Arrested Development Series 4 Review
I really didn’t like this when I sat down to watch the first 3 episodes on Monday night (having originally thought it was released on Saturday, then realised after a drunken Sunday and most of a hungover Monday that it was indeed there). I felt that the show was suffering from the odd structure, lack of chemistry due to half the cast not being in the same room as each other, confusing pacing and Portia de Rossi’s hideous botox that made her look like a blow up doll of Kate Hudson (the perma-grin on Lindsey’s face also felt just plain wrong). Which is why it’s taken me this long to write a review when all my peers watched the whole lot on Sunday when it was released on Netflix. I didn’t realise this was a wonderful piece of work until it was reaching 11.30pm on Tuesday and I hadn’t done anything else except sit and watch Arrested Development after work that evening, and Lindsey finally cut her hair and looked like a human being again.
It’s not perfect, but boy is it funny. It takes quite a few episodes (I’d say about 5) to really get going, not just in terms of the increasingly insane story, but also for the writers to bed themselves back in. There’s some clumsy attempts to be Arrested Development again without the skill that they used to have to blend it in seamlessly, like the scene where Buster is inhaling Lucille’s smoke for her. Previously that would have been a 10 second cut away, but the writers sacrificed the style for the punchline, which took too long to build. Although I bet there are people jumping up and down whilst shouting that it was one of their favourite jokes, but it didn’t fit for me.
The thing I’m having difficulty doing is telling you what is great about it, because I can’t put it into words. With comedies like Arrested Development, it’s the feeling it leaves with you rather than anything you can pinpoint. What I can say is that if you sit down to watch this, you too will find yourself still in the same place six hours later and not caring that the day has passed you by. AD is at it’s best when it goes batshit crazy, and that’s exactly what this series does. For the most part, you won’t find the main stories interesting: Lucille and George are up to their old tricks (sorry, illusions) again and getting themselves into deeper and deeper trouble that, as the casual observer, you will struggle to follow, whilst Michael falls on hard times and finds himself in an unlikely love triangle and Lindsay and Tobias struggle to keep their on again off again marriage on track and go their separate ways … again. George/Lucille and Lindsay/Tobias are simply replaying what they have done in previous series and to be honest, not only do I not see Michael with Rebel at all, but I don’t think Michael would fall on hard times. He was a decent, bright and hardworking businessman with the only thing holding him back being his family. I don’t believe the pathetic individual he has become here. The thing that keeps you pressing the play button (or as I found on Netflix, not pressing the back button as it counts down twenty seconds until the next episode starts) is the other stories circling it: George Michael starting his own privacy software, Lucille 2 slowly but surely taking over the world, Maeby’s mysterious rise to fame and my personal favourite, Gob’s chaotic and meandering path to self discovery.
AD has always been a modern take on the classic farce, only instead of running through it in a thirty minute episode, it stretches it out through an entire series, with little hints here and nods there to what’s coming up and what you have seen before. Intricate doesn’t even begin to describe it and this is where it excels. It’s the glimpse of Maeby running past Gob with no explanation whilst we’re following his story; it’s George bumping into his daughter who is wearing a red wig with no explanation; it’s the dead dove in the freezer at Rebel’s place with an obvious explanation that you never saw. You know it means something, but you have no idea what and you must know now! It has also reached the point where self reference isn’t too smug, but a joy for the faithful follower. The pirate top that Tobias wears on the very first show being packed into his suitcase; Gob’s catchphrase ‘I’ve made a huge mistake’; the Segway; a younger Barry Zuckerkorn saying that a husband and wife cannot be arrested for the same crime.
This series still does suffer from the lack of screen time of it’s famous pairings, particularly Michael and Lindsey, Michael and George Snr, Lucille and Buster (who barely appears at all) and Gob and everyone else in the family. Everyone has sort of gone off to do their own thing, be it college, film producing, prison, colony racketeering or beekeeper/entourage member/rufie cycle victim. Inevitably, this being Arrested Development, it all weaves and folds in together, with each member of the family being entwined with every other one, despite not even seeing each other for a year. It also means it’s going to be very up and down when it comes to the structure. Each member of the main cast gets 1, 2 or maybe 3 episodes dedicated to them, telling the story from their viewpoint. Which means that things slowly start to reveal themselves as time goes on, but also you might get an episode where you go ‘Yes! Gob’ or an episode where you go ‘Oh, Michael’. Not saying that there’s any character you wouldn’t want to see, but because this was always meant to be an ensemble, there are some characters that are hilarious on their own, some that work well with particular members of the cast and some that are essential for everyone to bounce off but aren’t that funny on their own.
Overall this is a tough one for a fan to watch as it’s never going to live up to the first series, but it is a huge improvement on the quite frankly awful third series, which is more than I was expecting, but you do have to stick with it. Unfortunately, just as it’s drawn you in and made you hungry for more, it just stops. Just like that. There are loads of stories that don’t feel finished, and with a series that’s future is always evolving and shifting (creator Mitchell Hurwitz previously wanted a film, then said there would be a TV series to prepare for a film, and now he’s saying he wants a fifth series as well which Netflix have unofficially given the greenlight for) with mixed reviews thrown in as well, I’m not sure that’s wise. I’d hate for the whole thing to collapse and never get tied up. Especially seeing as it’s come back and even in it’s mediocre moments shown the other comedies out there how it’s done.
7/10
