Rearrested Development
Scott Hardie | July 4, 2013
I liked it quite a bit. I haven't heard a lot of buzz calling it bad; I've heard more along the lines of "good but not mind-blowingly great like the original series." To me, it feels too clever for its own good: It puts so much energy into being such a densely overlapping Rashomon-like tale that it sometimes neglects to be funny. It feels like most of the jokes require repeat viewings: You witness a weird event early in the season and finally get context for it late in the season, and thus when you see it a second time, it's hilarious. That's my theory anyway, since I've only watched the season once. :-)
I'm not a superfan of the original series, so I didn't have lofty expectations. I wanted to be impressed with the show's smarts and to laugh a few times, and I did. Funniest joke in the season imho: Lucille's reaction to meeting Tobias at the rehab clinic.
There's talk of finally making the long-discussed movie now, but first I hope they try for a fifth season and beyond. There seem like lots of directions for the show to go in next.
Scott Hardie | July 4, 2013
After liking this and House of Cards, I'm tempted to give the rest of Netflix's original shows a chance, but Orange is the New Black is the only one that seems remotely worthwhile. Lilyhammer looked like an uninspired ripoff of The Sopranos, I don't like John Hodgman enough to try Ragnarok, and Bad Samaritans looks so horrible that it makes Hemlock Grove sound appealing.
Samir Mehta | July 5, 2013
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Scott Hardie | July 5, 2013
[spoiler] Tobias became obsessed with making "a new start" in life. He wanted to get that phrase on a license plate, but nine letters didn't fit, so he shortened it to ANUSTART. Of course, everyone thought it spelled out something else and started calling him that. Later on, he runs into Lucille, who greets him with a chipper "Hello, Anus Tart!" The narrator points out: "And she hadn't even seen the license plate." [/spoiler]
House of Cards is fun if you accept that it's more style than substance. The dialogue sounds dramatic but gets cornier the more you think about it, and the show cannot be very realistic in its depiction of Washington back-room politics. But if you dig Kevin Spacey being sly and sarcastic and Southern (think Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil plus Congress), then it can be very enjoyable.
Erik Bates | July 8, 2013
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Erik Bates | July 17, 2013
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Samir Mehta | July 17, 2013
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Erik Bates | July 18, 2013
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Samir Mehta | July 19, 2013
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Scott Hardie | July 23, 2013
I wondered about Lucille 2's fate as well, I guess since the show seemed to indicate that it was a matter of much importance even though it didn't come across that way. Perhaps the show is setting up for Buster to be the Bluth behind bars next season. Hopefully Tony Hale will be available to film a lot more material then.
Looking for Arrested Development images recently, I came across this:
click image to zoom
Somebody went to a lot of trouble to design that neat graphic, but the order seems way off to me. Firstly, Buster and Michael should trade places. Buster is the sweet pure naif in the midst of lunatics, narcissists, and jerks (I love him for the same reason I love Butters on South Park), and Michael is clearly not a good person, although he thinks he is. Secondly, Gob should move two slots to the left, pushing his parents to the right. Gob is completely self-absorbed and sociopathic, but he's not outright evil; he seeks to ruin people who he believes has wronged him, not harm innocent strangers. A recent AV Club review surprised me by making a case for Lucille as the villainous root of her family's dysfunction (going so far as to blame her for George Sr's crimes), but while she's obviously heartless and cruel, she's not diabolical. She wouldn't do horrible things for little gain, like say, make her sons beat each other up on camera to earn a few bucks selling the video. George Sr is the show's ultimate villain in my mind -- the man spent three seasons of the show in prison, for crying out loud. He may come across as nicer than Lucille in conversation, but he'd shove you into traffic to pick up a quarter you're standing on. Lucille's verbal abuse may have made her kids insecure and neurotic, but George Sr is the one who caused the family's ruination. What do you think?
Samir Mehta | July 23, 2013
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Scott Hardie | July 24, 2013
Yes, agreed. Tobias was the biggest surprise of the season for me in that way. Previously, to me, Tobias was a one-joke character (albeit a funny one joke) who seemed to have potential only as a supporting character, because his utter lack of self-awareness could become grating and hard to believe in doses larger than one scene. The fourth season made him a worthy protagonist twice and allowed him to evolve way beyond his one joke. Key to that was letting him in on the joke at the beginning, so he could be part of the change process by deciding to act differently, thus narratively justifying the change. He was a bit of a cartoon character before; now he feels more like a real person I could imagine actually existing. And he's still very funny! (Buster, while hilarious, remains a cartoon character -- maybe even moreso with that new hand.)
Another perk of the new season that strangely doesn't get mentioned: Each episode runs for around 35 minutes, one and a half times what they used to run on Fox. Minute for minute, this is actually the longest season of all (S1 was 466 minutes, S2 was 378 minutes, S3 was 283 minutes, S4 was 489 minutes).
Samir Mehta | July 31, 2013
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Scott Hardie | August 1, 2013
Really? I'm surprised about longer episodes being a complaint. Even at a slower pace, the show is still crammed full of material, enough that you could watch a half-dozen times and still not catch every subtle joke. It seems crazy that someone who liked the show would call more minutes of it a bad thing.
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Samir Mehta | July 4, 2013
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