David Cross has been searching for a long-term project since the demise of Arrested Development, and should The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret hold on its current path of painfully awkward moments intertwined with misdirected optimism, then Cross just might have his next television mainstay. Cross deserves a success after proving with Mr. Show and Arrested that his comic style can run a wide range of delivery, and countless guest spots on other television series just make his weekly absence on a prominent series all the more glaring. With that said, Todd Margaret isn’t a home run quite yet, but its compressed six-episode run gives its first season a tight story line that keeps the comedy on a short leash. It’s never afraid to go the distance with making its audience uncomfortable but sometimes those jokes are too silly to be effective.
When Todd Margaret (Cross) is selected to spearhead the promotion of a new toxic energy drink in the United Kingdom market after his boss mistakes him for a go-getter, he arrives in England to find that his staff is woefully underequipped, the country has no interest in the product, and his assistant is a conniving weasel who wants nothing more than to see Todd fail. And fail he does, and often in new and spectacularly painful ways. With each episode comes a new display of cultural, social, and business ineptitude that pushes him further and further from the girl he likes and puts him at odds with his boss (Will Arnett). There’s no faux pas too egregious for Todd to commit, and the show makes superb use of Cross’s flawless ability to seem upbeat while being entirely alienating in everything he says and does.
Unfortunately, that’s just not enough to carry a show for too long. The awkwardness never achieves the depths of Gervais’s The Office, and when the show comes close, it blinks and turns away to a different direction.
DVD Bonus Features
A few behind-the-scenes segments, cast interviews, a blooper reel, deleted scenes, and audio commentaries on all the episodes are the treasures you’ll find as bonus features.
"The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret: Season One" is on sale December 27, 2011 and is not rated. Comedy. Directed by Alex Hardcastle. Written by David Cross, Shaun Pye. Starring David Cross, Will Arnett, Blake Harrison, Sharon Horgan.
