The Arrested Development series is done. It has not officially been announced as such, but Fox took their last four episodes of the season and shotgunned them back to back against opening night of the Olympics. They're obviously done with it.
So am I. I've been a fan of the show, and I appreciate the unique character and flavor of what they've created. I've managed to watch most of the episodes over three seasons, and I tuned in tonight a bit sad and nostalgic. Damn those Fox bean counters!
But then I watched what they're actually putting on the screen at this point, and it became very clear that it is time for this series to go. Beyond any network commercial considerations, this show is pretty well totally creatively spent.
It jumped out tonight that in fact the entire series suffers from a severe case of arrested development. Exactly that premise doomed the series as a long term thing. These characters were amusing, but limited and not going anywhere. They aren't growing or developing, and there's no place for them to go. Thus likewise for the series.
It started out amusing several seasons ago. The individual neuroses of the various characters were a little different than anything else I've seen, and the fussing and resentments were pretty cute for awhile. But in truth, these characters are pretty two-dimensional. They were never really going to develop into interesting long term characters exactly because of the arrested development premise. It was never in the cards for them to become Bunkers or Simpsons.
The show was always very arch, and this limited the capacity for pathos or real long term investment in these characters. Even evil cartoon Cartman on South Park has far more real poignancy than any of these characters.
But it made up for that for a good while just by being funny. When they had George Michael battling Uncle Tobias in the Godzilla suit, stomping through the model home set in front of their Japanese investors, that was pretty sharp writing. Keep coming up with stuff that funny, and it doesn't matter so much if the characters aren't developing.
But they're not coming up with more stuff that funny. The mock trial of the dad tonight was just dumb, WAY not creative genius. They wanted a mock trial to practice for Dad's treason trial, so they had it on the set of a new Judge Reinhold court show with, of course, guest Judge Reinhold. See, it's a Judge Judy thing, and his name is Judge. Get it? Worse, they milked probably a good five minutes of screen time on that one lame, painfully obvious joke.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Matthew T. Sussman
"It jumped out tonight that in fact the entire series suffers from a severe case of arrested development."
Excuse me, my Clever-O-Meter just exploded.
2 - Al Barger
Yes, I grant that was clever. However, I justify that by giving the clever premise a proper development.
3 - nadum215
Sometimes, trying to go against the grain leaves you with nothing but a contrived bunch of nonsence. First and last gibberish I'll read from you.
4 - Dude
You misspelled Gob.
5 - Chris
1) You misspelled Gob.
2) It was Tobias in the mole suit.
Definitely the last article of yours that I'm reading. The characters aren't developing? The entire point is that they're in a state of arrested development. Hence the title. Good job missing the entire concept.
6 - Kirbee
You criticize brilliantly written humor with a seemingly superior tone. Here you go:
"It jumped out tonight that in fact the entire series suffers from a severe case of arrested development."
OH REALLY?
Never would have come up with that gem.
And you cite character development in the Simpsons. Are you mad?
Marge is a housewife who is only suited to that, Homer is still a bumbling fool who drinks and has no regard for the feelings of others until it hurts him, Bart is still a little punk, and Lisa is a smart girl with no friends.
The Simpsons has really only developed two things: a huge fan base and its animation style.
On the other hand, Arrested had amazingly complex storylines that wove within each other until the very end.
The jokes are funny because they're brought up again and again. Allusions to real life make us laugh, and the show is just as much a parody as a sitcom.
Not to mention William Hung was hilarious.
7 - Bob
I pretty much agree with the other people in saying that you are in fact in idiot for writing such crap. You call this a review of the finale, when you are just bagging on the most meaningless crap. If your a real fan of the show, as I and all of my closest friends are, then maybe, i could see you saying this shit out of angst that tonight was infact the end of the series (at least on fox, im still holding out for showtime, but not holding my breath). Its clear though your not. Your a damn fool, who talks with a seemingly superior voice when all your doing is putting down a show that is briallant, was brilliant, and was ended early not for lack of brillant writting/acting ect. but because the idea of people having to think to get jokes scares the execs at fox(im guessing theyre real target audiance is retards like you). They much rather people sit down, and watch the pretty flashing lights of a satyrical masterpiece like skating with the stars or prison break. Neither of these shows match arresteds pedigry. AD is/were the best show in tv, (history i ask?) and was wronged by fox. Im glad its over, as anyone who not only doesnt announce the airing of the final episodes, but also launches the episodes on the night of the opening ceromony of the olympics? Go to hell fox. And you sir(I use this term loosly), I dont know you, but based on your idiotic ramblings, i can say that your not worthy to pick up mitch hurwitz's (or anyone that has anything to do with arrested development) dog's shit.
8 - Sterfish
While I certainly disagree with Al's take on these last four episodes, I have to admit that four episodes is probably too much Arrested Development in one sitting.
I enjoyed these shows immensely but I was almost worn out of funny by the time the last episode aired. I thought it was wonderful, mind you. However, I probably would have really thought it was better if I had a wee bit of breathing room. It's the same feeling I almost get during NBC's back-to-back Scrubs.
I IMed with my sister during the show (I finally got her onto the show this season) and she said something a little bittersweet:
"I wished I had started watching this show sooner."
9 - HughHef
Well it sounds like you completely missed the whole point of the 2HR finale. They have known that they were going to be canned early on in the season probably around the 7th episode so these last episodes were used to tie everything in together, that's why they were using the repitition and same jokes from the past...I loved it especially with the new twists such as Lucille being the mastermind and George Sr. was the real patsy. I can't believe you failed to understand this. It's not like these last 4 episodes we written at the onset of the season whereby using the same jokes would get kind of old; they knew they were getting canned so they wanted to tie things up and give little easter eggs to the fans who have been there since the start. Well you sound happy it's over, have fun watching the crap comedy out there such as 2 1/2 men, George Lopez, or whatever other show needs a laugh-track to tell the public what is funny and what's not....
10 - dan
If using the phrase "jumped the shark" is supposed to make us think you know what you're talking about, using it twice in one review must make you a critical genius. So I thank you for sharing that with us.
But I understand your resentment. You're hurt. We all are. And it's horrible that there's only one good comedy left on the air (and nothing on the way, judging from Fox's commercials last night), but lashing out does no one any good, Al.
11 - Jim
Were you drunk when you wrote this? It sounds like a college term paper written after a frat party.
12 - Newill
I don't understand how you managed to trick anybody into letting you write this tripe for public consumption and where you get off claiming you were a "fan" of a show when you can't even get main characters or major situations right, and I won't respond to you.
13 - Kelsey
Why was this so horribly researched? Couldn't you be bothered to check up on the show you're writing a lengthly piece about?
Anyway, I'm adding another problem: "It started out amusing several seasons ago." There have been 3 seasons, tops. So several for you equals, what, 2?
14 - Bob Loblaw
For a self-described fan of the show, you really don't seem to get it?
The complaints you have of the self-referential and repetitive aspects of the show have been there from the very outset of the series - and remain one of its greatest strengths. Its always how far and where they'll push it that kept me laughing and coming back for more of their sick and twisted genius. I mean if you didn't know that G.O.B. was going to hook up with Anne from the moment she came in third at the Inner Beauty Pageant earlier in the season, you really weren't paying attention (and they even highlighted it for you by pointing out her camel-tow!) Arbitrary indeed?
And as stupid as it was, the Hung Jury had me pissing myself - to follow it up with Bud Cort? Brilliant! And that was the weakest episode tonight.
Best thing I can say about your "review" was at least you watched even if you really didn't get it - sadly it seems most of America did neither.
15 - "Creatively spent?!"
"Creatively spent?!" That means a hell of a lot coming from the guy who just wrote the following sentence: "In particular, they've absolutely six kinds of worn out the incest theme".
Read that out loud. That's not just a typo, that's incomprehensible by any standard. Here's an idea for you Al - go back to grade school, finish your studies, and then stop writing this nonsense just to piss off Arrested Development fans. They're good people.
Your criticism that a plot point was "arbitrarily dropped in" by the show's writers is probably the most absurd thing I have ever heard come out of a bipedal's mouth. EVERYTHING IN THE SHOW IS ARITRARY. It's fiction, super-genius.
Oh, and by the way, the Judge Reinhold joke was hilarious and everyone knows it.
16 - Eh?
The comments seem kind of one-sided. To a certain extent it shows that the fans the show does have are pretty hardcore.
I thought that the final four shows were excellent. Obviously the writers had a contingency for the rest of the full season, so I find the idea that they were struggling for jokes for four shows unrealistic. Yes, squeezing a lot into those shows might have cramped their style, but they didn't cancel the show.
Gob in Iraq absolutely cracked me up (as he always does - surely the star of the show?). And Judge and Hung were funny because they were completely unexpected.
17 - everysandwich
I don't care if characters "aren't going anywhere." In fact, I'd rather they stayed right where they are (pre-cancellation, of course.) Situations and circumstances change, the characters remain the same. Like old friends or crazy relatives.
18 - eff you
Al, i hope you didnt get paid for that review, but it would make sence. FOX are such assholes. I dont think the 3rd season aired consecutively even once. They always split it up with like 4 hours of that god awful prion break show or something. I guess knowing that they couldnt compete with the olympics, they figured they screw the show just one more time.
anywho, Anne looked hot. And at least we still have Aqua Teen.
19 - Professor Chaos
Part of me thinks that you wrote this review out of morbid curiosity, just to see what kind of replies you'd see from this "hardcore" fan base that Arrested Development is so famous for.
Are may of the jokes repetetive? Yes. Are many of them stale? Hardly. The chicken dance is a good example. It was funny, and continued to escalate with the various members of the family having their own unique dance. And after the mass chicken dance this season, they stopped it because they knew they had taken it as far as it would go.
Now I'm sure you are going to get plenty of angry comments here that you will use to generalize AD fans as blindly following the show to its grave. What you may overlook is that the vast majority of fan's comments will be like this one, in complete sentences and without using vulgarity to prove our point. Personally I can't think of another show that inspires such a rabid, yet relatively classy, cult following. I think that alone says a lot about the show.
As far as I am concerned, AD still has a lot of milage left in it.
20 - Bo Didz
The fact that your review hasn't received any praise should tell you something. The fact that you can't remember what character does what should tell us something. It sounds like you were never a true fan of the show. After looking at your video fan pages, I can see why. AD stands out among all most of those boring and contrived shows you have listed. Bernie Mac...COME ON! Are you serious? Instead of complaining about the last four episodes, give the writers, and actors, and all involved some credit, for keeping such high standards and plot twists knowing full well that they were being hung out to dry in this land of retard-comedy loving fools. The only hope one could have that this is the best hoax that a TV network could pull on a most deserving audience, as they still label it a "season finale" not a "series finale."
BD
21 - Sister Ray
I've been a casual watcher of this show over time. It was funny but probably too self-referential. I don't want to have to watch a comedy week-in, week-out to get all the jokes. I don't think that means I'm "stupid." I just don't watch TV that much.
I agree with Al about the "Judge" joke being overdone...and if you're borrowing a William Hung joke from "American Idol," you don't have a lot of room to sneer at the rest of TV. The part in which the guy doesn't realize the woman is a prostitute until too late was funny, but that plot device has been done once or twice before in the history of comedy.
22 - AdamK
I'm confused Al, did you ever watch the Sho (See how I spelled that, www.sho.com aka Showtime's website), I mean really watch it? Because from what you wrote it seems like you missed a lot. Which is why it's off the air now, but hopfully not for long. I'm amazed that people who can spend years analyzing soap's and know every play of every Monday Night football game can't apply that same attention span to such a great sitcom. I'm also sick of people who think not watching TV that much makes them better than the rest of us who do. COME ON! See that's and inside joke, and if you watch, I mean really watch AD you're laught now. But if you're Al I'm sure you're already watching your TIVO'd Two and a half Men, or King of Queens. Which might be the best GOB (Short for George Oscar Bluth) joke ever. The finale was something for the fans, and we love Mitch for them, there are dozens of us, DOZENS!!!!! OH, one more thing Al, in the Episode that "Jumped the shark", Henery Winkler AKA Barry Zuckercorn AKA the Fonz actually jumped over the Shark that ate the seals fin, marking the funniest part of season two and making fun of the whole "jump the shark" referance to them jumping the shark with the Buster losing his hand gag. Pay attention and eventually you'll get it, Maeby.
23 - Al Barger
OK, Adam. But the fact that they recognized and gave play to the jumping-the-shark theme does not mean that they were not figuratively jumping the shark in the metaphorical context. It was still jumping the shark, and that's just them acknowledging it.
Plus, the Henry Winkler thing was just more piling on with the pointless insider incestuousness of the show.
Again, as I said originally, the show had it's moments. But folks who say that mindless nonsense like the Judge Reinhold/William Hung crap is some kind of comedy genius are just being chauvinistic. And by the time the same joke is repeated a couple dozen times, it's gone from being a motif to mere repetitive foolishness.
Not to pick on Adam, who's friendly in his criticisms, but some of y'all are basking in some TOTALLY unearned smugness here. Why, anyone who doesn't see the comic GENIUS in putting William Hung on their show is an idiot who just doesn't get it, obviously a downmarket King of Queens fan. See, it's a courtroom show and sometimes courtrooms have "hung juries" and his name is Hung. Get it? GENIUS!
24 - Micky
You Really Dont Watch This Show do you? You've missed the entire plot and gotten parts completly wrong.
25 - Mr.T
Yeah, I hate shows where the characters don't develop. What was that one show that was not popular or funny at all? The one which didn't last 9 seasons because the characters were very 2-dimensional and didn't evolve and grow into real people?
Oh that's right, it was Seinfield. Yah, that show SUCKED because the characters did not grow over time.
This was my first and last article of yours that I'm reading. The writing style and choice of oh-so-witty phrases makes me think of somebody who is desperately trying to appear hip.
You seem reeeaaally Hung (get it?) up on this Judge Reinhold and William Hung thing. Have you seen most of this series? These last 4 episodes were filmed with the knowledge that they were the end of the series. They were not trying to win back viewers with these episodes, they were not trying to increase their ratings, they were giving serious fans of the show a treat.
You don't come across as someone who's actually watched many episodes. To judge the series on these last 4 episodes which were not aimed at the casual/non fan seems silly.