Seen for the first time in May 2013.
I count myself among what must be the few enthusiastic fans of the first two seasons of Arrested Development who did not clamor for but who actively rooted against some sort of resurgence of the show. If a film had come a year or two after the show had been cancelled, I would have greeted that news with some excitement, but as the time passed and the prospects of the principals devoting their time to renewing this project dwindled, the more I felt it was in everyone's best interest to let this once fine show rest in hallowed peace.
Season three, for all of its flaws - and there were many, provided a nice neat ending for the show. It was a completed work, in my mind. What could be gained by reanimating it's lovely corpse for one last dance. Why risk a stale aftertaste when we had a completed ouevre we could remember fondly? Why tarnish those fond memories?
Well, of course, there are always reasons. The creator need not justify his creations. As a fan though, I was skeptical. Especially in light of the myriad weaknesses of season 3, where the show saw it's weakest and most contrived plotlines and many of its "jokes" were not in fact jokes, but references to jokes the show had already told. Some fans justified this by claiming to believe it was really clever to constantly reference old jokes. I didn't find it clever. Not anymore clever than the 100th recycling of a proven skit on Saturday Night Live. Some people should have known better. At least in my opinion.
Which is all a roundabout way of saying that this show was never as smart as some of us claimed it was. Certainly it didn't make stuff up as it went along to the extent of a show like "LOST." Some of their best gags are foreshadowed seasons in advance. Even the graffiti on the banana stand in the season one episode where Michael and George Michael rebuild the banana stand says "I'll Get You Bluths - Hello," which foreshadows Annyong's real name, his background, and his role as the mole. And I'm not saying the humor isn't smart in a witty sort of way. But this is a low bar. It was a funny show, and a lot of young kids prone to posturing and overpraise really liked it. I was one of them.
So finally, I get to season four. And it starts off weak. Cinco de quatro is one of the most contrivedly unfunny ideas that has ever presented itself. It's a parody of itself. Does the show get better after a few episodes. Yes. But also, who cares. It's boring and un-engaging. I don't have the interest in breaking down why this is so boring to me. It's not even overly referential, but a lot of the gags aren't that good. "Method One Clinic" and "ANUSTART" are not really clever.
The episodes drag on and on and even attempts at jokes are few and far between as Ron Howard drones on and on. My god who gives a shit about this. There's a whole lot of treading water and it's something a person would just not watch if they had not invested a lot in it at one point in their life. There are laugh out loud moments for sure. Gob shines. He always does. Whereas Buster and Lucille seem like they are trying to rekindle a fire that died years ago. Tobias is hit and miss. And Maeby's story is probably the weakest of them all.
Ultimately, the fourth season of Arrested Development meets expectations by being redundant, superfluous, and unnecessary. It unwraps a neatly tied bow to an unsatisfying result as all reunion shows ever have. But at the same time, it does genuinely leave us with more laughs than we had before. I don't wish to unmake it. I don't wish for my sense of entitlement to become out-sized in relation to what this show has given us. I do wish the laughs the fourth season gave us were as concentrated and hung from as worthwhile story-lines as earlier seasons though. Grade C.
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