Arrested Development (2003-2006, 2013-?)

Update on the "movie," but it's a bit of a spoiler: http://www.tvguide.com/News/Arrested-Development-Spoilers-1063122.aspx

Anyway, I just finished rewatching the whole series. Season one was a bit wonky, I suppose, but season two sure is great. Season three is a bit of an enigma to me -- it's almost like they were saying "you know what, we know we're probably going out so we're gonna do whatever the fuck we want" with the Mr. F sidearc and such. Still, I'm not sure I can think of a primetime comedy as funny and expertly written as this.

Can't wait for season four. Thinking about calling off work that day to binge.

(And I agree, Tux. Gob and Barry are the best characters on the show.)

Sorry for the double post, but:



New season comes May 26 with 15 (!!!) episodes.

Fantastic! I'll be watching the whole series for the first time since spring 2007.

Our first new footage, an outtake from season 4 featuring Buster and Lucille Bluth:

http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/04/25/arrested-development-buster-lucille/

I've started working my way through the series again in advance of the season 4 premiere (given how dependent the series is on in-jokes, I figured this was a smart move). I've seen the show all the way through plenty of times, but I'm still floored by just how funny it is.

Started watching this again for the first time in 6 years. Watched the first four episodes. It's still a very impressive show on every level, even if I'm not really into comedy much anymore.

I appreciate David Cross on the show now more than ever. I'm also a big fan of Batemen, Tambor, and Arnett. Batemen's straight man act really makes the show work, and he's really my favorite to watch.

I still mourn the loss of Leonor Varela as Marta. She was smokin' and had excellent chemestry with Batemen. The other one was a total waste.

I look forward to Barry Zuckerkorn. He's probably my favorite character. And Judy Greer. Jesus, I love Judy Greer.

New posters!



As for the best characters, it's between Barry and Gob for me.

I think season two is where this show really finds itself, while season three was more of the showrunners just saying "fuck the ratings" and doing whatever they felt like.

I was also thinking that S2 is really the best. S3 is pretty nuts, but I still like it. Sorta like the original Trek series, where in S3 things got camped up a lot more.

They do such a great job with the music on this show, it's so jovial. I really hope they have the same people involved with the new season. And I hope they have the rights to use the theme tune.

Trailer!



"I have lupus."

Saw that last night. Looks promising. Nice to see the old sets back.

Rockin' through Season 2. I hope they have bleeps in S4. Bleeps are funnier for this show.

This worries me:

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/arrested-development-creator-mitch-hurwitz-on-his-two-year-odyssey-to-revive-the-show-20130520

Quote :

We ended up with an eight-hour movie of Arrested Development where the pieces do kind of come together. Not only was the show told out of sequence, it was shot out of sequence. Half of the stuff is on green screen. There are scenes where there are two characters talking to each other. On one side, it's Jason Bateman in July, and on the other side it's Portia in November. It was these crazy, crazy things where everybody had to say, "Wait, she hasn't gone to that party, so she wouldn't have that makeup on, therefore . . . "

Mixed results, apparently:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/tessastuart/arrested-development-was-forced-to-shoot-actors-separately

Quote :

“It does look kind of like the Austin Powers stuff — you can tell that it was green screened,” said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

A second source told BuzzFeed that Henry Winkler, who plays the Bluth family lawyer Barry Zuckerkorn, was green-screened into the majority of his scenes. But, the same source added, “I’ve gotten to see a couple episodes and I didn’t notice any problems. It wasn’t the most extensive scenes, but everything I’ve seen, the post-production teamdid a great job with, so I wouldn’t say I’m worried — I’d say I’m curious.”

The effect of the green screen visually was less jarring than its effect on the rapport between actors, according to the first source.

“I think the reason most people like the [original] show is because it’s off-the-cuff and improvised. You can really see that the actors and extras really, really like working with each other,” this source said. “For a different show it wouldn’t be such a big deal, but because of the nature of the comedy, and the writing, and the direction, [green screening] is something that I think is not a good idea — and I think a lot of fans would agree that they’d rather it not be made if it is not going to be made in the same style.”

Uh oh.

The original run was never, as far as I know, off-the-cuff or improvised. It was tightly written and it was performed by an excellent cast who worked very well together.

I heard about this green screen stuff. I recall Lucille saying once, "This does not bode well."

EDIT ADDON: It was when she and Lindsay went to Klimpy's.

Four clips.

I'm one episode into S3. I may make it an AD kinda night. 12 more episodes... 4 straight hours of AD? Maybe I'll make some progress. I'll be too busy tomorrow to watch S4 anyway.

Two episodes in on S4. Not bad so far but it's lacking a little bit. Only one jarring instance of green screen so far.

I've seen the first two episodes, too. I think it's very, very good. It feels as if they really didn't miss a step in getting the gang back together; this is ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT through and through.

But the new format makes it hard to marathon-view. These episodes seem more dense than those from previous seasons. I suspect I'll gradually be catching up with the season over the next week, rather than trying to catch it all today and tomorrow.

Ha. I'm two episodes in as well. I think it's pretty much on track, especially the second episode. I quite enjoyed The Jeffrey Tambor and Jeffrey Tambor Show.

They really start Michael out at the bottom. And for it feeling more dense, I agree. For one, the episodes are longer. And it feels like this season may be even more serialized than the previous ones in that they probably had more or less the whole season written out before they began shooting. It's a lot different from producing a weekly series.

I really like Oscar's friends. Slattery, Loud Asian Woman, Ms. Subtitles.

Cera is looking pretty weird these days. Not growing up to be much of a looker. Same with Shawkat. Such is the norm for child actors.

That said, I'm worried about Portia De Rossi's plastic surgery face.

This really makes me think of what it was like for Trekkies to see the first Trek movie after the show had been off for ten years. It'll take some getting use to.

I am so glad they have all of the original music at play here.

Lindsay's first episode is hysterical.

Having watched all of S3 this weekend, I'm a bit burnt out at the moment.

I see dumb people.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/season-arrested-development-already-receiving-155612517.html

These people should be watching Modern Family instead.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

I see dumb people.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/season-arrested-development-already-receiving-155612517.html

These people should be watching Modern Family instead.

Or Big Bang Theory. Jesus.

Episode 3 was terrific. I think the biggest shift with S4 is that it's centered on specific characters for an entire episode. That feels strange, and the episodes have a longer running time which compounds it. If anything is missing it's the madcap ensemble feel. Of course, these actors have moved on and some have scheduling difficulties, so we'll probably never get the old style back. Unless it's a movie, which I'm actually against. I'd rather just get more seasons. I'm still not sure this would work as a movie, and I'm not sure how many people would see it.

So S4 is a different beast. That was to be expected. But I'm liking it so far. I'm just tickled to have no AD to watch.

"I thought you were taking a dump!" Ep. 3 had nice stuff with Eastern religion Eat Pray Shit crap. And the housing crisis.

To add more. It's really quite different from S3. I've always felt S3 was like the Roger Moore version of AD. In S2 you had that Martin Short role, and I've always thought that went a little too far. In S3 you've got stuff like that with the Brits and so forth. S4 looks to be more in line with the first two seasons, albeit a little more sober. Even darker. I do miss the freewheeling madcap ensemble version, but this looks like it's turning out to be good.

Ep4 is already fantastic. Judy Greer is back. Maebe's script is called "21st Century Family".