Customer Reviews

Arrested Development - Season One

5 star:		(1,013)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT's rocky history is well known. Loved by critics and its fans, it fought to find an audience, and its final season was a short affair. However, the ride from the shows premier (included uncensored and expanded along with the aired version) to its conclusion (and, YES, it has a conclusion) is hilarious and worth many returns. There are so many jokes and resonating gags that multiple viewings are REQUIRED, but your first visit to the world of the spoiled Bluth family will be a reward for unfamiliar viewers.

Here are three seasons of laughs. The series begins with the arrest of the Bluth patriarch and continues as the clan's only responsible member, Michael (portrayed by Jason Bateman), tries to keep the family's business afloat while his mother, siblings, and other family members selfishly grab for every freebie and dollar. His mother, Lucille, is a cold, controlling alcoholic whose loyalty to her family keeps her one step from pure villainy. His siblings include an older brother, Gob, a magician (of little skill), a younger brother, Buster, a mama's boy who eventually loses a body part to a nasty seal, and a sister whose marriage is ... complicated. Throw in a long-suffering son infatuated with his cousin and an uncle who is the twin of his father, and you can see how complicated Michael's life becomes.

Not your average family, not your average TV comedy (this is NOT a sitcom performed live in front of a studio audience but is filmed more like a documentary with the camera floating around like an unseen voyeur -- think the old comedy series SOAP updated a la THE OFFICE). The jokes come fast and furious. It's all absurd and incredibly entertaining.

For the record, the series is presented widescreen, and there are deleted scenes and audio commentaries for selected episodes. To tell you the truth, I haven't even skimmed these extras, but I have watched the series in its entirety far too many times to disclose without embarrassing myself. It's too bad that ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT didn't achieve the ratings necessary to keep it afloat, but it has more laughs than comedies that lasted twice as long.

I arrived late to this dance. I don't really have any structure to my TV viewing, other than Sunday nights on HBO. Despite reading positive reviews and hearing accolades for this show I missed the entire broadcast season. What that means to me is that I've just immersed myself in probably the funniest 22 episodes of broadcast comedy ever (that includes Seinfeld and the old Dick Van Dyke show). This first season is chock full of running gags, absurd situations and some of the funniest deadpan dialog deliveries ever recorded on video. It's impossible to single out a cast member because they all make important contributions, even the guys who walk on for a line or two. Watching them in sequence does maintain some continuity of narrative but you'll find yourself returning to some special favorites. The bring your daughter to work episode brings out the absurdity of the whole practice while delivering some of the best laughs of the whole series. BUY THIS!!!

I'm not usually one for superlatives or hyperbole, but this truly is the best TV show I know of. It's clever, it's hilarious, it's self-referential, it's perfectly written and flawlessly acted, it dragged me along from episode to episode like some kind of addict. And when it was over -- I mean, really really over -- I felt a bittersweet mixture of the loss of future possible episodes and a total satisfaction in having been well and thoroughly entertained.

As for the DVD set, in my mind, the only reason to own a TV series on DVD is if I feel I'll watch the shows again and again. And with these, there is no question in my mind. There's more to them than you can usually get in one viewing, and they just get better each time. The only concern for me is whether I should buy an extra set in case my primary set gets damaged. It's THAT good.

Simply put: The best new sitcom to hit the small screen since Curb Your Enthusiasm. This is clearly the best that network television has to offer, a refreshing change from the cookie-cutter "dysfunctional family" or "oversexed pals" sitcoms that have been shoved down our throats for the last decade.

AD features what is, far and away, the most original and imaginiative group of characters in TV history. While credit goes to the creators for that, it is the actors that truly make these characters work. The show is perfectly casted, with Will Arnett (GOB) and David Cross (Tobias) particularly shining. Jason Bateman has revived his career as Michael, best described as the least crazy one.

The poster who compared AD to Malcom in the Middle is off his/her rocker, and those who compare this show to Scrubs do it a great disservice. Scrubs, which I love, doesn't have the same creativity behind its plots; it's also much more jokey. AD is much more subtle and creative - and, in the ultimate compliment to a sitcom - even has shades of Seinfeld, where several plot lines will tie in at the end. Still, the show maintains its own identity, mixing original characters, witty dialogue and sometimes outrageous stories to perfection.

Through only one season, AD has quickly become one of my three favorite shows ever. The DVD is a no-brainer, day-of-release purchase that may even force me to use a vacation day...

FOX really hit a wall by cancelling one of TV's most promising shows. It's always depressing watching a good thing go up in flames and well, viewers can thank Rupert Murdoch and his excellent team at FOX for this. Then again, if they brought back the horrendously repetitive Family Guy, it shouldn't be a problem bringing back something of this caliber, which by the way is absolute excellence.

What else is there to say?

With some of the best writing in television since the early days of Seinfeld, Mitchell Hurwitz is an absolute genius making Arrested Development one of the best shows to hit television airwaves. Narrator Ron Howard fittingly tells the story of each episode with humor and a colliding sense of foreshadowing that has expectations running high for hilarious disasters to ensue.

Jason Bateman plays Michael Bluth, a family man and widower of his late wife, who comes into the business after his father, George Sr.(Jeffrey Tambor) is incarcerated for an Enron-esque scandal. The surrounding family, whose cast includes the equally exhilerating David Cross alongside newer faces Will Arnett and Michael Cera, adds ridiculous subplots that blend a healthy mixture of realism and surrealism.

Each episode somehow tops the predessesor and it's impossible to try to understand how a show of this magnitude and comedic epic was able to be taken away. Perhaps buying this DVD will help bring it back and as sorry as I am to say that the DVD enticed me into the television show, hopefully the same can be said of you reading this now.

More buyers means more viewers...

Come one, come all!

Fox finally gets it right for the first time in years and renews a show that deserves all the support it can get. This show can be considered an acquired taste initially, but one could say the same for other classic shows such as Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. The pacing and narrative are different from what is typically served up on TV, so it may take some time to adjust to the quirkiness of the show...let it sneak up on you as the episodes progress, and you will be genuinely surprised at how clever and laugh-out-loud funny this show truly is. I just wish Jason Bateman had made the cut for a Best Comedic Actor Emmy, as his work is surprisingly excellent and crucial towards grounding the rest of the loopy family members (all of them great as well) in something resembling reality, unlike the Jack & Karen slapstick nonsense in Will & Grace. Great stuff!

As reality TV continues rearing its ugly head on every major network, Arrested Development has arrived at just the right time for those of us itching for something intelligent to come over the airwaves. With corporate malfeasance (rightly or wrongly) assuming so much of the public spotlight over the past several years, Arrested Development casts a light on the people behind such shady goings on, and in this case the picture is not pretty. It's loosely classifiable as a sitcom, but Arrested Development is shot with more of a documentary/reality show style, giving it a distinctive look and feel that you just won't find in most of network TV's decidedly formulaic fare. Not since The Simpsons was in its prime about a decade or so has a show so effortlessly balanced wit, randomness, and unapologetic vulgarity (as of this writing, rumors that The Simpsons is still on have yet to be substantiated).

At the center of everything is Jason Bateman as genial widower Michael Bluth, the one sane member of a wealthy but deeply dysfunctional family, charged with holding it together after his corrupt father's incarceration. It's not easy, as Michael is surrounded by a collection of screwballs the likes of which you can scarcely imagine. Fortunately, the characters on Arrested Development are far more than just zany caricatures; they're all brilliantly drawn and distinctive, aided by some masterful performances from the show's cast. Yes, they're all isolated from reality and toxically self-absorbed, but the Bluth family still manages to come across as sympathetic. Michael's twin sister Lindsay (Portia de Rossi, who rarely fails to make my eyeballs bulge) is a pretentious "liberal activist" whose advocacy of fashionable causes is in sharp contrast to her vanity and terrible parenting. Her husband Tobias (David Cross, whose fake mustache is a hysterical running joke in itself) is an utterly oblivious husband and father who's just left his psychiatry practice to pursue his pipe dream of becoming an actor. Michael's older brother George Oscar (Gob) Bluth II (Will Arnett) is a smarmy, womanizing magician who never fails to take advantage of Michael's decency. The youngest brother, perpetual student Buster (Tony Hale), is prone to outlandish panic attacks and hasn't managed to separate himself from his mother quite yet.

Speaking of the family matriarch, Jessica Walter turns in arguably the best performance of them all as Lucille Bluth, easily one of the most delightfully evil characters in TV history. Domineering, manipulative, and occasionally downright cruel, Lucille is the most narcissistic member of a family full of narcissists. She plays her children against each other, shows questionable loyalty to her husband, grubs money relentlessly, and constantly makes cutting remarks about Lindsay's weight in spite of her awe-inspiring gorgeousness. For his part, George Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor), in addition to his amoral business practices, isn't exactly the best father in the world. In one especially hilarious series of flashbacks, we see his way of imparting everyday lessons to his children, which always involved some horrible simulated tragedy befalling a one-armed friend of his. And while the relationship between Michael and his awkward son George-Michael does provide a bastion of tenderness amidst all the screwiness, it's also worth noting that George-Michael has a forbidden crush on his rebellious cousin Maeby.

But wait, there's more! We're also treated to some hilarious and out-of-left-field special guest appearances, including Henry Winkler as the family's incompetent attorney Barry Zuckerkorn; Julia Louis-Dreyfuss as the "blind" prosecutor on the Bluths' case; Liza Minelli as Lucille's vertigo-plagued best friend/social rival who briefly becomes Buster's girlfriend in one of TV's all-time great mismatches; and Carl Weathers as, well, Carl Weathers. I feel I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention "Annyong," Lucille's adopted Korean son who gets his name from the Korean word for "hello," which happens to be all he says for his first five episodes or so.

There isn't one episode on this season that's not up to par, not one. All are brilliant in their own way, juggling plot strands in a Seinfeld-esque manner, but with non-linear plot structures more akin to the shamefully neglected classic Andy Richter Controls the Universe. With numerous flashbacks and the deadpan narration of Ron Howard filling in any gaps, Arrested Development is able to truly go where network comedy has rarely gone before. While many episodes do end with important life lessons, generally centering around the importance of family togetherness, the morals don't come until after various plot strands have come together in an all-hell-breaks-loose climax. Some of the more outlandish climactic set pieces include a phony drug bust involving a bunch of male strippers in phony cop outfits; George Sr. attempting to escape from a Christmas pageant while dressed as a character in a painting; Michael and Gob wrestling ineptly over a woman while Buster desperately tries to get himself punched in the face; and Gob's failed attempts to trick the family's accountant into thinking he's killed a stripper.

Accompanying the twenty-two episodes of this first season are a bevy of extras, almost all of which are worth watching. Most notably, we get an extended version of the pilot (complete with dirty words), commentaries that consist largely of the cast members ripping on each other and making off-color remarks, a behind-the-scenes featurette, and some loving tributes from TV Land. On the whole, the special features provide a great deal of insight into how the show's unique look and feel were created, how the cast was selected and how they interact, how reams of material are cut down to one 20-minute-or-so episode, and scads of other random information. Suffice to say that Mitchell Hurwitz, the show's creator, is clearly one very smart man.

With the Simpsons still in decline and Family Guy yet to return, I think I can safely go out on a limb and proclaim Arrested Development the best show on network TV right now. By defying virtually every television convention known to man, Hurwitz & Co. have created something truly innovative and warped, which is no small task with cable channels relentlessly pushing the envelope. Unfortunately, shows this original and challenging to the viewer don't typically last too long, but here's hoping this one proves to be an exception. So far the second season has been almost as good as this one, so if there's any justice Arrested Development will succeed in catching on where previous excellent Fox series like Andy Richter Controls the Universe and Undeclared failed.

There isn't a series on television (comedy or drama) that surpasses the consistent level of quality achieved by "Arrested Development." A casual viewer can enjoy an episode as a standalone presentation, but loyal (and attentive) fans are rewarded with astoundingly funny story arcs and inside jokes.

For the price, even a simple compilation of the first 22 episodes (without any bonus material) would be a bargain. Instead, we're being treated to a top-notch assortment (16:9 aspect ratio, deleted/extended segments, interviews, commentaries, behind-the-scenes footage and even the ability to listen to 29 original songs by David Schwartz).

For established fans, this is a dream collection. For the uninitiated, this is a golden opportunity to see what you've been missing. Either way, the decision to purchase this DVD set should be a no-brainer.

Arrested Development is currently THE funniest and smartest show on television. The writing is razor sharp, the pacing just perfect and the cast!! Perfectly cast and brillianly acted, this show is just to good for regular television which may explain the lackluster ratings. It's too cool and smart for average viewers weened on formulaic pap usually found on sitcoms. BUT-kudos to FOX for renewing the program for another season. If you have'nt seen it, pick up this set and immerse yourself in it. Then start watching and supporting this great show. I have neglected to describe the show's premise because one of the joys of it is to become acquainted with the large ensemble cast and get hooked on the show, and you will. This show will become a classic!

The Nielsen ratings did a huge dis-service to the writers, cast, crew, Fox and the viewing audience, by having this show culled prematurely.

This is without doubt one of the most original, entertaining and genuinely funny TV shows you will ever see. It's utterly addictive, to boot.

Given that Friends aired for ten years, it's a mystery why Arrested was given only two and a half. A crime.

You will not be disappointed!

Buy and enjoy!