The Development Of One Of Television's Greatest Comedies Has Been Arrested (Maybe); FOX Made A Huge Mistake
Unfortunately, I didn't get into Arrested Development until late in its second season. However, I was immediately hooked. I could see that it was a completely new kind of show, and far from your average sitcom. It's one of the few comedy series I've seen that is serialized, meaning that events of one episode carry over into the next episode. Also, it is probably the only comedy I know that, in addition to constantly referencing past jokes, it actually references FUTURE jokes! The show is done without a laugh track and is shot as a documentary, so the characters in the show sometimes react to the camera, and the camera sometimes reactions to situations in the show.
The second season ended brilliantly with George Bluth, Sr. (Jeffry Tambor) fooling authorities into arresting and incarcerating his twin brother Oscar (also Tambor). George's children Michael (Jason Bateman), GOB (Will Arnet), Lindsay (Portia de Rossi), and Buster (Tony Hale) vowed not to visit their "father" in...
FAREWELL TO ONE OF THE GREATS!!!
DVDs were pretty much invented so those few ARRESTED... fans could enjoy their favorite show over and over. What a brilliant series!!! Thank God I can watch it again. In Season 3, Fox moved this show around so many times, I had trouble taping all of them on my old-school VCR (although I'm sure glad I got the last 4 episodes, even though Fox buried them next to the opening ceremony of the Olympics and then didn't advertise them). BUT, you fans out there know how great it is to have them on DVD.
Season 3 was stellar. I've read a little griping that the quality slipped a little...okay, maybe from A+++ to A+. Still pretty darn good. The only story line that tired me a little bit was the stuff with Charlize Theron. She's a decent actress, but I found her British accent unconvincing, and I thought the story line went on too long.
Other than that, I've got no complaints. The episode where George Michael ends up in a retro looking flying jetpack, and flies over...
"They cancelled Arrested Development, and THIS is on the air?"
Those words are uttered almost every time I watch TV by myself or someone I'm with. It is fairly mind boggling that such a brillant comedy, with a great cast and tons of awards, could get kicked off the air... but it is utterly mind boggling how many horrible trashy sitcoms get to stay on the networks while the millons of AD fans are left with only three seasons.
Oh well, c'est la vie. At least we have DVDs to watch.
And AD is particularly suited to the DVD format as it is both highly narrative (for a sitcom) and highly self-referential. There are strong plot arcs that make you want to watch shows back to back and, more importantly, there are tons and tons of jokes that you will only get from repeated viewings. The self-referential humor (for example, how the house has blue handprints on the walls for the rest of the season after Tobias tries out for the Blue Man Group one episode) is just an example of the depth of comedy at work. Like The Big Lebowski or Mr...
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