Thursday, June 13, 2013
And it sucks.
Ok,
maybe not sucks. That’s a little harsh. But “This season is a great big
disappointment” is a phrase I would use. Hell, why not just use it.
This season is a great big disappointment.
On
paper it sounds great. All of the original actors have returned and the
entire season is dedicated to catching up with our favorite
dysfunctional family, the Bluths. There is Jason Bateman as Michael
Bluth, Portia de Rossi as Lindsay Bluth Fünke, Will Arnett as Gob Bluth,
Michael Cera as George Michael Bluth, David Cross as Tobias Fünke, Alia
Shawkat as Maeby Fünke, Tony Hale as Buster Bluth, Jeffrey Tambor as
George Bluth Sr, and Jessica Walter as Lucille Bluth. Season 3 ended
with the majority of the family splitting up and in disarray. In season 4
each individual episode focuses on a different character and shows us
what they were doing in the 5 year gap to present day in the show. The
episodes weave in and out of each other and in traditional AD style have
complex plots and jokes.
Issues
start to arise once this format is put into practice. Having each
episode focus on an individual character means that there is greater
time invested per character, but there are only a few scenes where the
entire family are together. None of these scenes take place in the
present day portion of the story. Yes the few scenes that do exist are
spread out over the 15 episodes so we are seeing it in many of the
episodes, but just seeing a couple more seconds of a flashback per
instance is still a noticeable miss. The family just doesn’t feel whole
and this is a big problem for me. I know this was part of the intention
of the writers to see them apart, but seeing how terrible the Bluths
could be to each other while furthering their own selfish needs was a
big aspect of the original show. Instead we have a lot of the Narrator
(Ron Howard) simply telling us what happens to the family members while
we watch them sit around.
There
are numerous instances where it becomes very clear that certain cast
members weren't there for the production very long. A perfect example of
this is in Busters storyline, which is pretty much nonexistent. Buster
only pops up in two or three episodes total besides for the large group
scenes and then he has 1 episode to himself. However this episode barely
connects with the rest of the family. I find that to be very
frustrating because Buster is a character that relies on his mother for
the majority of his comedy. Having him be separated from her is a big
issue and that didn't sit well with me. While the original show was
strongest as an ensemble piece, Michael was always the core of the show.
However, we only get to see him have one major plot and two sub-plots.
This is another example of why having characters only casually drift
into each other's episodes is not a good idea. Michael should have had a
much larger role in the overall story and I find it shocking that he
didn’t.
Another
big issue that I found with us with this season is in it’s non-linear,
time jumping structure. Now past seasons have used a storytelling device
where they reference things that have already happened, often seeing
the events in a new light, so this isn’t unprecedented. However, this
time around it feels almost as if they are trying to prove that they can
still be extra clever in their writing. Because we are jumping back and
forth so rapidly, sometimes even within the same episode, it can get
very confusing. It would have been much more effective for them to have
some sort of distinguishing factor between the individual timelines. For
example they could have had a different color tone or use some sort of
costume visual indication that this was in the past. A perfect example
of when it can get confusing is in Gob’s first episode. The entire
episode takes place directly after season 3. By the end, the timeline
hasn't caught up with the present day timeline. The episode prior and
the episode immediately after Gob’s take place during present-day. I
found myself wondering throughout the episode when it was taking place.
It wasn’t until Gob’s next story, 4 episodes later, that they clarify
what time it is. This was something was hard to wrap my head around and I
didn't really enjoy it
Hands
down the biggest issue that I had with this season was that it just
wasn't funny. A lot of time was spent developing the plot and I feel as
if the writers were focusing on this more than simply telling jokes.
Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing if the show is a plot driven
drama, but this is supposed to be a comedy. I feel that the writers were
focusing too much on trying to get the thick story to cohesively gel
and there just wasn't enough room for that many funny situations. Not to
say there are no funny situations, they are just few and far between.
One successful joke that stands out is Gob’s storyline with Tony Wonder,
but I mostly attribute that to Gob being the most ridiculous character.
Another joke that really landed for me was when you find out about
George Michael rigging his tutor program so he ended up having to be
alone in his dorm room with Maeby.
What
really is the cherry on the sundae with the numerous plots is that the
majority of them don't even get wrapped up in this season. Now I
understand that this is supposed to be the first act in a new ongoing
storyline, but I didn’t know this going into the season. This is an
issue because a lot of the plots are just left hanging mid season and
never mentioned again. A perfect example of this would be George senior
and Lucilles story of building a wall across the Mexican border using
land they thought was in America. This is unceremoniously abandoned
about halfway through once George and Lucille are done with their
respective episodes and never mentioned again. It’s not like this was
some small sub-plot either. This was something that has been built up
for a long time. Numerous scenes and episodes were devoted to this and
we end on a cliffhanger. And from what I thought going into this season,
this was it. This was going to be the last of Arrested Development.
Needless to say I was disappointed. It was only after the I had finished
watching that I found out they are supposedly planning to do more.
Still, that might not even come to pass, so if this is how the series
ends it will be horrible . At least when season 3 ended there was some
closure. You felt like Michael was going off to start a new chapter of
his life and you felt that there was some finality.
I
know I been highly critical of this season, but I find the majority of
these issues are really exacerbated when you're looking at this season
as a whole. Most individual episodes honestly rated between a C- to a B+
plus for me. There really were no outstanding episodes but there were
some very bad episodes (the Lindsay ones in particular stand out are big
misses.) However like I said the individual episodes were mostly quite
good it's only when you look at them as a whole that the cracks really
start to form.
Regardless
of the overall quality, I think the cast should be commended. They all
slip back into the roles effortlessly. Just the fact that it's been so
many years since they last played these characters and that they were
able to just recapture their voices is a wonderful to watch. Like I said
earlier, it's just a shame that they weren't able to play of each other
more. It's particularly impressive how the younger cast members,
Michael Cera and Alia Shawkat, were able to slip back into the
mannerisms of their younger selves as well as show the more mature
versions in the later sections. They hit the nail on the head and that
was excellent. The amount of guest stars that they managed to pull in is
also staggering. It’s a clear testament to the respect that people have
for this show that it can get this many people to want to take a part.
Hopefully the future of this show is bright. If these plots do turn out to be all set up for future stories, then maybe I’ll look back at this season with more enthusiasm. For now it just feels like such a missed opportunity. I was hoping for more laughs and for now I hope the future holds them.
I couldn't disagree more! Some of the best moments of the show came later on in the series, where we find out that something we took for granted a few episodes was totally different than we were led to believe. For example, George Michael isn't surrounded by helpful friends from his new software startup, he actually lives in a neighborhood full of pedophiles who are extra nice to him because of how young he looks! The plot was in many ways necessitated by the production schedule as well; because they had such a hard time getting everyone's schedules to line up, they opted to work within the limitations to get something done and I feel they did a fine job producing "art through adversity." The changes in the show reflect the changes that the characters are at least supposed to have gone through in our absence, but as the dots start to connect toward the end you realize that they're still the same old self-serving manipulative Bluths, and the humor still feels like the same old Arrested Development despite the cosmetic/stylistic changes brought on by time and necessity.
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