My people are from Kentucky, but even I've never seen as much damned incest as the Arrested Development series finale having sex with itself.
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.…
Article comments
— go to most recent comments76 - Sleepy-full
I never watched Dark Angel. I will admit that I enjoyed Titus, as I enjoyed Arrested Development.
I really don't see the Simpsons characters as dynamic. Even in that show, it has some things that are referred to from previous episodes. However, I watch the show so infrequently that I can really only think of Homer's catchphrase. I'm sure that anybody else would be more useful than I am at this.
Arrested Development had, in retrospect, a lot of foreshadowing (The stuffed seal, for instance). Maybe it's because I've seen the pilot 2 or 3 times, but I understood that the last episode was a call-back to the pilot. I don't really believe it required much intelligence, though. It just made me want to watch the first episode again. More as a result of nostalgia than a lack of creativity.
The last episodes seemed rushed, I will admit. Maybe it's because they had to go through that whole "tying up the loose ends" thing.
I'm sorry that you were unable to fully appreciate a great show.
77 - juu
alot of talk about it being too repetitive (not being creative enough) but thats arrested development. its the inside jokes that you take pride and happiness in. laughing because you get something others dont because their not a "bluthie" its this kind of thing that puts you at a more personal level with the show.
im satisfied with the ending, it tied up some ends but left it open enough for you to come up with new conclusions.
this show was for die hard fans and why shouldnt the writers and actors have some of thier own personal jokes or cameos or whatever the hell they want in there? it makes for good trivia
78 - I will not let this make me eat
You, Sir, Are a mouthful,Although I do agree it's fine not to like a show.This isn't Russia.
It's a pity your article completely missed the point, though. Whilst obviously not to your taste, surely you could see enough in the 1 or 2 episodes you actually watched.
Enough to recognise this as the best sitcom for a generation, and in many peoples opinion the finest Television sitcom of all-time. The 53 episodes quite likely represent the absolute pinnacle of the genre, a template for the perfect sit-com which was just a little ahead of its time.
Mitch and the cast knew the importance of these 4 episodes to the fans. I think they delivered in style.No amount of badly researched and written blogs can change that.
I think this article may prove to be the author's own Shark Jump. I hope that callback isn't too stale for you.
79 - Seth
Dude, you're an idiot. The show was amazing, easily the funniest thing on television, and it was just too smart for most people.
80 - Mike Roth
I think the show is great, it has a wit that is unique most shows are trite i mean they focus on two things that are considered FCC (sex or farce[not even well done farce]) safe and the other half of the spectrum of TV is realiaty crap which is just not "real" or enertaining.
The article, the writter missed some of the points of the show. And his writting style is just not what i want to read or care to read. But i found the last one to be a good sendoff or a good way to begin life on a new network.
But seriously, there are very few shows on the air that actually care to try to be funny, or on the edge, AD did this by making jokes that most adults could get without being as low key to actually explain it. The greatness of anyshow should be watching it multiple times to understand everything that happened, and having story lines that span and actually refrence back to the story made it just enthralling and addicting to view over and over and over again.
- Mike
81 - Al Barger
Sleepy-full, I'm not sure I'd call the Simpsons characters "dynamic." They're in a basic sense static. They don't even age, let alone change. Marge Simpson is basically the same personality as in 1989 when the show started.
But yet the characters have grown over time. They have become very baroque over time. They've added many layers of nuance, and really exploited the internal dynamics of the characters and relationships. Indeed, they've done that with the whole town. Even the bully has developed a fairly fully formed personality.
82 - The Muffin Man
You'd better eat those muffins I sent you.
83 - GrantMichael
Hello Al.
After reading your article and all of the readers criticisms and critiques I found I needed to go back and reread your article. This is an impressive feat given I struggle to read something even once.
I find it disheartening to hear so many "fans" of the show degrade themselves by attacking you and your intelligence merely because you didn't like the direction the show was going in the end. I feel you are entitled to that opinion and the right to share it as a journalist (despite my disagreement). Many people have already pointed out why they found the plot and rehashed jokes as well as the undeveloping characters appropriate to the aims of the writers, given that the target audience was no longer a larger fanbase but the diehard Bluthie fans they already had. And, given the content of the majority of your feedback alone, I would say that the writers were an immense success.
There are very few shows on television I can watch and truly laugh out loud. An occassional smile or snort is the most I give while an expressionless glazed eyed look overtakes me with the likes of Four Kings and Will and Grace. Not that these shows are horrible but I find it exceptional when a TV show can make me actually laugh like The Office (both BBC and 2nd season of US), Family Guy, or Boondocks. In the case of Family Guy I just can't help laughing at a good fart or off-color joke on occassion. No show, however, has ever managed to keep me consistently laughing minute after minute, episode after episode in the same way as AD.
Even at the onset of the second season when the writers moved to a more slapstick approach to their humor in an attempt to gain more of a followership I was thrown off at first but grew to love those episodes and the character "development" that ensued.
I have yet to meet someone who can go an entire episode without laughing even once. That is something that no other television show I have ever watched has been able to achieve. The last four episodes were not, in my opinion, evidence of the collapse of a dried-up, washed-out comedy but a comedic tour-de-force, taking all of the humor that made AD great and beautifully reintegrating it into the perfect resolution to one of the greatest comedies ever.
84 - Ron Howard
[quote]I have yet to meet someone who can go an entire episode without laughing even once. That is something that no other television show I have ever watched has been able to achieve. The last four episodes were not, in my opinion, evidence of the collapse of a dried-up, washed-out comedy but a comedic tour-de-force, taking all of the humor that made AD great and beautifully reintegrating it into the perfect resolution to one of the greatest comedies ever.[quote]
Narrator : And That's how you review a TV show
85 - analrapist
both "spentness" and "bludgeoningly" are not words. also, adding "ness" to words makes you look stupid.
86 - UK arts writer
Mr Barger, you should have taken your own advice and quit when still (a little bit) ahead. Somewhere around paragraph 2 would have been about right. I can't believe this piece ever got published.
87 - Music Critic
This article is WAY funny, y'all.I'm just 6 kinds of impressed.The spentness of my admiration is figuritively growing in the metaphorical context.
See what I did there, everyone who reads this will now believe me to be credible and insightful.
Also, does no-one on the staff here proof read? I find it hard to fathom a piece like this getting published.Reviewing is all about building trust with your readership.I certainly wont be visiting this site again.
88 - geddy
How many readers does this column average?
You can tell most of the people giving feedback are AD fans like myself, likely tipped-off to the existence of this article from fansites.
But you're not getting much support from "regular" readers are you? I suppose that's because your column is so poorly-written and sophomoric you don't have regular readers.
Your opinion is valid, and I'd encourage every AD fan that posts here to be civil and demonstrate we are classy people. But ultimately, your writing is pretty bad and doesn't deserve the amount of attention it's getting.
89 - Sister Ray
I think the post from "Jill Carroll" went over the heads of some of the brilliant minds so passionate about this show.
I grant that people who love AD are smarter than average. If you're *that* smart, though, why are you so emotionally invested in your own entertainment? Don't you have any more fulfilling ways to occupy your mind?
Virtually everybody in America has television. Since there are more people of average and below-average intelligence than people of above-average intelligence, the medium is going to skew to the majority. The smart people are outnumbered on the broadcast medium.
I wonder if some of these ardent fans truly enjoy the show itself, or enjoy patting themselves on the back for getting all those jokes the masses don't understand.
90 - GrantMichael
I enjoy patting myself on the back
91 - Kevin from Minneapolis
The thing about this show was that whatever anyone didn't like about it was why it was funny. Every thing you mentioned hating I now find extremely funny in light of your hating it.
Besides, it was the end of the show, of course they were going to run everything into the ground. Better that than leave a bunch of stuff unanswered.
92 - Wrong on so many levels..
If I could write like that, I'd have my own Alias-type show.
93 - Al Barger
If you could write like that, you'd be getting cancelled by Fox right about now after having failed to find a viable audience.
94 - Hermano
I'm having a very, very, very hard time understanding where you could possibly be coming from when you bash AD for a lack of character development, then in the same breath commend shows like The Simpsons, i.e. sitcoms, animated or otherwise. I love the Simpsons, but be realistic. Any depth that is displayed by any character in any episode is confined entirely to that episode. By next week, Homer is still dumb, drunk, and yelling at Bart, who is still getting in trouble at school and getting more attention than Lisa, who's still the intelligent, overlooked child. Marge is still the same, Maggie still doesn't talk, and the other characters fill their small roles, except for the occasional episode of focus, and rarely matter too much again. And this has been going on for 15 years.
Sitcoms, as a rule, don't use a lot of character development. Even the characters on the "gold standard", Seinfeld, had the same issues, the same neuroses, the same relationships with each other over the course of the entire run of the show. Arrested Development shined in its ability to go completely away from the cookie-cutter sitcom situations that shows like "Raymond" and "According to Jim" have lived on. The main stories (trouble with the Feds, Tobias and Lindsey's marriage, George Michael and Maeby's relationship) stayed the same, and kept those of us that loved the show coming back. My advice: Watch the "Save Our Bluths" episode. Mitch Hurwitz and Co. spell it out so well that even the least informed writer with a forum could see perfectly clearly why AD didn't follow the sitcom recipe, it broke the mold.
95 - Warren Sapp
Hee hee! Did Al just burn himself?!?
96 - DaveBluth
I am so happy you are getting killed on your own blog.
You are right about one thing though. - Just because you are an idiot, that doesn't make the AD finale a work of art... True. But your egotistical views are clouding the fact that YOU are NOT the filter that decides what is art. Arrested Development IS the filter that separates us from you - the idiot.
The fact that AD is a supurbly written, peformed and edited by geniuses to the state of perfection, makes it a work of art. And it takes a reasonably similar mind to get it. You do not, therefore, you are an idiot.
You can complain all you want about "lame" jokes playing off of people's names.. Judge and Hung... but that a pure Shakespearian concept for his comedies. He did that stuff all the time. ALL the time. Over and over. Just like AD. The only difference between Will and Mitch... AD uses real people's names.
One more thing... If you have sex with yorself its masterbation, not insest... - (and you ought to know this better than anyone) there is nothing wrong with that.
97 - jeadly
Why you got to be a playa hater? Don't you know that everyone reading articles about Arrested Development online LOVES Arrested Development?
98 - zingzing
christ... you people are worse than trekkies. arrested development was good for a couple of mild laughs now and then. it may be "the best sitcom on tv," but that's like saying "the best american idol ever." i found the show to be a bit full of itself, and, after giving it a good 5 or 6 chances to amuse me, gave up on it.
watch some fuckin' pbs. the jack johnson (not the fucking surfer dood) doc is on tonight. educate yourself. christ.
stop attacking al because he hates your stupid show. blogCRITICS. attack his opinion, should you like, but not his masterbation habits.
99 - Tom
Al, I think that something bigger was at play here than simply being "creatively spent." This show has been on the chopping block for a long time, and creator Mitch Hurwitz and the show's writers have had to live with the fear that at any moment Fox might pull the plug all together. Season three has suffered the most because of it - it's been far too hectic and crammed full of events to make it work very well. Watching season 1 makes it obvious that this is a staff under a LOT of pressure to make something work for a wider audience, and it just wasn't happening. The best word to describe the last year of AD is simply "desperate." It's really sad, because viewers who did give it a shot since early spring of last year were not treated to the full extent of what this crew is capable of.
In general, however, I have to strongly disagree with you about these four episodes - they were clearly the highlights of the season. Having an "end" of sorts in sight seems to have freed the writers to do take everything up a notch while giving the cluttered nature of the earlier part of this season some room to breathe as things were tied up. Mostly, I think maybe it's just you that was tired of the show, not that the show itself was tired. You're entirely allowed to feel that way, but don't blame the show for that.
100 - Not a Fan
With statements like "after giving it a good 5 or 6 chances to amuse me,[I] gave up on it.", what basis do you have for calling it a stupid show (post#99)
Why not just say that the show wasn't for you.You gave it a very brief chance, and it wasn't your thing. Calling the show stupid insults those who actually followed it closely. It also makes you come across as ignorant.
Would I be way off in saying that ZingZing is probably Mr. Barger, leaving one positive remark to fight the flames under an alias.
If not, you 2 definitely have the same witty style.Maybe ZingZang could get a gig on this site. It's an absolute travesty this column has got so many hits. This is really low-end journalism
101 - zingzing
oh, i'm not al. i wasn't really meaning to call this particular show "stupid" (even if i did), i was trying to point out that it's a fucking tv show, not something important. i was once at a bar and watched two assholes get into a shouting match (seriously) about whether the simpsons or family guy was funnier (seriously). come on. i would dismiss my favorite shows as "just a stupid show." it doesn't make me "ignorant," although there may be a bit of arrogance in it.
pointing out again that i am not al, i don't think it's "low-end journalism," other than the fact that it's about a tv show, and therefore unimportant... al can write and has a nice, conversational style. when he's not talking about a goddamn tv show, i'm sure he can write in a more professional style.
and if 5 or 6 chances isn't enough (it's 3 fucking hours of my life), then what is? i usually only give a show 1 or 2 chances, if i give it any at all. there isn't really a show on tv that i try to watch each week... can't even think of one that i even turn on the tv looking for. or anything i would always leave on. oh! king of the hill. i'd leave that on, if it were on. i'd watch nova. i love lucy. there you go.
102 - INM8 #2
I have a tough time coming up with a sitcom finale that was stronger, more amusing and more satifying creatively then "Arrested Development's". "Seinfeld" had its moments but it was too forced. "MASH" and "Cheers" were too senitmental and overblown. Frankly, I still think the "Newhart" finale is the standard bearer, but "Arrested Development" is right there among the best of the best.
I have never found a show more richly satifying to watch - one that puts other shows to shame more consistently - than A.D. It doesn't take a genius to enjoy it, just an attention span and a desire to work a little for bigger payoffs. That's where it lost some people.
Not every joke hit the mark, but there were so many to choose from, it hardly seems worth it to bemoan the one joke that didn't land when there were nine others that did.
I'm glad Al enjoyed the Godzilla vs. Jet Pack Boy scene - truly a hilarious, though admittedly low-brow - moment of comedy. But it was in an episode that's only about five episodes before the one he claims shows that the writers are creatively spent. To me, that doesn't seem like enough time between episodes to make a death bed judgement.
So I tip my glass of Cloud Mir to toast Arrested Development, the show that, in my opinion, never jumped the shark ... y'know, except for when Barry Zuckercorn jumped the shark. Thank you for raising the bar, even if you made everything else on TV look pedestrian in the process.
103 - mrbananagrabber
somebody is a rude gus, thats all.
104 - Never Nude
Its clear that the author just doesn't get the show.
He's one of the main reasons why a show like AD fails, but the overall Network TV crap-fest lives on. He deserves the one-dimensional characters he gets everywhere else on TV (despite what he said about the AD characters).
IMO, the characters on this show, as shallow and flawed and crazy as they are, are probably closer to the real-life than any dramatic series shot in "Orange County". What makes them lovable to me is that they ARE all so flawed.
I also love that the show refused to submit to the standard sitcom formats. There were very few 'heartfelt talks' or 'lessons' or a 'neat bows that wrap up the end of an episode'. And even when there were, they are often twisted into comedic brillaince (George Micheal telling his Dad that he made out with his cousin, as an example).
Which brings me to the 4 episode finale of AD (IMO, the best in TV history). Micheal Cera shined (as he did in throughout the whole series) and showed that he was just one of the many underrated aspects of the show. I've watched it several times now and each viewing has giving me some other little tidbit that I hadn't noticed before, the defining trait of this show, IMO.
I guess what I REALLY don't understand why you'd print an article like this, and then whine about getting attacked personally by the AD fans for it, it seems to me like you're trying to bait us.
What did you expect us to do? Let you bash our favorite show without giving you the bashing you deserve?
Nobody else in America who tuned out AD for the past 3 years is going to read this tripe, because they already chose not to watch the series. So that leaves the hard-core fans like me to read it, and respond to it.
As long as they are people like you calling yourselves "TV critics", I have a feeling I'll see more Reality TV, more standard laugh-track sitcoms, and fewer truly brilliant shows like AD.
At least its nice to know that you're a "Blog critic" and not actually getting paid by someone to write this junk.
105 - Daddy did a no-no
Mr Barger, feel free to use any of our feedback on your CV
106 - John Owen
Shorter last 105 comments:
"Neener neener neener, you don't like our sho-ow"
Wow... this is amazing. Some fairly judicious criticism about a TV show that threw the kitchen sink plus the dishes into their overbaked finale, and suddenly Al Barger is an ignorant half-wit. Well, that's what the inter-nets is for, I guess. That and pr0n.
Good thing you folks have never heard that our Al Barger hunts kittens for sport or the sh*it would really hit the fan.
107 - Franklin Comes Alive
You, sir, are an idiot. Nothing else really needs to be said.
108 - Jimmy-Cakes
Wow, I was going to say something critical about your review, but I think everything wrong with your "review" has pretty much been covered 40 different ways 40 different times in all these comments. So I guess I'll just say... hi.
109 - Just An Observer
Wow, Mr Barger, I don't know which is more impressive: the amount of heat you have taken for this article, or the fact that you actually take the time to read through and respond to your criticism. Maybe you are or are not a true avid viewer of the show (most of your references are from this last season) but I do think you missed some insight in you overly harsh review of the final four episodes. Yes, the Judge Reinhold/William Hung guest bits were seemingly pointless, but they served two purposes. They mocked how many TV shows used guest stars pointlessly, while doing it themselves to make a last stand to draw new viewers into the series. Your comment in #23 about 'Hung Juries' actually backs up this point. The AD writers did not put that in because it was actually clever, but because a TV Courtroom show with a 'Judge' who thinks it is more like a late-night talkshow, would have a gimmicky band like such. As for your actual criticisms, I agree to a point. The last episodes did seem overdone and forced, but only because they had so much to tie up and not enough time to do it. I disagree with your attacks on the staleness of recurring jokes, however. Early ones such as the peanuts theme would come and go only as long as they were fresh. These last episodes were more of a thank you for the fans who have been there since the beginning (with the exception of the guest stars), because to anyone who hasn't, which may or may not include yourself, it wouldn't be as funny. But maybe your right, and 2 1/2 season will end this sitcom whilest it is still great, and before it has a chance to stagnate as the Simpsons or other shows have.
PS- You would loose a lot of criticism if your writing was more terse.
110 - Mr. Bananagrabber
Heh heh, I was kind of annoyed at the petty/childish criticisms (which seem to mainly stem from a lack of understanding) aimed at AD in this article, then I was glad to see the author being completely shot down in the following comments. Good work guys.
111 - sifle
This review was terrible.Had I known the comments would be so entertaining I'de have skipped down to read them immediately.
I started watching this show randomly on and off until I was completely and totally hooked. For awhile I thought television was going to go some place wonderful for the first time since reality tv was created.
Unfortunately the masses (mooo baaaahbaaah) were not ready for it yet. :(
112 - mecsharpie
Information is incorrect, quotes are incorrect, and I dont' think I've ever said this before but your opinions and comments on the show are terrible enough to be incorrect. Going agaisnt the crowd was cool if you stuck up for Skating with the Celebrities, but claiming the characters are two-demensional and such without a hint of proof is just bad. Come up with a concrete argument, stick to one side, and try not to quote/spell incorrectly! This is the first article I have read from your site and it is definetly the last. I've never met a person with such odd, bad taste. You wouldn't know good acting if it marched through the doors and gave you headshots and decorative soap.
113 - Taking A Chubby
Wow. Terrible article. You now have somewhat of a mess on your hands Al Barger. I'm sure you were expecting a dry run though you nelly.
114 - Al Barger
Howdy, Chubby. Welcome to the party. I'd say this is a fine mess. Actually, this was a particularly good article. Generally, when a bunch of hateful schmucks come out and start losing their minds talking trash over how something I've written is awful and terrible, that means I've done something right- gotten right to the real issues.
Mecsharpie, for example, exhibits careful dishonesty in his desire to discredit me, claiming that I "misquoted" the show, which I certainly did not. Information in the article is 100% correct.
Hatas, if your best line of attack is that I misremembered which Bluth family member was playing Godzilla in a suit a year ago, then you might as well give it up.
The emperor has no clothes here. The show got a lot more chances than most shows do, and the public rejected it.
Even not liking the end shows though, I felt just a bit bad about them being cancelled- disappointing for the fans and all. I could imagine fans being a little blue, as I was when my beloved Titus got shitcanned. Lashing out like petulant children the way some of y'all have done, however, just makes other folks say "good riddance."
But y'all just keep up with your little temper tantrums here if'n it makes you feel better. Nursie will be around shortly with a nice warm bottle for your nap time, m'kay?
Observer (comment 109): You have some reasonable points there, and perhaps I've been just a little hard on AD one or two places. If folks were bringing their disagreements to me reasonable like you, I might would lighten up a bit.
But still, simply arguing that they KNOW the Judge Reinhold schtick is dumb does not make it smart. It's dumb, and they KNOW it's dumb- so it's still DUMB. To justify it artistically, they'd have to come up with some clever twist. They just didn't.
In my mind, saying that they know it's dumb but they're doing it anyway to make fun of dumbness makes it worse. It adds condescension to the dumbness.
And I especially am unimpressed with AD fans making arguments against the Simpsons. They continue as an example of excellence in broadcasting. They continue to be the gold standard, even if their excellence is not surprising as it was 15 years ago. That you might take their excellence for granted doesn't mean that it's not excellence.
115 - Sandwiches
Arrested Development is the most fabulously integrated shows ever. It is all pervasive, i can no longer keep a straight face in public when someone says the word 'her?'. i mean writers that come up with such gems as 'It's like we finish each others..sandwiches?' are deserving of Nobel prizes.
Lets not sit here pretending that this was not one of the best shows every written, acted and directed. The only explanation for it's demise was money. the cost an average of 1.2 million an episode. it drew between 3 and 6 million viewers. in the USA on a major network this is not fiscally viable.
Also anyone who watched the show for more than 3 episodes and did not like it can clearly be defined as those people who make up the numbers of 'dancing with the stars' and 'yes, dear'.
That was Arrested Development.
Signed: Still holding out hope that Showtime will pull through.
116 - GrantMichael
"But y'all just keep up with your little temper tantrums here if'n it makes you feel better. Nursie will be around shortly with a nice warm bottle for your nap time, m'kay?"
Good one Al! Maybe if you were writing for Arrested they wouldn;t have been canceled. That "nursie" line? True comic genius! Bravo to you sir! Bravo!
117 - El Bicho
Sorry, but your thinking that The Simpsons is still an example of excellence doesn't mean that it's excellence. It only airs because Fox has no other comedy hits and the prodcuers integrity can be easily bought.
118 - ania
Hello, I'm from Poland and I love this tv serial. I have seen all episodes. Today I saw last one ane I was sad tahat it's over.
119 - Al Barger
Arrested Development is apparently in fact gone for good. It appears that creator Michael Hurwitz more or less agrees with me. "A source close to the negotiations said that creator Mitch Hurwitz had decided after a lengthy period of debating an offer from Showtime that "Arrested Development reached its end, creatively, as a series."
120 - Bzuckerkorn
You sir are a mouthful of nonsense.
121 - will from post #44
dude you (and I!!) WERE right after all.
122 - Al Barger
Perhaps Hurwitz read this article and said, damn Al's right. Let's quit while we're ahead.
123 - Faydead
First of all I love this show, i own every season on dvd, however bashing a critic because of his criticisms isn't going to change his mind. People have different sences of humor. Probably why my father doesn't like The Big Lebowski, which is one of my favorite movies. I prefer having to think to get jokes, maybe even having to watch it more then once to get it all.
124 - Al Barger
Faydead, thank you for the display of civility in your disagreement. Still, I don't see how AD involved any significant amount of thinking to get the jokes, certainly by the end. Do you need a college degree to understand the incest jokes? And if it did take a moment of thought to get it the first time, it surely didn't take much thinking to get the 200th permutation of the same damned joke.
There was a largely unearned air of intellectual superiority to this series, similar to the unearned sense of superiority often displayed by various Bluths. The creators and the characters both come off like they're really impressed with their superiority, but the actual content of the show doesn't nearly justify such a high opinion of themselves - and devolved rapidly in the final third season.
125 - Quietus
Having William Hung in there was an amusing non sequitur. It wasn't as if it was some big, hyped celebrity guest star. You clearly do not have the taste for random, absurdist humor, so you might as well go watch "The War at Home."