New Arrested Development! (SPOILERS)

[RoJoHen]

I just watched Ep 12, and I have to say, I think Maeby has always been a very underrated character on the show. I think I laughed out loud more during this episode than I did any other episode so far. I love viewing the Bluth family through her eyes, and I love that adult Maeby has such a horrible potty mouth.

 

[tighr]

I just watched Ep 12, and I have to say, I think Maeby has always been a very underrated character on the show. I think I laughed out loud more during this episode than I did any other episode so far. I love viewing the Bluth family through her eyes, and I love that adult Maeby has such a horrible potty mouth.

I love Maeby, always been my favorite character.

I wish Alia Shawkat was in more stuff, but I love watching her on AD.

I know George Michael and Maeby are 22/23 now on the show, but it still seems weird that both characters were having sex, because the last time we saw them they were in high school.

 

[Spot's Meow]

By the way, this family was having a lot of sex this season. Not a good or bad thing, just something that stuck out to me!

 

[RoJoHen]

I just watched Ep 12, and I have to say, I think Maeby has always been a very underrated character on the show. I think I laughed out loud more during this episode than I did any other episode so far. I love viewing the Bluth family through her eyes, and I love that adult Maeby has such a horrible potty mouth.

I love Maeby, always been my favorite character.

I wish Alia Shawkat was in more stuff, but I love watching her on AD.

I know George Michael and Maeby are 22/23 now on the show, but it still seems weird that both characters were having sex, because the last time we saw them they were in high school.

And high schoolers never have sex.

 

[tighr]

And high schoolers never have sex.

I didn't say that. I said G-M and Maeby were having sex (and not with each other), but didn't on the original show.

 

[Anna Yolei]

I'm noticing a lack of other characters though with this format; not nearly enough Maeby or George Michael so far, and we've only just started seeing GOB.

I'm hoping that this was just the PTB's way of getting us caught up to what happened over the past six years and that the next season will be a bit more inclusive. This new format reminds me way too much of the split narrative that "Glee" has been doing by having the show set in two different locations that did neither side any favors.

The first episode (aside from the tedious voting gag) is considerably more funny with a second re-watch. But as others have mentioned it should have been able to stand up better on its own merits. But considering this was shot over six months and trying to work around all nine actors' schedules, it could have been a hell of a lot worse.

As for the new season, Gob, Buster and Maeby really carried it for me, from Gob's bromance--ish--thing with Tony Wonder to Buster becoming a "Motherman" to Maeby's ironic fate at the end of her episode.

 

[Anna Yolei]

Lindsay is a little thinner (she also looked different somehow, but I can't quite figure out why)

Portia de Rossi has had a lot of plastic surgery in the seven years since the show ended, and not all of it was done particularly competently.

There were a couple of shots from the stills where I mistook de Rossi for Nicole Ritchie. Seriously.

It's a shame when obviously beautiful women get work done and don't know when to stop. Any actress that is thinking about multiple plastic surgeries should look up Hunter Tylo as a warning tale. The before pictures are very easy to spot, and hopefully someone will tell de Rossi when enough is enough on that.

 

[tighr]

I'm in the middle of a rewatch, and it occurs to me that a lot of the weirdness in Portia de Rossi's look probably stems from what must be a blond wig. Before she started shooting the season, she already had the short haircut, so to film scenes set immediately after the Queen Mary incident she needed a wig, which doesn't do too good a job of replicating her "look" from 2006. She looks much more natural in her second episode with the short hair.

 

[RoJoHen]

I'm in the middle of a rewatch, and it occurs to me that a lot of the weirdness in Portia de Rossi's look probably stems from what must be a blond wig. Before she started shooting the season, she already had the short haircut, so to film scenes set immediately after the Queen Mary incident she needed a wig, which doesn't do too good a job of replicating her "look" from 2006. She looks much more natural in her second episode with the short hair.

Totally agree. Even the red wig she wears later looks better. With the blonde wig, her forehead looks HUGE.


Anyway, I just finished the last episode, and now I'm upset that there isn't any more! I honestly don't want them to make a movie; I never did. I don't think this show would translate well to a movie format. I just want another season.

 

[Anna Yolei]

From what I've read, Netflix has been getting a lot of foot traffic because of the relaunch, and for years, this show has been one of its most popular. It's good business for them, and I admit that I'd never used the service until this past weekend...and now I've found other reasons to keep with them after the free trial ends. Unless the actors' schedules prove far too hectic to attempt this, the powers that be at Netflix would be fools not to greenlight a new season.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I also agree that a new season would be better than a movie, but I wonder if they would be able to get the kind of involvement they would need from the actors. It seems like everyone was willing to work with the strange scheduling of this season, but how long will they want to do that? At some point you will need everyone to be on the set together on a more consistent basis, and I just wonder if that's a possibility at this point. Everyone may want another season to happen, but logistically it may not happen due to the actors. I don't blame them of course, they've understandably moved on and have their own lives.

 

[1001001]

I watched episodes 4 and 5 yesterday (Michael and Tobias).

The Ron Howard stuff is so strange, and funny.

I liked Tobias' episode a lot. He's my favorite.

ANUSTART!

 

[Kestra]

I think I like Tobias more now and everyone else less.

 

[TheGodBen]

I just finished the season last night. It appears that like almost everyone, I was put off by the early episodes of the season. The format was weird, the characters' motivations were sketchy, there was an overuse of cameos, and an over-reliance on references to past seasons. I actually began to feel that bringing the show back was a mistake that would blight the show's legacy.

But around episode 5 or 6 things started to click into place, sub-plots began to emerge within episodes which made it feel like like classic AD, and the connections between the episodes began to emerge and explained some of the oddities in earlier episodes. By the end of the season I was sold on the format and considered the season a worthy successor to my favourite comedy series. It's not quite as funny as the first three seasons (except maybe the Rita arc), but it was a necessary to try a new format to move the plot along 7 years, and I think it was a mostly successful experiment. That being said, if there is to be a season 5 (and I agree with most people in that I'd prefer a fifth season to a movie) I'd prefer for the show to return to its original format now that they've caught up with the present.

I also intend to rewatch the season in the coming weeks because I feel this is a season that really needs to be rewatched to fully appreciate its brilliance. In that sense, it fully lives up to the Arrested Development tradition.

 

[Mr Light]

I just finished the season! Absolutely magical to have the series return. They're still absolutely hilarious. That said, I would have preferred the old format to the new character-centric one. Some characters don't hold an entire episode well enough, like Lindsey or George Senior.

I was also disappointed the ending didn't bring more closure. I'd have to go back to rewatch the season, but it didn't feel like the characters' stories had ended in their own respective episodes so I was expecting a big ending for them all at the end and it didn't happen.

 

[tighr]

I was also disappointed the ending didn't bring more closure. I'd have to go back to rewatch the season, but it didn't feel like the characters' stories had ended in their own respective episodes so I was expecting a big ending for them all at the end and it didn't happen.

Its all clearly a setup for either a season 5 or a movie. I agree, more closure would have been nice, but let's hope it pays off.

 

[Scout101]

yeah, it just kinda stopped, they didn't really accomplish anything. Feels even worse, because the way they did the jumping back and forth, we never really advanced past where we saw things in the very first episode. Just wasn't any payoff for what they set up, even a little something would have worked...

 

[shivkala]

I thought this article had some really great points. I'm giving it a while before I do, but I fully intend to re-watch this at some point.

 

[tighr]

I downloaded the morphinapg Chronological Edit (from Reddit, here), and watched a few of the episodes this weekend. Primarily the "Cinco de Cuatro" episode. He obviously put a lot of work into the edit, although he made some choices I wouldn't have made, and there's a few scenes that are missing as well. Those missing scenes end up ruining some of the jokes (for example, the "It's just a fallacy!" joke falls completely flat because of the edit). But overall, watching the Cinco episode made it a LOT easier to follow, and also shows how the characters progressed throughout the night. Pretty cool.

Not sure it's worth your time or effort to download the torrents (it was 20 gb) but if you want it, it's nice to know it's there.

 

[Dale Sams]

The Buster ep is amazing.