Arrested Development, The Complete Series
c. 2003-2006

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When everyone you know is telling you the same thing about a TV show — namely that it’s the BEST SHOW EVER — that’s a lot of pressure to live up to. My roommate Alison still hasn’t read Harry Potter, because the last time I made her try, she got so worried that she wouldn’t like it (and hurt my feelings) that she physically couldn’t finish the first book. And I know a lot of people who insist on disliking things solely because so many other people have told them how OMG GOOD it is. I find this behavior idiotic — you’re missing out on quality entertainment purely for spite, or worse, because you think you’re better than the rest of us. (Here’s a helpful tip: You’re not.)  Luckily, I don’t usually succumb to any of these kinds of pressure. I saw all three seasons of Arrested Development on sale at Amazon for $30 and I snatched those suckers right up.

Arrested Development is the story of the weird and wealthy Bluth family who live on or around Balboa Island in Orange County, CA. The details beyond that are a bit harder to master, which is part of the fun. (It’s also part of the reason the show was canceled after only three seasons — and frankly they’re lucky they got even that — but I’ll get back to the cancellation thing later.) Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) inherits CEO duties of the Bluth Company after his father George (Jeffrey Tambor) is sent to prison, accused of committing a bunch of white collar crimes (up to and including building illegal houses in Iraq for Saddam Hussein). But being CEO of the Bluth company doesn’t mean just managing finances, it also means keeping tabs on and reining in his family’s irresponsible and insane behavior so the company doesn’t fall into anymore trouble than it already is. His older brother, George Oscar “G.O.B.” (pronounced ‘Jobe’) Bluth, Jr. (the sublime Will Arnett), is a professional magician who is completely delusional but supremely confident in his talents. Twin sister Lindsay (Portia de Rossi) is married to a closeted and in denial homosexual named Tobias Fünke (David Cross), who used to be a therapist but now wishes to be an actor. They also have a daughter named Maeby (Alia Shawkat), who is much more competent than either of them put together, and who they neglect mercilessly. Bluth matriarch Lucille (Jessica Walter) is, to quote Wikipedia, “manipulative, materialistic, and hypercritical of every member of her family, as well as being a perpetual drunk.” Both George Sr. and Lucille cheat on each constantly, most famously with his secretary and his twin brother, Oscar (haplessly and brilliantly played also by Jeffrey Tambor), respectively. The Bluth family is rounded out by Michael’s son George Michael (Michael Cera), who is in love with his cousin Maeby, and Michael’s younger brother, Buster (Tony Hale), who has an unnaturally close relationship to his mother, who may or not be actually twin brother Oscar’s son, and who I love beyond reason. The whole thing is narrated tongue-in-cheek by TV and film legend Ron Howard.

Watching Arrested Development‘s pilot was an interesting experience. The minute my roommate Alison found out what I was doing her eyes got as big as saucer plates, like my cat’s do when he thinks he’s about to get fed, and she squealed at me, “CAN I WATCH IT WITH YOU?” From the very first scene, she was laughing hysterically at everything — and she has a very distinctive laugh. She kept looking over at me like, why aren’t you laughing, too? Isn’t it funny? And it’s true, I wasn’t laughing, but it wasn’t because I wasn’t enjoying myself. The thing about Arrested Development is that you only get to the laughing out loud when you’ve gotten to know the characters. The humor comes from knowing and loving these absolutely idiotic people, the things they do over and over, the things they never do, or should do. It’s context humor, and what you end up getting if you invest enough time (number of episodes will vary person to person, for me it was four) is the kind of laughter you get from your own friends or family, except better because you don’t actually have to deal with them or clean up after their messes. It probably also took me longer to get to know the characters because I was so used to seeing them in their post-Arrested Development roles. I saw Jason Bateman in Juno, Will Arnett in 30 Rock, Portia de Rossi in Better Off Ted, Tony Hale as Chuck‘s Emmit Milbarge, and Michael Cera in every movie ever made before I ever saw this show. I had such a hard time, especially with de Rossi and Hale, whose post-A.D. characters — cold fish Veronica and Buy More Nazi/Weasel Emmit — are so incredibly different than Lindsay and Buster that there was some definite cognitive dissonance going on. It took me forever to stop thinking of Lindsay as a bitch, because that’s what Ted‘s Veronica is. Lindsay, like the other Bluths, is simply self-deluded. Where Gob has convinced himself that he is a talented magician and puppeteer, Lindsay has convinced herself that she is a liberal humanitarian and activist. Buster, though . . . Buster is just magical.

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