Arrested Development
Jun. 21st, 2009 10:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerFather's Day is a kind of awkward day to post an Arrested Development review, as all the fathers in the show are terrible (except the main character, Michael, and even he sometimes has "The reason your son is so awesome is obviously his dead mother" moments)
But I just finished the first season, and it is soooooo good, and hilarious, and has such excellent character work, that I couldn't wait.
First, Arrested Development has excellent characters. It’s centered around the Bluth family, the patriarch of which is in jail for corrupt real estate dealings, and the interactions of the various Bluth children who have come home to roost. They’re all quirky, well-developed – I’m honestly having trouble picking which one to rave about – not likeable, in the sense that I’d willingly have coffee with any of them, but sympathetic. They behave poorly but you can see what makes them tick.
Even the least likeable characters have moments where you feel for them. I was particularly surprising by the treatment of Michael's borther, Gob (it’s pronounced Job, like the book in the Bible). He’s a total loser, but by the end of the season I was hoping for things to work out for him.
But my favorite, I think, is Michael's son George Michael. He reminds me of some kids I knew in high school: sweet, earnest, awkward, the fervent desire to do the right thing. He's the moral center of the show. How awesome is it that a show has a thirteen-year-old kid as its moral center?
There should be more teenagers like that on TV. Maybe then I wouldn’t find teen dramas so painful and tedious.
But even better than Arrested Developments character work is the relationships that build between the characters. The characters’ relationships are complicated at the beginning, and these complications develop over the course of the season – and not linearly, but more like a corkscrew, always changing but looping back on themselves.
For example: Michael's sister, Lindsay (one of my other favorites) waffles back and forth about leaving her husband all season. That sounds tedious, but it becomes fascinating because she has different reasons for waffling each time. Their relationship is too complex to be summed up in one or two waffles.
These excellent relationships are the reason for my one gripe about the show, which is that I wish the main character, Michael, would get a steady girlfriend and spend enough time with her for their relationship to become interesting. His constant flitting from woman to woman doesn’t play to the show’s strengths, and it undercuts his character development as too serious, too committed and loyal by half, unable to be casual about anything.
It does allow room for some of the show’s exquisitely surreal plots, though. Continuity is not one of Arrested Development’s priorities; things are picked up and dropped episode to episode based on convenience. This is occasionally annoying – where the heck did Marta go? I want her back! – but tight plotting isn’t especially important.
This is because Arrested Development is hilarious. At least half of the episodes made me laugh out loud, and not just giggling but I-hope-my-neighbors-weren’t-napping laugh out loud funny. I would be willing to forgive a far, far more flawed delivery than Arrested Development’s, for a show that makes me laugh this much.
It's AMAZING. I think everyone should watch it.
But I just finished the first season, and it is soooooo good, and hilarious, and has such excellent character work, that I couldn't wait.
First, Arrested Development has excellent characters. It’s centered around the Bluth family, the patriarch of which is in jail for corrupt real estate dealings, and the interactions of the various Bluth children who have come home to roost. They’re all quirky, well-developed – I’m honestly having trouble picking which one to rave about – not likeable, in the sense that I’d willingly have coffee with any of them, but sympathetic. They behave poorly but you can see what makes them tick.
Even the least likeable characters have moments where you feel for them. I was particularly surprising by the treatment of Michael's borther, Gob (it’s pronounced Job, like the book in the Bible). He’s a total loser, but by the end of the season I was hoping for things to work out for him.
But my favorite, I think, is Michael's son George Michael. He reminds me of some kids I knew in high school: sweet, earnest, awkward, the fervent desire to do the right thing. He's the moral center of the show. How awesome is it that a show has a thirteen-year-old kid as its moral center?
There should be more teenagers like that on TV. Maybe then I wouldn’t find teen dramas so painful and tedious.
But even better than Arrested Developments character work is the relationships that build between the characters. The characters’ relationships are complicated at the beginning, and these complications develop over the course of the season – and not linearly, but more like a corkscrew, always changing but looping back on themselves.
For example: Michael's sister, Lindsay (one of my other favorites) waffles back and forth about leaving her husband all season. That sounds tedious, but it becomes fascinating because she has different reasons for waffling each time. Their relationship is too complex to be summed up in one or two waffles.
These excellent relationships are the reason for my one gripe about the show, which is that I wish the main character, Michael, would get a steady girlfriend and spend enough time with her for their relationship to become interesting. His constant flitting from woman to woman doesn’t play to the show’s strengths, and it undercuts his character development as too serious, too committed and loyal by half, unable to be casual about anything.
It does allow room for some of the show’s exquisitely surreal plots, though. Continuity is not one of Arrested Development’s priorities; things are picked up and dropped episode to episode based on convenience. This is occasionally annoying – where the heck did Marta go? I want her back! – but tight plotting isn’t especially important.
This is because Arrested Development is hilarious. At least half of the episodes made me laugh out loud, and not just giggling but I-hope-my-neighbors-weren’t-napping laugh out loud funny. I would be willing to forgive a far, far more flawed delivery than Arrested Development’s, for a show that makes me laugh this much.
It's AMAZING. I think everyone should watch it.
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-21 08:28 pm (UTC)i'm interested in hearing your thoughts on the next two seasons, if you find time to watch them, because some of the dynamics change (especially, i think, around george michael), and the show just generally gets funnier, believe it or not.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-22 12:36 am (UTC)I'm definitely going to be watching the next two seasons. They're on my Netflix right now; the first disc of season 2 should arrive Tuesday. :)
There isn't a real fandom built up around Arrested Development, is there? I did a lj search and there don't seem to be any communities for it.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-24 03:24 pm (UTC)i don't know how strong the fandom is still going (at least on lj), but originally it was pretty intense- they kept the show going for three seasons (apparently they campaigned en masse for a season 3) and everyone's very excited for the (theoretically) upcoming movie.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-22 12:27 am (UTC)In other news, I think Marta ran the hell away after the family got too much and revealed itself as awful.
Eee! I have like four episodes left of it...
no subject
Date: 2009-06-22 12:40 am (UTC)Marta probably did. Honestly, it's amazing that she didn't run away from Gob long before the series even started; he's a terrible boyfriend.
Only four? Sad! The series is way too short; the best ones always are.