Arrested Development
2003-2006, 2013-
**********
Pros: Great humor and acting, Memorable characters
Cons: A lot of stupid humor to go with the good stuff
I wanted to
get this review written before the show is revived as a Netflix original next
month. I also kind of obligated myself
to this review because of the artwork for my TV Reviews. Unfortunately, that also means I eventually
have to do reviews of Glee and My Gym Partner is a Monkey. I’m not looking forward to that. As I pointed out before, Arrested Development is my favorite TV show, but I want to review
it objectively and point out that it may not be perfect.
The show
revolves around the family of housing mogul George Bluth, Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor),
who is arrested by the SEC for corporate corruption. With the family patriarch in jail and the
company accounts frozen, his pampered family has to figure out a way to eke out
a living. Only George Sr.’s son Michael
(Jason Bateman) seems to have a clue or any sense of responsibility and he
tries to keep the family together and revive the business. Arrested
Development mixes quirky situational comedy and dry wit very well. The comedy often comes from inventive and
intertwined story arcs based on the characters’ foolish schemes and
misunderstandings. There are many quirky
hipster comedies that rely on pretentious anti-humor, but fortunately Arrested Development is not one of
them. For example, a lesser hip comedy
would have just had Tobias (David Cross) paint himself blue for no other reason
to distract the audience, but in this show he does so for an established reason
(he wants to join the Blue Man Group after having mistaken a show for a support
group for depressed men). It’s this kind
of zany, story-based situational comedy that makes this show great. The humor is also enhanced by the excellent
performances by the actors. Maybe a
little too much, as some actors seem to have pigeonholed themselves into these
roles. I love Will Arnett as an actor,
and he’s too good to simply limit himself to playing douchebags in comedies,
especially comedies that will never hold a candle to this one. David Cross also deserves some credit for his
willingness to sacrifice his body for laughs.
He’s such a gifted comic actor that he can even take an unfunny sitcom one-liner and make it sound funny. It
also makes one forget that he’s kind of a tool in real life.
 |
| Which kinda makes this even funnier to watch. |
I’ve heard so many people say shows like
this aren’t funny because of the “odd, quirky characters” which is like saying “I
don’t understand the basic concept of humor.”
In fact, it’s the characters that help make me love this show. Maybe I just come from a quirky family but I
do understand people like this exist and I can relate a bit more to their wackiness
(although fortunately not to their irresponsibility). In fact, one of the main things that drew me
to the show was that the three Bluth brothers are uncannily similar to me and
my brothers. Michael is pretty much my
oldest brother: a Type-A personality with a strong work ethic who uses tough
love to keep the family in line. G.O.B.
(Will Arnett) is like my middle older brother: snarky and self-centered. And Buster (Tony Hale) is me: the socially
awkward baby of the group. Fortunately,
we’re far more functional than our TV counterparts and lack their worst character
flaws, but in essence we’re the same people, just with better values. I’m also happy to mention that our parents are
nothing like the corrupt evil George Sr. and Lucille (Jessica Walter).
While the more
obvious choice for the funniest Bluth is either GOB or Tobias, my choice is
Michael. As the straight man, he says
the best lines. Everything he says is
sharp, dry and witty; a perfect response to the madness of his uncaring family. I also enjoy how he reluctantly tries to help
the family while it slowly corrupts him.
He often ends up doing questionable things in order to help it, like
attempting to legally defend his clearly guilty father. This clashes with his desire to care for his
hilariously awkward son George Michael (Michael Cera) and set a good example
for him. The relationship between the
two is complex and actually has a lot of heart.
In “Development Arrested,” when Michael finally realizes how much he’s
sold out for the family, he chooses his son and decides to leave them for
good. Despite the excitement over the
revived series and a cliffhanger, I thought this would have been the perfect
way to end the show. Michael is one of
my favorite TV characters, but I do have a problem with his sexual
indiscretion. While he does things that
are arguably worse in the name of the Bluth Company, those moral failures
actually have relevance and significance to the story. It’s harder to understand him when he simply
has sex with someone like the notoriously dishonest Maggie Lizer (Julia-Louis
Dreyfus) for no other reason than that she arouses him. It makes it seem odd when he judges Ann (Mae
Whitman) for her prudishness. Oh well,
now I’m starting to see why Mitchell Hurwitz says he’s actually the craziest of
the Bluths.
Despite my
love of Michael, my actual favorite character is The Narrator (Ron
Howard). He’s a bit of a base breaker,
as I’ve talked to people who say they would have liked the show if not for him,
but I think he really makes the show shine brighter. While some may say this was borrowed from
Alec Baldwin’s soporific narration from The
Royal Tenenbaums, it’s not exactly true.
Also, whereas Alec Baldwin’s narration came off as lazy exposition, the
narration in AD enhances the humor and is timed along with it. One of the reasons it is funny is because the
narrator is a character himself. He
snarks, editorializes and occasionally has some petty hangups of his own. While the narration is omnipresent, I have no
problem with it. It’s a unique stylistic
property, and I also enjoy the multi-camera style and the lack of a
laugh-track.
One of the reasons why I don’t understand
why this show bombed is that there’s a joke for everyone in this show, although
that’s not always a good thing. For
every example of dry wit or well-executed quirkiness, there’s a lame pun or
double entendre. Unfortunately, a lot of
this type of humor comes from GOB, whom I love. Some characters have lame puns for names, and
this seems to be a trademark for Hurwitz, who used this to annoying effect in
the disappointing Sit Down, Shut Up. Sometimes the double entendres are so bad,
they’re not even double entendres (at one point Ann is seen with a camel while
announcer says she has a “camel toe”).
Another type of “joke” that this show often perpetrates is a pet peeve
of mine in mainstream comedies: the shouted line that isn’t funny, but it’s
easy to remember, so everyone runs around repeating it everywhere.
Comedy doesn’t tend to be my favorite genre, and that’s
because a lot of hip, quirky comedies end up having these types of jokes I find
really annoying. Often whether I like a
comedy is not based on the absence of this type of humor, but whether or not
there are enough good jokes to compensate for the bad ones. Fortunately, Arrested Development is one of
these shows. There are so many hilarious
lines in it that I cannot possibly list them here. Unfortunately, I know this show by heart and
I’ve watched it enough that I think I’ve ferreted out and memorized all the
subtle funny jokes, so now whenever I watch an episode, I tend to notice the crap. That’s one thing that makes me a little
excited for the renewal. I want to see
some fresh material from this team.
Politically, Arrested Development is actually
refreshing. While most shows seem biased
toward liberalism, this show seems anything but. While the Bluths are often described as an
analogue to the Bushes, and the show revolves around mocking the War on Terror,
liberals get their fair share of skewering.
Michael’s twin sister Lindsay (Portia de Rossi) and her ambiguously
gay husband Tobias seem to be parodies of hypocritical, pampered limousine
liberals. Lindsay seems to have little
genuine belief in her liberal causes, and it seems to be mostly a product of
her rebellion against her parents, as is her marriage to Tobias, who for once
in television history is a closet homosexual who is not homophobic. They are
often negligent and far too permissive toward their daughter Maeby (Alia
Shawkat), who has no respect for them.
Particularly refreshing is the episode “Burning Love,” which seems like
it’s going to end up being a typically preachy anti-gun episode. In the end it simply uses the scenario for
comedy while poking fun at both sides.
It’s ironic that few Republicans seemed to havewatched this show, but I’ll
never understand the tastes of other conservatives. With the post-Obama radicalization of the
Democratic Party, however, I fear the writers of this show might not be so
balanced. It’s one of the main reasons I’m
ambivalent about Season 4.
On May 26 the
show will be revived as a Netfilx Original. I can’t
say I’m not excited, but as I said before I have my doubts. With seven years between this and the show’s
cancellation, it is reasonable to surmise that the writing will not be as
fresh. While the show’s marketing was
blamed for its poor ratings, I don’t think that the potentially annoying gimmicks that Netflix is trying are going to help appeal to anyone other than hardcore
fans. Another reason I’m doubtful is
that, while Arrested Development was always funny, I was starting to see
sharksign in the third season. Episodes
and humor were becoming more forced and there was definite flanderization. For example, Tobias’ latent homosexuality
wasn’t as big a factor, and by Season 3 he wasn’t even subtle about it. Buster started out as being a reluctant
prisoner of his dominant mother, then showing a suppressed Oedipus Complex, and
finally his perverse attraction to his mother wasn’t even a matter of
question. It’s just one thing to
consider, since I normally don’t like it when comedies sacrifice
characterization for laughs. I’m sure
the new season will be fun, but it’s a risk that may not be worth it. It’s always bad when a great show is
prematurely cancelled, but it’s still better than having a show live way past
its time to the point where it becomes a soulless, unfunny shell of its former
self that makes you forget how great it once was.
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SEASON 4 UPDATE
Well, probably
the most noticeable thing about the new season is how complex it is. The entire season is told in one period of
time from different points of view. The
show always had intertwining story arcs, but nothing like this. I admit it was very clever, but it seems to
lack focus. I might have to watch it
multiple times to get a lot of the jokes.
I know I missed a lot on the first viewing.
In Neo-Simpsons form, the show seems to be increasingly fascinated with gratuitous
celebrity cameos. One of the first
scenes in the new season features Seth Rogen and Kristen Wiig as younger
versions of George Sr. and Lucille. They are terribly cast. Neither of them look a thing like the two
characters, although Wiig is at least trying at a Jessica Walter impression. Even worse, the show was previously satisfied
to have Jeffrey Tambor and Jessica Walter play the roles with different clothes
and hairstyles. It’s especially flawed
when you consider that these new flashbacks take place during the same time
periods as the old ones.
I’m happy they’re
taking risks and trying new things with the writing, but a slight problem is
that all of the characters are on their own so we don’t get much of them
interacting with each other. The worst
part of Season 4 was that Michael and George Michael were stripped of any
likability they ever had in the previous seasons. As I said, Michael is my favorite character
for his straight man persona. It allows
his to be a foil for his family, and his snarky, realistic comments are the
funniest part of the show. Though there
were plenty of jokes in this season, it lacked Michael's usually funny dialogue
because Michael is now just as fucked up and corrupt as any other character in
this show. He actually becomes annoying
since his appeal is supposed to be the opposite of what he’s depicted as in the
new episodes. Michael’s role as a
protagonist could have provided the complex storyline with some focus, instead
of making it seem chaotic. He’s one of
my favorite TV characters, but this status does not apply to him in Season 4.
Another
problem I expressed concern over was the politics of the show. The political atmosphere has changed significantly
after the show’s cancellation in 2006.
Since Obama’s election, whatever vestige of sanity in the mind of
activist liberals is about as nonexistent as the Easter Bunny. Considering the increasing rabidity of TV
programs and that conservatives with my tastes are a rare breed, I was fearing
the worst. One bad sign is that a major
arc revolves around adulterous Republican politician Herbert Love (Terry
Crews), who is transparently based on Herman Cain (with maybe some Ron Paul
thrown in). This is tempered by the fact
that some of the liberal characters he exchanges words with are not really sympathetic
by any stretch of the imagination. A few
passive-aggressive swipes at Christianity are thrown in. One joke reveals that Tobias appeared in a
pro-life video as a fetus (it’s a funny idea, and I admit these things can get
really corny). Fortunately, that’s as
far as it goes on that issue. Most
disturbingly, Lindsay seems to come out of the closet as a conservative
strawman at the end of her arc. I always
loved how she was a refreshing example of the opposite. Still, I shouldn’t complain about that too
much. It could have worse. It could have a LOT worse.
It may not have the appeal of the first wave, but the plot is engaging
and even ends on a few intriguing cliffhangers.
I recommend watching the first seasons before checking this one out,
though. I'm not sure if it's worth it. I've been trying to rewatch these new episodes by I keep hitting a block when I realize that each episode focuses a lot on this annoying/tedious new character I don't give a crap about. UPDATE 2
Ok, so apparently the idea of a lifelong limousine liberal's running a successful Republican campaign based on a hardline immigration stance turned out to be freakishly prescient. But they're probably going to get drunk on that call and go way too far in the politics in the hopefully aborted Season 5.
