Arrested Development: Season 4 (Initial Thoughts)

Now the story of a hilarious TV series that lost everything, and the one streaming service that had no choice but to keep them all together...

2003 was a magical year. Enjoying my first year of college, making new friends and embracing the anarchy of living in the dorm.

There were also a couple of pimply-faced freshman on the TV scene in 2003. A documentary-style comedy about this... paper company in Scranton, PA? Awkwardly offbeat, but almost instantly addictive. I remember watching the first 2-3 episodes every single night after we discovered the show. Then when the next episode came out we added it to the rotation.

But this post is about Arrested Development.

I first heard about this Fox series in May/June of 2003. At that point the first season may have been just finishing, I can't remember. The first couple of episodes didn't really wow me like The Office. But it was summer time and I had nothing else to watch. So I soldiered on. By episode 8 or so I was totally hooked. The Bluth family had won me over with their absurdity, pomposity and Tobias Funke's unforgettable lines. An aside: everyone I've recommended this show to has elevated it to one of their all-time favorites immediately after a specific Tobias line. So hilariously perfect.

I'm not sure if Arrested Development is the perfect example of a cult TV series, or the perfect example of how Fox arbitrarily picks winners and losers among their shows. I think it was bounced around a few different time slots before eventually biting the dust in the third season. I was among the pissed off heartbroken masses that sailed into the sunset with the Bluth family, bought the entire series on DVD and watch it at least once a year and still laugh just as hard as the first time.

We'd all heard the rumors of an Arrested Development movie for so long that it seemed too good to be true. Every cast member would withhold denial of the movie so perfectly that it kept us all tantalized. But it was an unbelievable revelation to hear a fourth season was in production and would be released all at once on Netflix! After a year or so of anticipation I plopped down on my couch last Sunday to partake in the next chapter of this hilarious story.

Disclaimer: I'm only about six episodes in.

It's Arrested Development and all your favorite characters are back... At least I think they are... They have yet to all be in the same place at the same time. It feels like their schedules didn't allow the entire cast to physically be in the same place at the same time. The series picks up as though quite a bit of time has passed since season 3, which is probably a good choice. But it also makes the characters a bit more difficult to understand/predict. It's like watching the series for the first time again. Maybe by episode 8 I'll be loving it again, but for now it's like we're trying to get to know each other again, easing into jokes and themes.

It's not all doom and gloom. I've been laughing out loud. I'm loving the cameos in this season. There are TONS. A couple of the new characters are hilarious enough to help make up for the lack of power performances by the old standbys. They've even new ways to mix up the regular cast in some fun and unexpected ways. I'll say this too, they've done a great job of not incorporating every single joke and reference into the first couple episodes (although I could have used a couple more).

I went into season 4 of Arrested Development with astronomical expectations. In hindsight I should have approached it like season 1. I'm going to try and be a little more patient and impassive with the rest of this season and let it reveal itself to me. Then maybe it will all seem much funnier on the second (or eighth) time through...