Arrested Development: Season 4

[Empedocles]

So...the Bluths are back. For better or for worse? Did season 4 live up to the hype, or did it disappoint? Was it too plot driven, with not enough emphasis on laugh out loud amusement?

General discussion for the newest season of Arrested Development.

[JoshL]

I loved it. I loved that they did so much that was different, while keeping so much that it felt like the same show. I loved catching up with all the characters. I loved the use of running gags ("mister f...") without seeming like a greatest hits sort of thing. I loved the way all the stories were intertwined, and seeing things from different sides, laughing at jokes you didn't realize why they were funny the first time around.

The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the end. It didn't really resolve things...all well and good if Season 5 happens, but if we have to wait another 5 years or so....

Particular laughs at two cheap shots at things I like very much (Pittsburgh and Scottish music), and "showstealer pro - trial version"

[Doctor Foreman]

I admired the season immensely.

One of AD's strengths was always its Byzantine plotting, but in the first three seasons this was often limited to either the organic growth of running gags. Season 4 basically took it to the next level and turned all 15 episodes into pieces of on giant puzzle. I really enjoyed watching a season that demanded I fully invest myself to keep track of what was going on. Rather than come across as aimless and convoluted, I found myself trying to pick apart the plot like an Agatha Christie detective, and I was inordinately proud when some of my guesses turned out to be correct - (Gob's mystery partner was a man, Lindsay's guru was one of the main cast - I guessed Tobias, though I guess he wouldn't have been good enough of an actor) - so in that sense it was rewarding.

The humor did suffer a little, though. AD works best when playing off characters against one another - they're all caricatures, but they work when juxtaposed. The focus on a single character per episode worked in some cases, but in others it did drag the episode out a bit.

[Jerthanis]

I really really liked it but... man it was dark. The original show often would place its characters in dangerous circumstances or cause them to orchestrate their own downfalls, or pit them against each other. However, just as often, they'd catch a lucky break, or manage to pull together for a spell and when they did, things tended to work out.

In Season 4, none of the characters can seem to catch a break, and all hope any character has is slowly revealed to be an illusion, and not even one character seems to want to have anything to do with any other character. It's a lot of cynicism and conflict.

I don't see a spoiler tag in the title, so I'll discuss specifics below

The fact that each episode encompasses pretty much the same sequence of events is creative, but eventually it starts feeling like Groundhog's day, where every character has reached their very lowest point right at the point the story cuts off only to flash back to carry us through the same despondent downward spiral, leading each character to their lowest point the night of Cinco de Quatro, and then progressing no further. It also begins to get too complicated at a certain point, where I was losing details, forgetting what stakes which characters have in what issues, because the plot was so complicated, with essentially 12 of 15 episodes being the "A plot" through "Q plots" in what basically boiled down to an 8 hour megaepisode. As a result, at the rather inconclusive conclusion, I struggle to remember what the situation even really is anymore. I was sort of of the impression that this was gearing up for a movie, but this has made what was potentially going to be a simple plot (Lucille in jail, Lucille 2 owning the Bluth company, Michael still holding the family together) so very complicated that it's actually become pretty inaccessible, potentially even to hardcore fans.

Also, there were a few uncomfortable moments where it felt to me like it might be real tension from behind the scenes bleeding into the script or story. Like... on some of the DVD commentaries of the old seasons, some of the older actors are pretty disparaging of Alia Shawkat, and in the interim she has mostly had bit roles in holiday films and background appearances in TV episodes... and in this season she receives an award that is given to people to let them know their "career is over", and it just sort of sticks me in the rib and makes me wonder if it's a jab at her overall acting career. Also, a big part of George Michael's character involves him hating the name George Michael, and wanting to grow beyond it, which makes me wonder if he as an actor is sick of being typecast based on his role as George Michael. A lot of this is speculation, but it just made me squirm a little, wondering how much drama there was among this cast, and how much it contributed to the 7 years trying to get this story moving again.

If they make another season, or a movie, or whatever they're going to do to resolve that kind of unresolved ending, if anything, it might wind up taking place inside prison, since almost half the cast is arrested at the end. I mean... what can they even do now? I sure hope they don't leave it like this though...

Also, it seems like most of the characters are much worse than they seemed to be back in the day... Michael especially. He always fell in love quickly and prioritized that new relationship higher than his other responsibilities, but here he happily burns his whole family repeatedly, including his own son. He was always little interested in listening to his son's wishes and oblivious to how he wasn't a good father, but here he is totally disassociated from reality, spinning elaborate justifications for him being in the right and adored by everyone around him.

Tobias and Lindsay, who were always threatening divorce or cheating, were amusing because they failed repeatedly to engage these threats and because every time it seemed one might do something, the other would interfere, but here just fall into separate dating plotlines with other partners without a thought... and their inability to remember that Maeby exists was usually played as them being stupid and inattentive, whereas here it's like they just don't give a crap about her whatsoever.

Gob, George Sr., Lucille, and Buster don't really change in the same way it felt like others became even worse people, but even they got darker, with a recurring gag of Gob's being that he has bouts of tremendous melancholy and Buster becoming a Drone pilot.

George Michael always seemed so earnest when it came to his crushes Egg and Maeby, seeming to like them for who they are, even if for questionable reasons... there was an offhand joke about him saying, "We had the signatures" at some point, referencing his attempts to lobby the state government to allow cousins to marry, implying he had put real work into making a dream of a life together with her possible. He would talk about all the reasons he liked Plant and would be speaking unironically, and there was a sweetness about him. His behaviour in season 4 seems to recontextualize this to be that he was really just a horndog and was interested in Maeby because she was willing to kiss him, and was interested in Ann hog because she was willing to kiss him. It's not really inconsistent, since that was clearly there too back then but... by being willing to lie and keep lying and go back on his principles and so on in pursuit of sex it just makes him a less sympathetic character.

I guess what I'm saying is that it seemed like in earlier seasons, both good and bad things would happen to people who each were both kind of good and kind of bad, and in season 4 it's a lot more bad than good happening to a lot of people who were now more bad than good.

[DJ Yung Crunk]

Australia doesn't have Netflix.

Screw us, huh?

[JadedDM]

Don't feel bad, I don't have Netflix, either.

So far, though, I'm only at episode 10. But I'm really enjoying it so far. Not the hot mess some thought it would be, that's for sure.