Arrested Development Returning

[Your Mom]

Selfishly now that he apologized I can enjoy Game Night with a clear conscience  

[Arjen Robben]

Ah, that article was a horrible read. Annoying that everyone kept being like "oh we all shout at each at other, we're a big family!" but I'm glad she stood her ground when she was put in the position of having to repeatedly state that nothing else had ever come close to what she was referring to. I've got no time for people talking about how they're "working through it" with this type of thing as well, or trying to be better and all that too. Just don't be fucking shit to people, it's really not difficult. Jessica Walter is a treasure.

Reminds me of notorious prick David O. Russell being a prick to Lily Tomlin on set years ago as well. 

[Josh]

1 hour ago, Arjen Robben said:

Ah, that article was a horrible read. Annoying that everyone kept being like "oh we all shout at each at other, we're a big family!" but I'm glad she stood her ground when she was put in the position of having to repeatedly state that nothing else had ever come close to what she was referring to. I've got no time for people talking about how they're "working through it" with this type of thing as well, or trying to be better and all that too. Just don't be fucking shit to people, it's really not difficult. Jessica Walter is a treasure.

Reminds me of notorious prick David O. Russell being a prick to Lily Tomlin on set years ago as well. 

Side note on the Russell thing: you should see Mike Biglia’s latest stand-up special where he talks about that. It’s fantastic.

[LittleDaniel]

2 hours ago, El Hijosh del Ice Cream said:

Side note on the Russell thing: you should see Mike Biglia’s latest stand-up special where he talks about that. It’s fantastic.

Yeah that Birbiglia special was really good!

[GA!]

The original cut doesn't autoplay the next episode on Netflix. Get fucked.

[GoGo Yubari]

So I'm just over halfway through Fateful Consequences and now I feel pretty solidly that the original cut is better. That's probably an obvious statement, really, given that that's how the season was designed, but where it has a lot of stuff that doesn't make sense until you either rewatch or look back at it with the whole season the recut goes way above and beyond the cause of holding your hand through recap after recap of things that happened literally one episode ago. Like, the original almost certainly overestimated the interest viewers would have in putting all the pieces together and seeing all the ways the stories intersect due to having access to all the episodes at once, but this cut goes way too far in the other direction. It also really makes a hash out of the Entourage parody parts of the GOB storyline.

They do do a really good job with the George Michael/Maeby plotlines, though.

[Gazz]

George Michael punched his dad so hard his hairline immediately receeded an inch.

Elderdly Maeby is confusingly attractive.

[Skummy]

Spoiler

"George Sr realised his impersonation of a woman wasn't going to win him any awards" was probably the best line of the first episode.

 

[Skummy]

Six episodes in, I'm not sure. It's fun, but it's not what it was. The plot feels convoluted, but not in the intricately plotted, "I can't wait to see how all this unravels" way that the first couple of seasons did. The recurring jokes are good, but feel a little more heavy-handed than they used to.

I remember watching the first episode of the first series, not really knowing anything about the show (I don't even remember why I bought the DVD), and barely getting ten minutes in before rushing to my brother's room to say, "you have to watch this".

[Gazz]

I feel the same way, it's still entertaining but it's diminishing returns. I'm also struggling to see how they're going to wrap up the series in a satisfactory way. I'm guessing they'll eventually do a sixth series, but a seventh and a eighth, what story is there left to tell and what are they building to as an ending? Micheal finally leaving the family? What would be the final catalyst given the nonsense he's put up with throughout the show? Should he leave? He's by normal standards an awful person, it's just that compared to his even more awful family, he's looks normal.

[Skummy]

10 minutes ago, The Gazz said:

He's by normal standards an awful person, it's just that compared to his even more awful family, he's looks normal.

It kind of feels like they're missing that point a little this series, too, or at least overstating it with the repetition of how Michael's defining trait is that he comes back.

The entire premise is that Michael being the "moral" member of the family is a fallacy; he's dishonest, self-serving, and manipulative, yet thinks that he has the moral high ground. He thinks he's normal, but he's just as emotionally stunted as the rest of them.

The one thing keeping Michael relatively grounded is George Michael. I don't see the pay-off, or the logical ending to Michael's story being that he leaves the family, so much as he becomes the family. Michael's destiny is to cave, and to basically either become George Sr., or take the fall for the rest of the family - it wouldn't surprise me to see the series end with Michael behind bars.

If there's an emotional crux to the story, it's George Michael. It's not Michael that's the character best placed to break away from the family and live a "normal" life, it's George Michael growing up and getting out. But then, in this series, it's pretty clear that George Michael is just growing into being his dad, and behaving in the exact same way. And what is a "happy ending" for George Michael's character anyway, considering a significant part of his motivation is to hook up with his cousin?

[RPS]

I watched the first 15 minutes of the new season and just realized the show was not for me anymore. I do not even know if I would describe the show as bad anymore (though I didn't laugh in the 15 minutes), but I would just say that I have no desire to continue to watch the characters anymore. And I think the writing and dialogue for the characters has gone downhill. I actually vastly preferred season 4 as it was a significant break away from the earlier seasons that it warranted a watch. This just seems like a poorly written A.D.

[GoGo Yubari]

The fifth episode is the first one that's really worked for me in any significant way beyond occasional "oh, that's funny" chuckles (the Steve Holt stuff and George Michael's Authentic Mexican Excursion in particular). It feels like there's this big narrative emphasis is about the Bluths clinging onto their old identities, which I think makes sense that they'd try to revert to their pre-season 4 selves but it's not really satisfying to watch. And Arrested Development's dialogue structure is pretty singular in a way that's tough because after a certain point, you can more or less fill in the rejoinders in your head before they happen and the job of the writers is to actually come up with a sharper one than you're expecting, and they're mostly not pulling it off.

Still, I did finally get a big, long laugh out of something via...

Spoiler

GOB's incomprehensible speech when giving George Sr. that giant anchor, particularly because it was the moment where I realized the whole point of GOB's girlfriend is that he literally has a beard whose last name is Beard.

 

[Katsuya]

Up to Episode 7:
 

 

Maeby is just the best this season.

Also, all the actual Howard family turning up this time is pretty hilarious.

[GoGo Yubari]

21 minutes ago, Katsuya said:

Up to Episode 7:
 

  Reveal hidden contents

Maeby is just the best this season.

Also, all the actual Howard family turning up this time is pretty hilarious.

I just watched episode six and

Spoiler

The Howards are a real highlight. It's pretty neat to meet them.

 

[LittleDaniel]

I'm finally getting towards the end of Fateful Consequences and I can't tell if I missed an episode or the continuity errors are tripping me up but I've watched like six more episodes since then so I might as well just finish it.  It season five even worth starting? 

[Katsuya]

The first two episodes in particular are a real effort to get through, but the last 4 or so are definitely worth it. They’re better than any of S4 (although I’ve still not finished the re-cut)

Speaking of the last episodes:

Maeby 100% wins the season. Couple that with Search Party and Alia Shawkat is on a roll right now.

Also, DEBRIE! I hope she’s more of a feature in the second half of S5, especially cool if Portia de Rossi really isn’t up for soon much more.

[GoGo Yubari]

8 hours ago, LittleDaniel said:

I'm finally getting towards the end of Fateful Consequences and I can't tell if I missed an episode or the continuity errors are tripping me up but I've watched like six more episodes since then so I might as well just finish it.  It season five even worth starting? 

Having finished the first eight episodes yesterday I think it is, though I also think that waiting until the other half of the season drops isn't a bad idea. The frustrating thing of Netflix pulling this splitting the season in two thing is that it basically means I got to watch the worst chunk of episodes the show's ever had, then I got to watch it start pulling itself together only to just stop and have to wait for an as-yet unannounced date.

Alia Shawkat alone is worth checking season 5 out for, though. She kills it.

[LittleDaniel]

On 31/05/2018 at 05:36, Skummy said:

If there's an emotional crux to the story, it's George Michael. It's not Michael that's the character best placed to break away from the family and live a "normal" life, it's George Michael growing up and getting out. 

Yeah, I mean maybe I'm giving them too much credit here but I thought that was intentional, like it was a plot point last season that Michael kept thinking the "father/son" dynamic was about him and George Sr rather than what Ron Howard was actually interested in.

 

I actually kinda liked the first two episodes?  And now that they're bringing in Trump I kinda don't like it.  Like, I know they basically predicted the 2016 election and I'm cool with using satire to make fun of him but its just too much that now Trump is even in my gosh darn Arrested Development.

[GoGo Yubari]

If it helps, I don't think Trump comes up at all after that bit where he shows up on TV.