And now the story of a once-beloved show that nearly lost everything with an overly-complicated fourth season puzzle and the one creator who felt he had no choice but to try and put it all back together. It’s Arrested Development.
“Arrested Development” creator Mitch Hurwitz is not Nostradamus. If the showrunner, writer/producer/mastermind of the “semi-original” Netflix series about the most dysfunctional, monstrously self-absorbed family on Earth, could predict the future he would’ve never crafted the overly-ambitious season four as an interconnected tapestry so convoluted, it would perplex and disappoint even the most ardent fans of the wacky, deadpan comedy series leading many to self-medicate with forget-me-not roofies. But Hurwitz does have some forecasting powers, however unintended.
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In season four, released in 2013, one of the central plot elements was the building of a wall on the U.S. border for the government to keep out Mexican immigrants and the politicians bribed into supporting it. Further prescient, perhaps disturbingly so, was Hurwitz’s creative choice to emasculate George Bluth Sr. (the currently beleaguered Jeffrey Tambor), have him take estrogen pills and dress up like a woman.
Considering everything that’s happened in Tambor’s life and the sexual harassment scandal that forced his exit from Amazon’s “Transparent” show—a series where Tambor’s lead character transitions to become a woman—the connections are eerily, uncanny and even unfortunate. Even the Ron Howard-narrated line, “But George Sr. soon realized his impression of a woman wasn’t going to win him any awards,” so he took off for Mexico “to forget his shameful mistakes,” practically feels like it’s trolling the viewer.
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Hurwitz, for all his mistakes, surely could not have predicted how unnervingly clairvoyant and relevant his show would be (Ron Howard voice: he couldn’t). And while some reviews have suggested that Tambor’s presence and the unfortunate art-imitating-life similarities on the show have tainted it, to be totally fair, the character isn’t a huge part of season five (though his depressed, low-energy mien is also strangely unsettling).
And to be unbiased against a show that doesn’t arguably justify such charity any longer, Hurwitz constructed his labyrinth fourth season as such—each episode centering around one family member instead of the collective unit—for the practical difficulties (and the, at the time, exorbitant costs) of getting the entire gang back together in one place.
Perhaps because Netflix money isn’t an issue now (happily forking out $60 million for arthouse Bong Joon-Ho movies like “Okja” for example), “Arrested Development” season five reunites the entire Bluth family for most of the season. And the good news is, you only need to watch the new season twice to understand what’s going on (Ron Howard voice: he’s joking!).
Season five— now retconned into being set in 2015 even though it picks up just a few months later so it can include more Trump-related jokes— is less of a mess to a degree, but its central problem is inheriting the incoherent story of season four and still having to reckon with it and its cliffhanger that ended with the disappearance of Lucille (2) Austero (Lizza Minnelli) and the punch heard around the world when George-Michael Bluth (Michael Cera) did the unthinkable and clocked his dad Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) in the face for knowingly dating his girlfriend and Ron Howard’s (fictional) daughter Rebel Alley (Isla Fisher). Got it?
Season five picks up where season four left off and grapples with ramifications of the past: Gob (Will Arnett) is coping with the fallout of a sexual encounter and his feelings for “gay (but really straight) magician” Tony Wonder (Ben Stiller), everyone is still looking for Lucille 2, which lands Buster (Tony Hale) in jail, and George-Michael and his father are still licking their wounds. The son wracked with guilt, the dad is fearing he’s losing his son but pretends that nothing is wrong and neither of them, worried about further hurting each other’s feelings, is able to be straight with one another.
Lies, faking their way through life and the inability to tell the truth is perhaps the (familiar) theme. Maeby Fünke’s (Alia Shawkat) posing as a senior citizen, her father Tobias (David Cross) is still in total denial about his sexuality and place in the family—Lindsay (Portia de Rossi) is divorcing him and Lucille Bluth (Jessica Walter) and George Sr. are definitely not coming clean with all they know about Lucille 2.
So yes, the spider web of plot and story is still present, but believe me when I say it’s at least somewhat more intelligible (Ron Howard voice: that’s generous).
The truth of the matter is “Arrested Development” is regressing. Much like it’s children in need of their parent’s approval—which fuels many of the storylines, but especially Lindsay’s as she runs for office at the behest of her manipulative mother— “Arrested Development” season five has a slight air of desperation. It’s in need of your love and your acceptance.
After all, this is a show whose creator was so wounded by the tepid critical season four response, he re-edited the entire thing from scratch (“Season 4 Remix: Fateful Consequences“) in hopes that audiences would finally get it (Ron Howard voice: They didn’t).
So there’s a greatest hits-like quality to season five; one scene even has George-Michael nostalgic for his family home and finds him sifting through classic “Arrested Development” gags like the Kissing Cousins DVD and the dangerously scalding corn baller. But the familiar also takes the show back to its obscurest roots and acquired-taste sensibilities: “Arrested Development”—which went far too crazy as it peaked in popularity for its Netflix revival—has settled down and thus is back to the cult classic for its limited, die-hard audience only.
One thing is undeniable: as confusing as season five is at times, it’s also laugh out loud hilarious with the jokes firing at a machine-gun-bullet pace again. At the same time, these are fleeting, disposable laughs. Some hysterical in the moment, but not long lasting. And problematic and dated: Gob’s gay panic storyline— in love with Tony Wonder, but horrified at the concept of being gay—is funny and also elicits uncomfortable, nervous laughter.
Ultimately, “Arrested Development” is now as dysfunctional as the dysfunctional family as its followed all along. And depending on your affection for these deeply broken people, your results with the show may vary. The best metaphor for Hurwitz’s season five—which is broken into two parts, eight episodes now and another eight later this year—is its well-known “there’s always money in the banana stand joke.” You can always bail yourself out of life with the get-out-jail-free-card that is the banana stand’s hidden stash of money. Only, the banana stand has gone missing this season, and when its found, its fruits will surely be going brown.
Still, while casual fans may have met the fork in the road that takes them to another series—perhaps the one in the Netflix recommended algorithm engine that points you to another “original series” (Ron Howard voice: Not the Marvel ones, hopefully)—longtime ‘AD’ fans (there are dozens of us, dozens!) might find enough pleasure in the show to stay in denial about its greatness. Because like Lucille 1 might say, if that’s a veiled criticism about me, I won’t hear it and I won’t respond to it. [B]