It’s a fact (or at least it used to be; the economics of the
entertainment industry are changing) that the key for any television show was
longevity. The important thing was to amass a minimum of 100 episodes and
start raking in that sweet, sweet money that comes from syndication. His
explains why so many TV shows continue on past their sell-by date; why All in
the Family continued on as Archie Bunker’s Place and eventually morphed into
very short-lived spin-offs like Gloria and 704 Hauser (about a new family
living at the Bunker’s address).
This isn’t a phenomenon of bad shows or mediocre shows (I
suppose truly bad shows don’t have a chance at an extended life), but even
great shows tend to wear out their welcome. Lost was unique in having its
creators demand that the network give them an end date so they could control
the pace of the show’s plot as it meandered towards the finish line.
Which brings me to Season 5 of Arrested Development, a show
whose first three network seasons placed it in the pantheon of one of the
greatest sitcoms of all time. The show featured unlikeable people,
convoluted plotting, subtle visual jokes in the background, and an endless
stream of callbacks to previous jokes. Perhaps because of these traits,
in had extremely low ratings through its run on FOX and never achieved any sort
of widespread popular support. It did win 6 Emmys, including Outstanding
Comedy Series in its first season and two Best Writing for a Comedy
awards. The show is about the Bluth family, wealthy real estate magnates
in Southern California who are, generally speaking, as stupid as they are
dishonest and arrogant.
But fans being fans there was always lobbying for the
inevitable movie follow-up. After the success of Superbad there were
fears that Michael Cera would not be interested in reprising his role as George
Michael Bluth, but the cratering of his subsequent film career made going back
to the role look more and more attractive. Netflix picked up the series
for an additional season in 2013, seven years after its finale show on FOX.
The results were contentious, to say the least. The
show’s creator, Michael Hurwitz, tinkered with the format in this new
binge-watchy medium, pushing the limits on how convoluted he could make the
plots and how many call backs he could cram into the show. The results
were generally not appreciated, to the extent that before season 5 was launched
he had to go back and re-edit the season 4 episodes to make them more
intelligible.
We now have season 5 available, or at least the first half
of season 5, another five years after season 4. I think it is fair to
pull out the old trope and say the show has jumped the shark. Arrested
Development is still trying harder than any other show on TV, but it is trying
too hard. Characters that were on the edge of being cartoonish are now
insufferable, plots that were barely coherent now make absolutely no sense, and the
unavailability of some actors has required the scripts to do somersaults to
paper over the holes.
Some of the actors continue to do top notch work.
Jason Bateman, who has twice been nominated for Best Actor in a Comedy for his
portrayal of Michael Bluth, the most “honest” member of the family (on a
sliding scale that is not saying much), continues to be an excellent straight
man. Jessica Walters continues to make Lucille Bluth, the family
matriarch, the funniest, most self-involved, and most conniving character since
Lady Macbeth (assuming you think Macbeth is a comedy). The standout in
season 5 is Alia Shawkat as Maebe, George Michael’s cousin and teenage crush
(it’s okay, they aren’t really cousins), as a young woman who spends much of
the season impersonating a 75-year-old woman residing in an assisted living
facility. She has the mannerisms and the vocal intonations of an elderly
woman down pat, and if season 5 of Arrested Development snags any Emmy
nominations I hope the make-up department gets one for her look.
Just an aside, but I always felt the most subversive thing about Arrested Development during its network run was that George Michael was raised by an attentive, devoted father and was an emotional basket case, while Maebe was raised by two inattentive narcissistic idiots and turned out relatively well-adjusted (other than being a borderline sociopath, but given the ethics of the Bluth family a little sociopathy is to be expected).
Other actors don’t fare as well. Will Arnett, who
always came close to over the top as GOB (pronounced Jobe), the eldest Bluth
son, is reduced to being in continuous bombast mode. Also, while GOB was
never the sharpest tool in the shed, Arnett now portrays him as so dumb you
can’t imagine how he manages to feed himself or get dressed in the morning.
David Cross as Tobias Funke, Michael’s brother-in-law who gave up a career as a
psychotherapist to pursue being an actor, is another character who used to
teeter constantly on the edge of being over the top who now tumbles over into
buffoonery.
The oddest thing about season 5 is Portia de Rossi as
Lindsey, Tobias’ wife and Michael’s sister, who plays a central role in season
5 as a candidate for Congress. The problem is that de Rossi wasn’t
interested in coming back, so they obviously green screened her into a couple
of scenes and then had her disappear for most of this half of the season for no
explanation (or at least not one that makes sense). Of the eight episodes
released, she doesn’t appear in half of them.
Arrested Development always was a gossamer confection that
succeeded despite its intricate plotting and multifaceted call backs. But
with the 5-year time gap since season 4, plus the unavailability of some
actors, the strain now shows and the narrative no longer makes sense. The
best evidence of this is the massive overuse of Ron Howard as the narrator, who
it sometimes seems provides context to about half of any given episode (I would
swear he does voice-over during 90% of the first episode of season 5).
Howard did great work on the original series, but he was so good they started
using him as a crutch to explain away plot-holes, and it just got to be too
easy. Also, including Howard as a character in season 4 doubled down on
the over use of the Oscar winning director and former child co-star of Andy
Griffith.
The result is painful to watch. Arrested Development
is now grasping for laughs that it used to get seemingly without effort.
One of the joys of seasons 1-3 were all the various dyads the group of actors
could be paired into, but now limits on availability mean that various
characters never interact with others, while some are constantly thrust
together.
At some point, the work needed to pull off the high wire act
becomes drudgery and not a lot of fun to look at. I’ll probably watch the
second half of season 5 when it comes out, as the binge format makes no demands
on my time. Mainly, I just want to see if George Michael gets past second
base with Maebe; I think those two crazy kids deserve each other.
I do hope that Arrested Development ends with season
5. With rumors about an attempt to spin-off Roseanne without Roseanne swirling,
I hope that at least one classic sitcom can go gently into that good night.
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