Having conquered the animated world with hit series Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show, Seth MacFarlane made the transition to live-action filmmaking look easy with Ted. The raucous comedy garnered strong reviews from critics and did huge business at the box office when it debuted in the summer of 2012, and became the fourth highest-grossing R-rated movie ever made at the time after raking in close to $550 million, before going on to score an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.
The old adage goes that comedy sequels are the hardest to pull off given that the same jokes won’t work twice, but that apparently did little to deter MacFarlane, with Ted 2 essentially a retread of the first film. As a result, the reception was much more muted in terms of both reviews and commercial revenue, with the second outing for the titular talking bear and his human companion falling over $300 million short of its predecessor.
Mark Wahlberg was as game as ever in the lead role, once again cementing his credentials as an underrated comedic talent, but everything fresh about Ted had worn off by the time the central duo got into another series of mishaps and misadventures. The sequel focused more on random celebrity cameos than actual well-written jokes, and as a result, everything felt a little forced.
However, Ted 2 has been playing like gangbusters on Netflix recently, and is now rocketing towards the top end of the most-watched list, where it can currently be found in tenth place on the global chart. It’s looking as though the foul-mouthed comedy will only continue to rise higher over the next few days, too, as subscribers seek out some good old fashioned dirty jokes and belly laughs.
