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I Blue Right Through It: Arrested Development Season 4

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A Boy Named Seo May 31 2013 03:06 PM

Anyone else finish? Don't read on if you don't wanna know (or just take a forget-me-now). Very flashback and Ron Howard-heavy, I found I had to choke down the first couple of episodes before it picked up steam. Kinda daring to change the formula and do single character-based episodes with all those parallel narratives. It complicated a lot of the episodes and made for a lot of mental housekeeping, trying to keep up with what was what, but I ended up really digging it by the end, even if it was less overtly funny than the original 3 seasons. Jessica Walter crushes again as Lucille, and the Fünke branch of the Bluth family tree was still maeby my favorite branch. Michael got a little needy and weird, no? Fun facts (for me): I know a girl who won an AD fan contest with this song... [youtube]APy4AsLibEY[/youtube] ... and she got to appear as an extra in ep 15. One of the angry Mongols snatched the guitar from her cute, lil hands at Cuatro de Mayo, which (fun fact numero dos) was filmed at Shoreline Village in my hometown of Long Beach, CA. I go 7stair cars.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Jun 04 2013 12:03 AM Re: I Blue Right Through It: Arrested Development Season 4

JUST finished 'em (at a pace of 1-2 per day). It's not without flaw, some relatively minor (the slow, tablesetting first couple of episodes; the heavy, heavy reliance on comedic callbacks, especially in those first few) and others more nettlesome (loose editing throughout, leading to more-than-occasional joke bloat and story-situation meandering; significant structural issues). But once it picks up around the second Michael, first Tobias and first Gob episodes, man, you've got something like a stew going. The structure is adventurous, and takes a little bit of adjustment for longtime viewers, granted... but it doesn't "r" the sainted memory of the original, and it really does work, albeit very differently. People insisting otherwise-- "it's not the original," "it doesn't have nearly the same beats"-- miss the point; the rhythms of a 30-35 minute internet series conceived as a parts of a whole laid side-by-side are going to be VERY different than one laid out in very specific order over 13-26 chronological standalone episodes. I suspect this may reward a second viewing even more than the original series... I'll give that a whirl at some point in the near future. I really like what they've done with George Michael and-- once I got used to it-- the fallen Michael (there was always a dark self-centeredness/self-blindness lurking under the holier-than-thou bid'ness... if not quite this dark). And Arnett and Dave Cross always get me. But damn my eyes if Jessica Walters-- at the heart of the strongest episode-- isn't this season's MVP. (With John Slattery-- “The Hopi Indians believed that this spot here, when manipulated, can create sexual feeling.” “That’s my penis.” “Well, you don’t have to tell me.”-- as your RotY, nosing out Terry Crews' slightly-slapdash-but-still-great Herman Cain thing.) I'll go 7, with room for upward mobility.