This summer I was fortunate enough to have some free time so I decided to fill that free time by watching some TV shows I've been interested in watching for a while. It's an official list of TV shows that I am slowly making my way through. The first show I watched was Arrested Development. My original interest was sparked by Netflix producing a fourth season for the show. Being a Television-Radio major I felt this was a step in a new direction for TV that I should make sure I'm aware of. I started the show and finished the first three seasons within two weeks. The more I watched the more I was hooked. At first I was a bit hesitant thinking that this show would be too incredibly frustrating to watch as Jason Bateman's character, Michael Bluth, struggled to accomplish even the most minor victories. But by the second season, I couldn't get enough of it. Mitchell Hurwitz and the other writers did an amazing job. I felt like almost every line was a punch line but yet made sense in the story of the episode. Even the foreshadowing for Tony Hale's character, Buster Bluth, loosing his hand to a "loose seal," hilariously similar sounding to Jessica Walter's character's name, Lucille Bluth, was genius. This was the first show in a while that I could be watching alone and laugh out loud to myself. And even talking about it to the other people made it that more hilarious. The amount of great quotes from that show is ridiculous. One of my quotes is from Gob, Will Arnett's chatacter, "I know what an erection feels like Michael. No, it's the opposite. It's... it's like my heart is getting hard."

Now after getting through those three beautiful seasons was fantastic but the closer the fourth season dawned on me, the more worried I got.  How could they recreate something this good? The characters will be too old. How are they going to pull this off? These questions constantly circled through my head as I wrapped up the third season. It became a large topic of discussion with my friends who were also Arrested Development fans. So bravely and unsure of what would happen. Me and my brother let Netflix roll us over into the next season. If Netflix didn't have that feature where it just starts the next episode in 15 seconds then we probably would've put it off. The first episode of season 4 was alright. I wasn't blown away but I knew what they we're doing was tough so I hung in there. I kept saying maybe the next ones will be like the old ones. But it wasn't. In reality I shouldn't of expected it too. For what it was overall, I was impressed and it was still a good show. But the first 3 seasons we're a great show, and I missed that. I've been hearing talks of possibly a movie which I will definitely see and  I'm still glad Netflix created a fourth season. I look forward to whatever comes next. 

Can Arrested Development Hook Us Again?

Arrested Development originally aired on Fox to regrettably low ratings, but for those who did watch it, it was like getting struck my lightning. One of the most beloved of cult-hit TV shows, Arrested Development was revived recently by Netflix, bringing fifteen brand new episodes with the Bluth family to the small screen yet again. But after all these years, can creator Mitch Hurwitz capture our imaginations again?

The original conception of Arrested Development occurred at a time of corporate scandal, most notably: the Enron. The inciting action of the entire series is based off of this topicality, with the father of the Bluth family being arrested because of his illegal decisions as the head of his company. This sends the entire family spiraling out of control, and then COMEDY! Also entering the mix is the invasion of Iraq, the ties the U.S. government had with Saddam Hussein, and the fallout therein. This provided another large plotline and hilarious climax in the series.

Bringing this series to life again almost a decade later leaves creator and writer Mitch Hurwitz with the problem of making the show current, topical and relevant again. Considering we are now in a recession (of some sort), the job market is much lower, and we are now almost in a conflict with North Korea, one can think of many angles through which Hurwitz can still provide a social satire.

Another present change is the actual means of consumption as well as the story structure. Providing content through Netflix, one can sit down and watch the entire season in one (sleep-deprived) day. The story structure is also reimagined, with each episode following a different member of the Bluth family, ultimately leading up to an Arrested Development feature film. Will these separate stories culminate in at least a few traditional episodes? Is showing the family apart the best decision, considering the show is built on the total disfunction of the family when they are together?

Mitch Hurwitz capture lightning once, and I for one will be watching on May 26 to see if he can do it again.