode's action surrounds the way the characters on Better Off Ted interact with their fathers. Veronica's dad, the CEO of Veridian's chief competetor, shows up one day to tell his daughter that he's dying. She doesn't believe him, on account of their long history of corporate espionage against one another. Meanwhile, Ted gets over-zealous about a development down in the lab when he sees it as an opportunity to impress his disapproving, slovenly progenitor.

I enjoyed learning about how Veronica and Ted grew up. Once she finally accepts that her dad has only a year left to live, Veronica tries to make up for lost time and do all those things a father and daughter ought to do together. Things don't go so well, as neither of them have ever really been the type to embrace emotions or, ya know, fun. The best bit in the montage of their failed activities is the Palmer family misunderstanding of Frisbee-related physics.

As for Ted, we only get to meet his dad in flashbacks. Mr. Crisp is a lifelong plumber who looks down on all of his son's high-minded aspirations and achievements. From the looks of things, Ted was kind of a nerdy kid. He wanted to go to Space Camp, he joined the chess team and he ultimately ended up in business school. I hope Ted's inner geek comes out in future episodes.

After a failed attempt at an unrelated product, Phil and Lem accidentally discover the cure for baldness. Despite Lem's insistence on safety protocol, Ted demands faster testing so he can present his follically challenged father with the product for his upcoming birthday. When Lem (and therefore Phil as well) refuse to proceed with human testing, Ted decides to test it on himself. It works, just a little too well. The spray-on baldness cure spreads to the rest of his office, creating one of the best surreal jokes of the series.

As is the way with episodic comedies, everything returns to the status quo by the end, but everything is not exactly as it was before. We learned a lot about our characters (Linda's family is so loving they make the Brady Bunch look like villains, Lem's father died saving a bus full of people) and Ted learned a valuable lesson about being a dad. After pushing his own daughter to run for class president of the 3rd grade all episode, he relents in the end and lets her just be a kid.

Best Moment: Veronica and Mr. Palmer's activity day.

Biggest Laugh: "I'm just trying to keep my office from looking like this girl I used to date. It's a long story, but yes, she looked like a desk with hair." Also, I'm never going to get sick of Rose's casually grown-up approach to being a pre-teen: "I'm gonna go take a bath, then do some coloring. You know, unwind."

Episode Rating: 4.9/5- "Father Can You Hair Me" wasn't exactly transcendent, but there was nothing about it I didn't like. You can't say that about most of what's on TV.