Seven years after its cancellation, Arrested Development is back, and better and worse than ever. And also mostly the same.
I've seen plenty of bad reviews of the new season of Arrested Development, but these are generally knee-jerk comments by people who haven't watched the entire thing yet. They watched one or two or four episodes and decided that it was terrible and not the same as it was. Show creator Mitchell Hurwitz has crafted a hugely complex story here, and it does take awhile to really get going. At first, only the episodes starring GOB (Will Arnett, episodes 7 and 11) really stand out as being quite as piss-your-pants funny as Arrested Development's best. But the final four episodes are equally good, and reach the level of anything Arrested Development ever did.
The progression here is arguably similar to the way the series progressed originally. I am of the opinion that the Arrested Development pilot didn't completely work, and when I first watched it I didn't click with it and decided not to continue further. The pilot is largely setup. On a technical level, it's somewhat awkward, with overexposed outdoor location shooting, not terrific sound quality, and a cast that are still figuring out their characters. The show's key elements - vaguely documentary-style shooting, almost wall-to-wall music, running jokes, and a cast of self-absorbed characters that bounce off one another as actors - seem forced here, as if the people involved aren't yet 100% aware what sort of show they're making. The music in particular often drowns out the acting.
Things start to click even by episode two, and there are plenty of classic and much-quoted moments in Arrested Development's first few episodes, but still, the first season feels slower than the second and third. The shorter third season often comes off as too cartoony, with goofy storylines like "For British Eyes Only." But the pace increases as the series goes on, particularly since it's developed its famously layered running gags. Every episode of Arrested Development builds on and benefits from the episodes that came before. A shorthand is developed, where quick little gags appear referencing previous episodes. Some are subtle and only obvious on rewatching, freeze-framing and careful viewing. The series is extremely dense, with a very high joke-per-minute ratio. So watching the early episodes often feels like setup for the running gags we'll enjoy later. And they do feel slow at times.
So yes, the first episodes of Arrested Development Season 4 are a bit slow, and a bit of a slog to get through. They're slower than anything in the original series. There's a lot of story here, a lot of setup, and the show's new, unusual format - longer episodes following one character at a time - deflates the show's humor somewhat. The show really comes alive when characters interact with one another - Michael and George Michael, Michael and GOB, Buster and Lucille - and we don't get enough of that here. We get more story, with Ron Howard's narrator being used more than usual, and not for comedic purposes.
We also get more show. The Netflix series has 15 episodes, but these are longer than the 22 minutes an American network would give us. Episodes range from just under 28 minutes to just under 38 minutes, with an average in the 33-minute range. This makes this season significantly longer than season 3, and in the same ballpark as seasons 1 and 2. But this doesn't mean you're getting the same concentrated dose of layered, complex comedy as in the original series. I would say that season 4 is more complex, and the writing is every bit as sharp and clever as the original series, but you won't be doubled over in laughter and having to pause the episodes so you don't miss something. With no real time limit on the length of these episodes, the series takes its time.
And it's building. It's building to something bigger, which it arguably never gets to. Like the original series, the running gags start to pile up onto themselves, and the story piles up onto itself, leading to a final five or so episodes that are every bit as piss-your-pants funny as the best of the original series.
Along the way you'll sit through five or so episodes that are just as interesting as the original series and give an amusing insight into the characters, but which don't pack nearly the same punch.
Arrested Development season 4 is a puzzle, an enigma. It's a finely-tuned piece of clockwork, to a level you rarely see in any television series, let alone a sitcom. Every episode follows one of the Bluth family, and we see events from their perspective. The other characters are having their own storylines at the same time, and as each episode unfolds we get new information that changes the meaning of what we've seen previously, in often hilarious ways. Sometimes it's obvious enough - if a character's face is unseen, or if they're not seen clearly, there's probably a reason for that. Often, the series only shows us part of a conversation, then shows us more of that conversation, or a longer version, in a future episode. This feels a bit convoluted and withholding, and not nearly as much fun as the original series, but it pays off. It's no accident that the last few episodes are the best of the bunch; we have enough information about everything that's happening at that point that we're in on the joke. The early episodes also test our patience by asking how much time we really want to spend with characters like, say, George Sr.
Jason Bateman's Michael is an entirely different creature in Season 4 as well, and his episodes can be a bit hard to watch for that reason. Michael was often the funniest and most likeable character in the old series, since he was the most "normal" - his family being otherwise full of the cartoonishly self-absorbed. Michael was the straight man, the glue that held them and the show together against all better judgement, and his reactions to whatever nonsense they were up to gave the show a lot of dry humor. Without his toxic, selfish family to react against, we quickly realize that Michael's toxic and selfish too, in his own way - a desperate, haunted failure ruining the lives of those around him. This was something that the original series increasingly hinted at as it went on - that Michael is no angel, and is only likeable or cool or normal or competent by comparison. We often saw that Michael tried hard to be moral and do the right thing, but didn't necessarily want to.
The new series puts Michael to the test, and it's a test he eventually fails. Michael's scenes with George Michael are among the best in the new series, but they're also often dark and haunting. The series can be cartoonish, but neither Michael nor George Michael is a one-note cartoon character and their actions have real consequences. The series chooses to end on them, and leave things unresolved.
Funnier are the scenes between Michael and GOB. Will Arnett's gravel-voiced, incompetent magician is all ego and bluster, but with a terrified child somewhere in his eyes, and Arnett probes that side of GOB hilariously here. It's a brilliant performance, especially when playing opposite Ann Veal [Mae Whitman] and Tony Wonder [Ben Stiller], desperate for friendship, attention or love. GOB's episodes far outshine the ones preceding them.
There are dozens of cameos by the stars of other comedy series, and dozens of supporting characters and guest stars from the original show. This is by no means half a reunion. The show creators seem to have invited everyone back that they possibly could. It's a who's who of comedy. Rewatching the original series, you often see actors in small roles who are now famous as the stars of other shows and movies. Some of them were famous then. This series has the same feeling.
The major new guest stars are, in general, extremely well-cast. Isla Fisher is predictably adorable as love interest Rebel Alley. Terry Crews plays a very funny Herman Cain-like politician. Maria Bamford plays a fragile drug addict whom Tobias unfortunately takes under his wing. Max Winkler does an acceptable job impersonating his father Henry, while Seth Rogen fails to convince as a young Oscar. Kristen Wiig, on the other hand, does a broad and spot-on impersonation of a young Lucille Bluth, to the point where you actually want more with her. And who better to play the brother of Liza Minelli than 70s Broadway legend Tommy Tune?
It's difficult to resurrect such a beloved series, considered by many to be one of the great sitcoms of our time, on par with Seinfeld and The Office. Unlike those series, Arrested Development only lasted three seasons on FOX. It was a critical darling and award winner, but FOX claimed they didn't know to promote the show. Certainly it never fit in with the fratboy sensibility FOX has traditionally cultivated. As Maeby put it, "Why are we even going after this idiot demographic?" The last few episodes of a shortened season three actually referenced the show's woes, and the network notes stating that the shows' characters weren't likeable, and that they get into complex problems with no quick and easy solutions.
I'm reminded of the idiotic promos that Eliza Dushku and Summer Glau of Dollhouse and The Sarah Connor Chronicles had to do for FOX … "Heyyy boys" type come-ons that showed FOX figured its viewers would watch for "hot chicks" rather than the unfolding mysteries, dense storytelling and social commentary Dollhouse for one was actually delivering.
Fan-favorite cult series like Red Dwarf, Futurama and Family Guy have all come back from cancellation with varying levels of success. Futurama lost its heart to an extent and became similar to late-period episodes of The Simpsons, going for lots of easy jokes at the show's own expense. Family Guy conquered the "idiot demographic" successfully, perhaps too successfully, becoming the big hit its first seasons never were. I haven't watched enough of the Red Dwarf revival to really comment, but its heart was certainly in the right place.
But unlike Firefly, Arrested Development was not designed for a cult audience. It was and is a mainstream American sitcom, very Los Angeles-y and staffed by industry veterans. Ron Howard produced and narrated. Jason Bateman starred. The show's only crime was being so well-written and funny that it didn't make sense to cancel it, even though critics knew it as "the best show you're not watching." Seinfeld was not high-rated either, early on. FOX showed enough faith in the show to keep it on for three seasons, but it came to an end regardless. David Cross ranted about the failure of FOX to market the show at the very end of the season 2 gag reel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bRO-miii-oSince the show's cancellation, its entire cast have been very much in-demand as actors, and it was difficult to get them back together for the new season. Only two scenes were shot featuring the entire main cast together- a scene intended to directly follow the season 3 finale, and a get-together in Lucille's apartment. For the rest of the season, we usually only see two main cast members together at one time, and there is plenty of green screening to bring characters together when scheduling didn't permit it. There's one awkward scene between GOB and Oscar in the final episode, for example, and sometimes a closeup of an actor will stand out badly as being green-screened, including certain shots of guest stars like Andy Richter, Liza Minelli, and Henry Winkler. These are generally shots which were probably an afterthought or reshoot. Lucille has a cathartic song number in a Tobias episode, which for some reason was shot greenscreen - badly - rather than putting her against a simple pink wall. There is probably a lot of greenscreen in the new season, it only standing out when it doesn't work. Digital matte special effects of the model home and a sauna cave are quite bad as well.
This, combined with the intricate and often obfuscatory storylines, could easily lead to a coldness and disconnected feeling in the series itself. And to an extent, it does. These characters are designed to play off of one another, and on paper it probably shouldn't work to have a solo Buster episode, for example, although the resulting episode is still easily one of this series' best. This is a great cast of actors who you want to spend more time with, and so the whole series works. But it's still a shame that there's not more interaction between the entire family; the series suffers somewhat for it.
It's well worth rewatching the original three seasons, or at least large chunks of them, before diving into the new episodes, as there are tons of callbacks to the previous episodes, and little jokes that require a good knowledge of the show's events and guest stars. I ran a marathon of the whole thing on my Livestream, watching episodes when I felt like it, and this helped me a lot in appreciating what was going on.
There is some borderline racist humor as the Funkes visit India and the Bluths maintain a shaky relationship with the Chinese. The Chinese in particular are shown in a cartoonish, stereotypical way. Sexuality and gender issues are a bit problematic as well, especially in George's storyline. However, this sort of thing has always been in the series' DNA to an extent. In series 3's "For British Eyes Only" arc, we visited "Wee Britain" and met various British characters not played by British people. That arc even gave us "Wee Britain's" one American restaurant, which portrayed America as cartoonishly ridiculous as well. Jokes about Halliburton and Herman Cain and America in general have always been in the background somewhere, so the series is, to an extent, an equal opportunity offender. The series is realistic in comparison to The Simpsons or Family Guy, which have always worked hard to portray other countries in the most ridiculous way possible. Great Britain, certainly. And if you visit Japan, you're going to get attacked by Godzilla … a joke which Arrested Development did as well, but much more cleverly. At heart, this is a very silly series, and a series which is also about American egocentrism, so we shouldn't really expect more than cartoonish depictions of other countries here. But scenes with a Chinese women's prison gang feature Mahjong, a man in drag, and drawn-out jokes about how they pronounce things. The show should really be better than that.
The cast are now ten years older than when they shot season 1, and it shows to an extent. This makes scenes set immediately after the season 3 finale feel a little strange, but the original series was like that too. It never had any issue with sticking Jeffrey Tambor or Jessica Walter in a wig and shooting unconvincing "flashback" scenes. This has occasionally been treated as a literal joke, such as sticking L.A. news anchor John Beard into a "70s" flashback. [Beard returns in a big way for season 4, and is terrific.] Age certainly shows on the series' younger stars, Michael Cera and Alia Shawkat, though they've lost none of their charm, and are given a lot of great stuff to do as actors.
There are, as ever, a lot of subtle jokes that the internet will be discovering gradually, I'm sure - like how George Michael replaces one embarrassing celebrity name with another.
So, did Arrested Development mount a perfect comeback, just like it never left? That's up to you. There's a lot of evidence either way. My feeling is that if you give the new series a chance, you'll come into it feeling that a lot of things have changed and the pace is much slower, but that by the end you'll feel it's exactly the same show, and had a really rewarding experience. The whole season is up to standard, and nearly half of it is up to the show's best standard.
In the end, the problem with Arrested Development Season 4 is the same problem season 1-3 had. There simply isn't enough of it. Mitchell Hurwitz and the team wrote this complex new storyline with the expectation that it will lead to more of this stuff. Many storylines are left unresolved, especially in comparison to the way the season 3 finale tried to tie things up with a little bow. Characters like Lucille Austero and Steve Holt and Rebel Alley are still a big question mark, to say nothing of the plans and schemes and huge mistakes that the entire main cast have been building toward the entire season.
There's supposed to be a movie. There should be a movie. This is already planned out and written, and needs to occur so that we can see more of this, see more of what this storyline has been leading to. The series shouldn't end like this.
And I mean that as the highest compliment possible.
So, recommended? Obviously. While some of it is a bit odd in comparison to the original, it's obviously a series that every fan of Arrested Development needs to see and love.
And if you've never seen Arrested Development, you've missed one of the greatest American sitcoms of our time. So, get on that.