The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret

Updated on Oct 21, 2023

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The increasingly poor decisions of todd margaret

The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret is a British-American black comedy television series starring David Cross, Sharon Horgan, Blake Harrison, Will Arnett, and Spike Jonze. The series is produced by IFC and RDF Television and premiered on October 1, 2010, on IFC.

Season one and two

The first two seasons of the series tell a single story—that of American office temp worker Todd Margaret (David Cross). After overhearing Todd recite jargon from a self-help CD and confusing it for him being on a call with a customer, ultra-aggressive executive Brent Wilts (Will Arnett) promotes Todd on the spot.

Todd is put in charge of Thunder Muscle, a new energy drink his company is seeking to sell in Great Britain. Todd's company only has one employee, a British person named Dave (Blake Harrison), who offers his full assistance in helping Todd promote and sell the product in the country.

Most of the humor in season 1 and season 2 focuses on Todd Margaret's not being familiar with British culture and customs. His situation is compounded by the fact that Todd is a pathological liar as well as Dave's truly nasty pranks and manipulation of Todd. In every episode of the first two seasons, Todd lies to cover up his ignorance of British culture and customs and lack of experience running a company. This is compounded by Dave's own manipulation of Todd, providing him false information about British culture to constantly humiliate and sabotage Todd, and Todd's infatuation with a local cafe owner Alice Bell (Sharon Horgan). Several of Todd's most damning lies revolve around his desire to impress Alice and manipulate her into a relationship with him.

During season 1, a cold open at the start of each episode depicts Todd before a British court as various charges against him are read out. A subplot involves Todd's supervisor Doug Whitney (Spike Jonze). Upset at having been fired by Brent, he is told that Brent Wilts is not really a company executive and investigates him for fraud. For the bulk of season 1, Brent is shown as a foul-mouthed, abusive superior towards Todd, constantly demanding unrealistic results in terms of time tables for getting Thunder Muscle onto the British marketplace, as well as demanding sales profits from the drink delivered personally to him, to pay for Brent's hookers and gambling addiction. By the end of season 1, it is revealed that Brent is, in truth, a mild-mannered pushover like Todd, promoted by the owner of his and Todd's company (a mysterious individual known as Mountford), and ordered to promote Todd and push him with unachievable expectations that Todd has no hope of meeting, so as to doom him to failure.

Season 2 features Todd being reunited with his dad, who offers to try to help his son avoid prison. Meanwhile, Alice, Brent, and Doug try to find out the truth about Mountford. Todd gives Alice a fraudulent liquor license for her cafe in an attempt to buy her love, resulting in her cafe being shut down and a warrant put out on her arrest because of said fake liquor license. Alice investigates the situation and finds damning evidence that might free Todd and incriminate Dave. She is killed when Todd unwittingly detonates a truck bomb while she is on her way to the court to reveal Dave's actions. In the end, Brent attempts (and fails) to defend Todd in court as Doug discovers that Mountford is Dave, the son of a rich and powerful Lord of England. Several months prior, while visiting the U.S., Dave was at a bar, and a nervous Brent spilled drinks on him. Distracted by the timid Brent's clumsiness, Dave quickly finds his date at the bar having been stolen by Todd, who exploited Dave's brief absence to go get said drinks, to lure his intoxicated date back to his home for sex. Humiliated and desiring revenge, Dave paid the bartender for information about the two men, then set about a complicated revenge scheme to punish and humiliate both.

Todd Margaret is found guilty but Dave's dad, a high-ranking member of the House of Lords, arranges for the whole mess to get resolved, having grown tired of the atrocious behavior of his son as well as the scandal his and Todd Margaret's mishaps had caused England. Mountford Sr. arranges a pardon for Todd, on the condition that he leave England. However, he also reveals that his American citizenship has been revoked because of his actions and the only countries willing to take him are the Turks and Caicos Islands and North Korea. Choosing exile in North Korea due to his ignorance of geography, food, and nationalities. When he arrives in North Korea Todd is manipulated by the North Korean dictatorship to launch their first-ever nuclear weapon (a discussion at the launch control panel being the source of the cold openings for second season). Todd pushes the button, bringing about a vague nuclear holocaust that seemingly destroys the rest of the world as well as all of the other characters (with the notable exception of the lone survivor, a Turkish terrorist who wanted to blow himself up in an act of terrorism during the course of the series - as he notes in the final line of the season, "There is a certain irony to [it]."

Season three

Season three of the series was a dream-within-a-dream extension of the first two seasons due to the apocalyptic nature of the season two finale. David Cross returns, playing a new version of his character. Jack McBrayer joins the cast.

Main cast

David Cross as Todd Margaret (birth name Todd Moon): An American who is promoted overnight to be chief marketer of the Thunder Muscle energy drink in the UK, a position for which he is wildly unqualified. He is quick to tell implausible lies to impress Alice or to get out of uncomfortable situations. In season 3, Todd is an American executive sent to the London office of Global National to resolve sales issues.

Sharon Horgan as Alice Bell: The Irish owner of a cafe near Todd's flat. She aspires to turn her cafe into a showcase for molecular gastronomy. Todd develops a crush on her the first time they meet. Although she finds him annoying and unattractive, she continually takes pity on Todd and helps him out. In the third season, Alice is now the owner of The Molecule, a prestigious molecular gastronomy restaurant, and the leader of a white supremacist group.

Blake Harrison as Dave: Todd's sole employee, who often seems to take advantage of Todd's ignorance of British culture to pull pranks and make him appear foolish. As the series goes on, it is revealed he is actually David Mountford, a deranged son of a British lord. Following a bar incident, in which Todd humiliated him, Dave arranged for Todd's (and Brent's) promotion to a management position so that he can secretly watch Todd fail at his job and life. In the original pilot episode, Dave was played by Russell Tovey. In the third season, Dave is a subordinate to Todd in the London office. He is now a legitimately eager employee trying to help Todd, but Todd's dream makes him distrust Dave.

Will Arnett as Brent Wilts, Todd's superior, who uses excessive profanity and travels all over Europe, losing money in casinos and hiring prostitutes. Brent promoted Todd impulsively, mistakenly believing that Todd was a tough, take-no-prisoners businessman. He expects Todd to produce cash through sales to support Brent's decadent lifestyle. At the end of season one, it is revealed that Brent was promoted the same way Todd was. In season 3, he is subordinate to Todd and had been in charge of the London office.

Spike Jonze (Season 1–2) and Jack McBrayer (Season 3) as Doug Whitney, Todd's original boss in America (seasons 1 and 2), over whom Todd was promoted to become the marketer of Thunder Muscle. He suspects there is something fishy about Brent (and later Dave) and is determined to get to the bottom of it. In season 3, he is subordinate to Todd in the London office.

Recurring cast

Steve Davis as himself: hired by Todd (who, on bad advice from Dave, believes him to be "bigger than Beckham") to be the "face of Thunder Muscle".

Colin Salmon as Hudson (seasons 1 and 2): Alice's Canadian ex-boyfriend who is currently in Leeds shooting an independent film. Todd's jealousy of Hudson prompts him to extreme behaviour in a futile attempt to monopolize Alice's attention. Hudson is quite blunt about having little respect for Todd. His film also seems not to have been received well by the local British population. In season 3, Hudson is a cartoon bear on television.

Amber Tamblyn as Stephanie Daley: a girl who had a drunken one-night stand with Todd in seasons 1 and 2. Also plays a news reporter by the same name. In season 3, she is Todd's steady girlfriend.

Russ Tamblyn as Chuck Margaret (seasons 1 and 2) and Billy the Cheesegrater (season 3): Todd's father who comes to Britain after seeing Todd's debacle at the Remembrance Day ceremony, deciding Todd "needed a hand". Chuck is slightly less bumbling than Todd. In the third season, he is an incredibly slow assassin called "Billy the Cheesegrater".

Jon Hamm as himself: Dave's personal servant at his mansion, listed simply as "Dave's Employee" in the credits. However, it is later revealed that the character is in fact a fictionalized version of the real Jon Hamm, having had his services bought out from the Mad Men production by Dave to record the "self-help" CDs that Todd and Brent use. Hamm is mentioned in the third season premiere, Todd Margaret Part 1, and was seen briefly as the agitated driver of a white van.

Sara Pascoe as Pam: Todd's pregnant, promiscuous neighbor in seasons 1 and 2. In season 3, she remains Todd's neighbor, but is a conceptual artist.

Mark Heap as Lord Mountford: Dave's father who is an incredibly powerful British Lord and is responsible for sending Todd to North Korea in Season 2's finale. In Season 3, he is Todd's boss at Global National.

2009 pilot

The series originated as an episode of Channel 4's Comedy Showcase in November 2009. This backdoor pilot follows the same narrative arc as the season one premiere episode. The Dave Mountford character is played by Russell Tovey. Tovey's obligations to the show Being Human conflicted with the subsequent sitcom. The role was recast with Blake Harrison and Tovey's scenes were reshot. Additionally, the pilot episode length was 24 minutes rather than the series 22 minute length.

Production

The show was created by David Cross and written by Cross and Shaun Pye. The first season premiered October 1, 2010, on IFC in the U.S.; and on More4 in the UK on November 14, 2010. The second season was broadcast on Fox in the UK from March 5, 2013. David Cross announced that season 2 would be the final season, despite the network's wish for a third season.

The pilot was aired in the UK as an episode of the Channel 4 series Comedy Showcase. Scenes from the first episode were re-shot after the Channel 4 airing when the part of Margaret's assistant, Dave, was recast with Blake Harrison. Russell Tovey, who played the character in the original pilot, was no longer available when the series went into production.

The show reunites Cross with Arrested Development co-star Will Arnett; the two also appear together on the Fox sitcom Running Wilde, which premiered before, but was produced after, Todd Margaret.

David Cross mentioned on WTF with Marc Maron that he put his own money into financing the show.

In 2014, IFC renewed the series for a third season, which aired from January 7 to January 14, 2016.

Though no official announcement has been given yet, Cross indicated in an August 2016 interview with The A.V. Club that the show is done, and there will not be any more seasons.

References

The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret Wikipedia

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