Reviews Series / ArrestedDevelopment

Series A show too brilliant for its own good.

Arrested Development wasn't a huge TV success. And it's completely understandable why, since it's incredibly offbeat and taking its own direction. It's still a brilliant show, however.

Michael Bluth is the Only Sane Man in a family of out-of-touch selfish rich people who have just lost all of their assets after the patriarch George Sr. has been arrested for fraud. Initially gung-ho to take his son and leave the family in the dust, Michael ends up sticking around and struggling to get any kind of decency or legal help from the horrible people he's always known. He continually fails to leave thereafter as it becomes clear he's too caught up.

The show is comedic genius. Running jokes are woven together such that callbacks are very easy to miss and no gag ever falls out of circulation. An old punchline can pop up again when you least expect it. The show also has brilliantly subtle foreshadowing in some of its dialogue and visual gags that rewards close watching. The show is always one step ahead and telling you to get on its level. The performances are also fantastic. They all feel authentic and real and they're pitch-perfect for hitting the comedy. Special mention has to go to the late Jessica Walter as the withering egocentric Lucille, Michael's mother, and Alia Shawkat really comes into her own as the junior con artist Maeby, Michael's niece.

The show does have an odd misanthropic tone that has been compared to British comedy. The point of the series is that nobody grows or changes as a person, and indeed, we even see the negative depths of more likable characters as the show goes on, especially post-revival, which turns the show into a story of how a toxic family corrupts the nicest people in it. That can be off-putting and it definitely feels like a bigger swerve for the revival seasons to follow, but I don't think it's implausible. Just unsatisfying. The show is also very much a product of its time in the initial run and Season 4, and while it's mostly just a time capsule, it also means the offensive edge of the comedy sometimes ends up punching down on minorities rather than up at bigots, which the show usually does successfully.

This is a brilliant comedy following its own weird muse that maybe followed it too far in the revival. The first three seasons, however, are a treat.

Series Masterpiece.

Nearly flawless in most regards, arrested development is probably the greatest comedy television series ever made. The cast is endlessly endearing, the pathos well-balanced with the comedy, the technical aspects excellent, and the foreshadowing a thing of beauty.