The Clicker Gets Arrested

People are always saying how genius Arrested Development was and how it never should’ve been canceled. I’d seen a few episodes of the three-season series and honestly, I didn’t understand what the big deal was. I mean, there were a couple of chuckle-worthy moments but I didn’t really get it. Why all of this critical acclaim over a show about a weird family? I added the series to my list of shows I need to get around to watching so that I can try and make sense out of all of the hype. Deadwood, The Shield, and The Wire are also on that list but as my husband owns all three seasons of Arrested Development, I figured I’d start with that one and see if the series really is as great as people say it is.

I should preface this by saying that as an avid TV watcher, I realize that there are many shows that can’t truly be appreciated unless you watch them from the very beginning. Usually this applies to serial dramas. Shows that are driven largely by an overall story arc are definitely hard to jump into midway through the series. Generally, this doesn’t apply to comedy series. I mean sure, you might feel a little bit out of the loop if you jumped into How I Met Your Mother after not having seen the first two seasons but you’d be able to catch up. Then there are a the comedy series that create a foundation of humor that slowly builds up episode after episode until the show becomes a series of inside jokes that viewers feel like they’re in on. The Office is one of those types of shows. If you think about it, The Office uses a lot of the same jokes over and over again. The characters all have their little quirks and we know what to expect from them with each new episode, yet it never seems to get old. New scenarios keep the show fresh while the characters’ consistency creates a comfortable familiarity, which keeps us coming back.

After watching the first season of Arrested Development, I quickly realized that, like The Office, this is definitely one of those shows you need to watch from the beginning. From the very first episode, I found myself enjoying the show more and more. I wasn’t falling out of my chair laughing right off the bat but as I watched each episode, the jokes seemed to become funnier to me. What I noticed was that it wasn’t the humor that changed, but rather, the familiarity of the characters and the fondness that I had begun to develop for each of them, despite their flaws.

The overall story in the series is fairly simple. As the opening narrative goes, Arrested Development is “the story of a wealthy family who lost everything and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together.” The Bluths are a very wealthy and totally dysfunctional family. To varying degrees, they’re all greedy, selfish, lazy and fairly delusional. All of them are a bundle of personal flaws except for Michael and his son, George Michael. When George Bluth Sr. is arrested for spending too much of the family company’s money on personal expenses, Michael steps up to save the business and the family. Michael’s level-headedness provides a startling contrast to the quirky personalities of his parents and his siblings and their spouses. It is this that makes the ridiculous humor all the more hilarious.

I don’t think I would compare the humor of The Office to Arrested Development because while I think both series are equally hilarious, there is definitely a different mood to this series. The common thread in both shows is that they both rely almost entirely on the way the characters interact with each other. Like the staff at Dunder-Mifflin, the Bluths don’t always get along and are often clashing with one another due to their off-the-wall personalities. While I doubt many viewers would actually want t be a part of the Bluth family, it is definitely easy to enjoy watching them as they stumble over their own flaws trying to achieve their goals.

As much as I’m enjoying Arrested Development, it doesn’t surprise me that it was canceled. Despite people saying how good it was, I can understand why Fox couldn’t get the ratings up enough to keep the show on the air. As I said earlier, when I’d seen bits of episodes in the past, I didn’t fully get the humor. A show like this is something viewers need to slowly fall in love with over the course of the series. If viewers missed the first season, they probably wouldn’t have been able to get into it enough to tune in regularly after that. The series’ only real flaw was that the nature of the comedy made the show somewhat uninviting to new viewers. That said, I don’t think there would’ve been anything the writers could’ve done to remedy that and I doubt any of the fans would’ve wanted them to. The humor in a show like Arrested Development caters to the loyal viewers and while that might’ve been one of the reasons why it sank in the ratings, based entirely on the first season alone (since I haven’t gotten through the second and third season yet), I think Arrested Development is one of the truly great American TV comedies.


What to Watch (8/19 to 8/25 )




Big Brother (CBS) 8:00 pm
(New!) Daniele won HoH on Thursday and now she and Dick have the power. Will they honor their deal with Eric and Jessica and go after someone else?


Entourage (HBO) 10:00 pm
Snow Job - (New!) Eric tries to manage Anna Faris but it looks like his new client might cause him to neglect Vince. Meanwhile, Ari has his hands full with Billy.



’Greek’ (ABC Family) 9:00 pm
Multiple Choice (New!) – Casey and Cappie get stuck working on a school project together and Rusty deals with mid-terms.

’Slacker Cats’ (ABC Family) 10:00 pm
The Wood(New!) – Eddie and Buckley attempt to protect the woods from being destroyed by developers.

’Mission: Man Band’ (VH1) 10:00 pm
Dryin’ Out Bryan… One Day At A Time (New!) – The guys get their first gig – singing at an Orlando Magic game.



’America’s Got Talent’ (NBC) 8:00 pm
Season Finale - (new!) – The final four acts compete and the winner is announced.

’Big Brother 8’ (CBS) 9:00 pm
(new!) – The two nominees (feed-watchers know who they are!) have the chance to play for the Veto along with three other randomly selected houseguests. Will the Veto be used to save someone and if so, who will go up in their place?

’Damages’ (FX) 10:00 pm
A Regular Earl Anthony (New!) – Tom starts to consider his career options. Its not surprising since Patty’s pretty much been walking all over him since she “fired” him. Speaking of Patty, she’s having problems with her clients



Last Comic Standing(NBC) 9:00 pm
(New!) – The final 5 perform their routines.

Rescue Me(FX) 10:00 pm
High (New!) – The Gavins attend their first group AA meeting. Franco finds out some interesting background information on Natalie from Richie.



’Big Brother 8’ (CBS) 8:00 pm
Live Episode (new!) – One of the houseguests is evicted and a new Head of Household is crowned.

Burn Notice (USA) 10:00 pm
Hard Bargain (New!) – Michael continues to try to figure out who burned him. He also takes on a case to find a kidnapped woman.




Monk(USA) 9:00 pm
Mr. Monk and the Dare Devil (New!) – Monk finds out that his archrival is a renowned dare devil.

Psych(USA) 10:00 pm
If You’re So Smart, Then Why Are You Dead? (New!) – Shawn and Gus go under cover at a school for geniuses when the students start to suspect that one of their teachers is a murderer.



Snakes On A Plane (HBO) 8:00 pm
Its ridiculously campy and occasionally disgusting but its actually kind of a fun movie… about snakes… on a plane.




__________________________________________
Do you an idea for a column or just something to say? Scroll down and leave a comment!