Arrested Development: Season 4

Allow me to be the fourth blog member to offer my thoughts on the long-awaited fourth season of Arrested Development. After two years and a second viewing, of course. Perhaps it's best to start with my initial reactions back from two Mays ago.

I absolutely loved it. A bunch of us binge-watched all eight hours and thirteen minutes of this thing at once in Andover, and while some people struggled to get through the slower earlier episodes or were tired as hell by ten that night, I was elated and impressed from start to finish. It seems like Trev was with me, but Keith and Sweeney were a little bit less enthused in their reviews. Not down on the fourth season or anything - just a little more reserved with their praise. Not me, though - I thought it was actually the best season of the show to date.

Now... eh, I'm not as sure. I spread my second viewing out over the last week, and this non-binge manner definitely broke up some of the season's flow - especially since the format largely spread the Bluths and their stories out into separated episodes, and the whole season kind of happened not in linear time, but all at once, across a jumbled seven year mess that led the family members away from one another and then ultimately back together for the fateful night of Cinco de Cuatro.

It was a bold move to edit the season in such a way, and it's one that I still applaud. Arrested Development was always ahead of its time when it came to long-term clever comedy, setting up jokes and running gags in one episode that would pay off months or even full seasons later. Hell, even the idea of a mockumentary sitcom was bold back in 2003, before the likes of The Office and Modern Family and Parks and Recreation helped to normalize the format. So I have no problems whatsoever with the oft-criticized decision to focus on one character per episode. As I understand it, getting the entire cast back for a fourth season at all was difficult enough, and there was seldom an opportunity to even have everyone in one place at the same time.

Still, it did seem a little bit weird to watch this season spread out over several days - but mostly, I think, due to the way certain characters' episodes were lumped together. Michael, George, Lindsay, and Tobias were the featured characters in eight of the first nine episodes; Lucille, Maeby, George Michael, and Buster were all relegated to the final six. I spent the first half of the season thinking, "I haven't seen George Michael for three or four episodes now;" I spent the last half realizing that George's plot had mostly wrapped itself up after Episode 5.

All the same, no main character was seen in less than eight episodes (George Michael, Lindsay) and one (Michael) was in all fifteen. It really can't be said that each character had their own episode, since they all crossed paths so many times. Furthermore, virtually every memorable secondary character was involved. Lucille 2 and Barry Zuckerkorn were in 11 of the 15 episodes. Ann (her), Steve Holt, Tony Wonder, Gene Parmesan, Mort (Jeff Garlin), Sally Sitwell, and Kitty Sanchez were all given small arcs of their own. Annyong, Bob Loblaw, Lupe, Carl Weathers, and Warden Gentles (spry octogenarian James Lipton) all showed up at some point. Andy Richter doubled down on his quintuplets schtick and appeared in six episodes as some character or another. Ron Howard got involved in a non-narrator role. Isla Fisher and Terry Crews joined up for important recurring love interests. And then there was Mark Cherry, and Marky Bark, and poor meth addict DeBrie. And John Slattery as Dr. Norman. And out of nowhere, Kristen Wiig and Seth Rogen playing younger versions of Lucille and George. (Wiig as Lucille? Spot on. Rogen as George? Nah.) And then there were just shit tons of cameos from people who just wanted to be involved, like Dan Harmon, and Conan O'Brien, and the entire Workaholics crew, and Busy Philipps, and Mary Lynn Rajskub, and plenty more I'm sure.

Come to think of it, holy shit, how did they cram all this into fifteen episodes? And how did they manage to give as much fanservice as they did in the form of certain recurring gags while still creating so many new repetitive bits? Screw it - I'm back to being impressed as hell and amazed that this happened at all.

Now, if there's any truth to the rumor that Mitch Hurwitz is recutting the season into chronological order, I'll watch it all over again and hope for the best. And there had better be some truth to the idea of a fifth season or movie, because, oh, man, that ending. That can't be the ending.