The Most Depressing Show About an Animated Horse

Imagine there are two shows. One is a cartoon comedy about a horse who is friends with a dog and a cat. The other is a drama about a washed up former 90s sitcom who is now a depressed alcoholic trying to get his life back on track while continuing to self destruct. What if I told you that both of those were the same show? They are, and that show is BoJack Horseman.

BoJack Horseman follows Arrested Development arnett Will Arnett as the titular anthropomorphic horse trying to get his life back together. The show takes place in a world where humans and anthropomorphic animals live side by side. What makes it interesting is that BoJack Horseman is much less of a comedy than it seems to be. The show is actually a dark character study of a group of deeply unhappy people dealing with depression and other mental health issues.  BoJack seeks happiness while trying to move past his dark childhood and overbearing, unloving parents. 

Most of the humor that is present in the series is derived from the background jokes and animal puns that are present while the drama takes place within the characters. The background of every scene is chock full of gags that require multiple viewings to catch. 

There are so many more

The shows first season was given mixed reviews mainly based off the show's first five episodes. However critics agreed that once the show found its footing it became critically acclaimed. Season two was highly praised as being one of the smartest shows on television. I highly recommend watching this show and giving it at least the first season to really get you hooked. Watch this show.

Filming Style of Arrested Development

Like many people I am a huge fan of the TV show Arrested Development and when Season 4 came out, I decided to re-watch the first three seasons and noticed something interesting. There is a very distinct camera style that is used during the show. Almost the whole show is shot handheld by someone who is a little too shaky. Here is a clip to show you what I mean.

The dialogue scenes seem to be entirely shot by cameras on shoulder mounts using fast paced zooms and pans. Normally people discourage this kind of filming because it feels somehow sloppy but for me, it somehow works for the show. Here is my theory on why. For those of you who haven't seen the show first off... watch it... secondly it is about a man named Michael Bluth who is forced to take over his family affairs after his father is put in prison. However the rest of his dysfunctional family make his job unbearable. This is why I think the show is shot so frantically, it is supposed to represent how frantic each episode is. Every episode Michael needs to overcome some obstacle being put up by someone in his family. Since Michael is the protagonist I think that maybe the camera represents how frantic and unorganized his job is.

 

Well anyway that is my theory on the interesting camera style for Arrested Development please comment if you have any questions.

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.