Arrested Development (season 4)
{4.5/5} “I like the plan. I just wonder if we’re not in a treason-adjacent place where the government will retaliate and execute us.”
Michael and George Michael are both in college — in fact, they’re roommates. Michael later gets involved with making a movie based on his family — of course, he has to get the rights from each family member. George Sr. has created a retreat in the desert for top executives and Lucille is in jail. Lindsay is on a spiritual retreat in India and Tobias, somewhat coincidentally, is also in India. Tobias later creates a musical version of The Fantastic Four starring his girlfriend but he doesn’t have the rights. Gob is dating Ann, George Michael’s ex-girlfriend. Maeby keeps flunking out of high school to try to get her parents’ attention — somehow she also became a movie producer.
Arrested Development season 4 originally aired in 2013. The first three seasons ran between 2003 and 2006.
This season is structured a bit differently than normal. Likely because the actors had all gone their separate ways and were difficult to bring together all at once, each episode focuses on one character and brings in a few of the others.
It’s full of coincidences and misunderstandings. Once you see a few episodes they start showing you scenes from a different perspective — like Battlestar Galactica: The Plan except funnier.
The storyline is certainly clever. As for the humour, it’s up and down. It didn’t find it quite as funny as I expected to. My memory says that the first three seasons are 5/5 but I would have to watch them again to be sure.
Since the characters are mostly unlikeable, you might want to limit yourself to one episode per day (or something).
If you’ve seen the show, you’ll want to watch this season. If you haven’t seen the show, I encourage you to start at the beginning.
Jeffrey Tambor (the TV show The Larry Sanders Show) plays George Sr. (and his twin brother Oscar) and Jessica Walter (the TV show Archer) plays Lucille. Jason Bateman (Juno) plays Michael and Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) plays George Michael. Portia de Rossi (the TV show Ally McBeal) plays Lindsay, David Cross (Megamind) plays Tobias, and Alia Shawkat (Whip It) plays Maeby. Will Arnettt (The Lego Movie) plays Gob and Tony Hale (the TV show Veep) plays Buster.
Ron Howard (the TV show Happy Days) is the narrator. He also plays himself in a few episodes.
Henry Winkler (the TV show Happy Days) plays inept lawyer Barry Zuckerkorn and Liza Minnelli (Cabaret) plays Lucille Bluth’s rival Lucille Austero. There are a bunch of other special guests.
The show was created by Mitchell Hurwitz (the TV show The Ellen Show).
July 1st, 2018 at 9:16 pm
Season 5 is absurd but not really funny — it seems Buster is the only character who has a chance at being funny anymore. I’m not going to watch it all.