Line #24 Series/TheIncreasinglyPoorDecisionsOfToddMargaret


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15	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/toddmargaret_9652.jpg]]
16	[[caption-width-right:350:Things are going to get worse...]]
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18	''The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret'' is a sitcom produced by IFC and RDF Television that airs on IFC in the US and on Creator/{{Channel 4}} in Britain. The show stars Creator/DavidCross as Todd Margaret, a low-level employee who, due to a comedic misunderstanding, is selected by his jerk boss Brent Wilts (Creator/WillArnett) to travel to UsefulNotes/{{London}} to sell a UsefulNotes/{{North Korea}}n-made energy drink called Thunder Muscle. Although Todd claims to [[BadLiar be familiar]] with British culture, it soon becomes apparent that all he is familiar with are broad [[NationalStereotypes outdated stereotypes]]. Needless to say, {{hilarity ensues}}.
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20	Todd’s only employee in London is Dave (Blake Harrison), a native Briton who quickly realizes that Todd has no idea about British culture or selling energy drinks and does all he can to take advantage of and embarrass Todd. Rounding out the main cast is Alice (Creator/SharonHorgan), a restaurant owner who dreams of being a molecular gastronomer, who Todd quickly falls for, [[AllLoveIsUnrequited much to]] [[AbhorrentAdmirer her chagrin]].
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22	!!This show provides examples of:
23	* AllJustADream: [[spoiler: Season 3 reveals the events of the first two seasons to be a very bizarre nightmare that Todd had. Played with in the finale, in which Todd wakes up on the floor of his flat in Season 1, suggesting ''yet another'' layer of dream-world.]]
24	* AndYouWereThere: [[spoiler: Season 3 Todd awakes from his "dream" to find that everyone he meets in London is an alternate-universe version of the characters from Seasons 1 and 2.]]
25	* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler:Of the planetary variety. Todd Margaret pushes the button that sets off numerous nuclear warheads, incinerating the planet. The third season does some interesting things to write itself out of that one.]]
26	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: The list of charges against Todd read out at the beginning of each episode are all pretty terrible, but the one from episode 5 invokes this trope:
27	-->'''Judge:''' The charges include: anti-social behaviour, disruption of national solemnity, money laundering, lewd sexist behaviour, failure to pay for a cranberry juice?!
28	* AssholeVictim: Brent is an asshole and suffers from episode 5 onwards.
29	* AsHimself: [[spoiler:It is eventually revealed that Dave's nervous valet, played by Creator/JonHamm, is actually the man himself, cowed into working for Dave through his money and influence]].
30	* {{Awesome Anachronistic Apparel}}: Subverted by Dave, who recommends a clothing store to Todd for his date so he'll look like a "proper English gentleman". When Todd shows up for his date with Alice he tells her he purchased new clothing for the event, to which she responds, "Where, 1872?"
31	* BackhandedCompliment: How Alice thanks Todd for getting her a job at La Molecule.
32	-->'''Alice:''' She said that the man who recommended me wasn't her type. At first I thought it was a black-white thing, but then I realized it was a gorgeousness thing!
33	* BadLiar: Most of Todd's increasingly poor decisions involve lying, which he's not very good at.
34	* BerserkButton: Steve Davis beats Todd with a pool cue because [[InsistentTerminology he couldn't pronounce "snooker" correctly.]]
35	* BigBadFriend: [[spoiler:Dave, who is secretly the mysterious "Mr. Mountford", orchestrated the entire series from the beginning as revenge for two minor slights against him by Brent Wilts and Todd Margaret.]]
36	* BlackComedy: The humor in this series is very dark and grows increasingly so.
37	* BreathlessNonSequitur: Every reading of the charges in the first season has one.
38	-->'''High Court Justice''': The charges include child endangerment, embezzlement, ''persistent'' public urination...
39	* BribeBackfire: In trying to procure a liquor license for Alice, Todd tries to introduce his friend "Mr. Benjamin" to a British official. Not understanding at first that in Britain the currency is pounds, he then tries to guess who is on British currency (including UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, a bulldog, a lady drinking tea, and Music/TheBeatles). Finally examining the currency, he is unfamiliar with the official. "[[AdamSmithHatesYourGuts Adam Smith]]? How was I supposed to guess that?!"
40	* BringMyBrownPants: Todd can't seem to go an episode without urinating or defecating his pants, either out of fear or due to an overdose of stimulants of some sort.
41	* BritishBrevity: Actually a British-American co-production but the seasons are only 6 episodes long for a total of 18 as of 2016.
42	* ButtMonkey: Todd's life becomes increasingly worse because he messes things up.
43	* CallBack: There are many of these throughout the first two seasons, and then the third takes it up to eleven.
44	%%* CasanovaWannabe: Brent. Todd to an extent.
45	* CharacterDeath: [[spoiler:In the finale, Alice is blown up by the Turks' truck thanks to Todd.]]
46	* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler:Dave, so very much. He displays abilities at running a BatmanGambit that dips into XanatosSpeedChess when Todd gets arrested and his game is at risk of ending prematurely.]]
47	* CloudCuckooLander: Alice is a subdued version of this; she seems polite, [[OnlySaneMan down to Earth]], and normal.
48	** Then there's the season 3 version of Alice, who initially seems to be the same character, only more successful and actually interested in Todd romantically. [[spoiler:She's later revealed to be a white nationalist.]]
49	* CringeComedy: ''Good lord.'' Most of the humor is based around awkward situations that Todd gets into through lying, which get worse as he tries to wiggle out of them.
50	* CounterfeitCash: Todd gets paid with a suitcase of cash, when he tries to pass one of the bills, the recipient refuses it, pointing out that there shouldn't be a "Y" in "Bank of England", and that the woman's face on the obverse is not UsefulNotes/ElizabethII, but Creator/HelenMirren. It is also in a £30 denomination.
51	* DisproportionateRetribution / TheDogWasTheMastermind: The season 2 finale reveals that [[spoiler:Dave has been orchestrating an elaborate revenge against Todd and Brent because they were rude to him in a Portland bar several months earlier]].
52	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Everyone fails and/or dies.]]
53	* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:Alice dies in an explosion at the end, as a final twist of the knife]].
54	%%* {{Eagleland}}: Todd and Brent try to avoid this this episode 5, and fail woefully.
55	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin:
56	** Todd Margaret flies halfway round the world to sell energy drinks without a second's consideration, and is on the defensive from the minute his plane lands in England.
57	** Dave tells Todd that snooker player Steve Davis is "bigger than Beckham." Beckham is 183cm tall, while Davis is 187cm.
58	* FawltyTowersPlot: Todd's blatant and escalating lies drive most of the plot. Among other things he insists: his father died last week, he grew up in Leeds (a city he picked at random based on an an [[Music/TheWho album cover]]), he is allergic to nuts (going so far as faking anaphalactic shock and taking unnecessary epinephrine shots), and he lives in the houses of Parliament (he claims it has apartments now).
59	* HauteCuisineIsWeird: Alice and La Molecule subscribe to a style of cuisine that is more chemistry than cooking. They concocts such bizarre foods as "oxtail toothpaste made with pancetta gas"
60	* HowWeGotHere:
61	** Each episode of the first season opens with Todd restrained in front of a rowdy British Court being read a list of outrageous charges. This happens two weeks after Todd arrives in London, and the show chronicles how he got into that predicament.
62	** In the second season, each episode begins with Todd in North Korea, apparently about to push a [[ANuclearError nuclear button]] at gunpoint. This is only a handful of days after the court appearance.
63	* IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance: Todd is so sure that there's nothing important to know about British culture, even after repeated beatings, misunderstandings and criminal charges due to his ignorance.
64	* InWhichATropeIsDescribed: All the episodes have long descriptive titles, many of which actually start "In Which..."
65	* ItAmusedMe: [[spoiler: Dave set up Todd and Brent for his own amusement.]]
66	* {{Jerkass}}: Todd's boss Brent Wilts. He can't seem to speak a sentence without throwing in a term like "numb nuts", "fucktard", or something similar. It's revealed gradually throughout that [[spoiler:he used to be just as meek as Todd. Dave had been giving him self help [=CDs=] that taught him to act like a Jerkass.]]
67	* LampshadeHanging: [[spoiler:Doug Whitney: "How could Dave know that Brent Wilts would [[GambitRoulette at that EXACT moment]] would walk past when Todd Margaret was listening to those self help [=CDs=] back in Portland?"]]
68	* MistakenForRacist:
69	** Dave convinces Todd to wear a T-shirt advocating the British National Party, a political party infamous for advocating racial purity. Todd, being an American, merely considers it an "I Love England T-shirt".
70	** In season 3, Todd ends up at a white supremacist rally and is mistaken for one himself by both the supremacists and the anti-racist protesters outside the venue.
71	* MistakenForPedophile: As in the MistakenForRacist example, this starts with Dave pranking Todd. Todd then proves he's capable of creating the same misunderstanding on his own.
72	* NukeEm: [[spoiler:Todd does this in the season 2 finale to the entire planet.]]
73	* OnlySaneMan: Alice, Doug, and Dave, who react to Todd's idiocy.
74	** Alice is the only one to figure out [[spoiler:Dave's game]].
75	* PlayingSick with an in-universe PlotAllergy: Todd escapes being seen at the bar by faking a nut allergy. Later, at Alice's, he begins eating a box of chocolate covered hazelnuts; in panic, Hudson sticks Todd with an epi-pen, twice, which [[LaserGuidedKarma actually triggers an allergic reaction]].
76	* SadistShow: It's like watching everyone you've ever hated distilled into one person ruining his life over and over again in funny ways.
77	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: [[spoiler:When Brent finally realizes how hopeless Todd's trial is, he leaves the courtroom, telling Todd to stall for time until he gets back. He then immediately proceeds to get on a plane back to America.]]
78	* SerialEscalation: You thought things were bad at the beginning?
79	* ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler:Alice dies suddenly, making the whole romantic subplot moot]].
80	* ShoutOut: in one episode, Todd prays for guidance. His prayer begins with the words:
81	--> ''Literature/AreYouThereGodItsMeMargaret''
82	* SmugSmiler: Dave, who smiles smugly very often.
83	* SpecialGuest: A bit of AdamWesting by real-life pro snooker player Steve Davis. Davis both lampoons and subverts his reputation for being thin-lipped and boring.
84	* SuspectIsHatless: Todd's description of Dave to the police.
85	* TooDumbToFool: The terrorists try to con Margaret into refusing an immediate payment on the energy drinks by implying that it would prevent the mother from buying her medication. Todd just stares blankly at them without any reaction, forcing them to try a second tact, which Todd ''is'' dumb enough to fall for.
86	* UnfortunateNames: Our titular character. A bartender bluntly tells him, "Margaret? That's a girl's name!"
87	* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: Todd occasionally comes off as a lovable loser, but it is hard to feel sorry for him most of the time. In any unexpected situation he finds himself in, his default response is to lie about it, and try to weave this new lie into his increasingly complex and imaginary "life story". His seemingly willful ignorance makes it worse.
88	** In Season 3, [[spoiler: after Seasons 1 & 2 are revealed to be AllJustADream, Todd is unsympathetic for the opposite reason: he's a brutally honest {{Jerkass}}.]]
89	* VeryFalseAdvertising: Todd's London apartment is much worse than advertised.

Context Series / TheIncreasinglyPoorDecisionsOfToddMargaret