Arrested Development: Season 4 Review (Spoilers)
If you want to hear me take a huge dump on a beloved, critically acclaimed franchise, my Arrested Development review is for you. The fourth season is absolute trash. I didn't want to go to bed last night because I knew when I woke up it would be the first time I realized that Arrested Development actually wasn't very good. I was not looking forward
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Sleepy Hollow "Pittura Infamante" - I'd be fine with Michelle Trachtenberg as Abigail Adams if her whole behavior didn't take me out of the time period. Okay, you win the "I Love Katia Winter" award. I give up. I like the Crane team-up in this episode, it was fun. I don't think Irving is evil so much as he's still a pawn that can be used by the forces of evil against his will.
Grimm "Wesenrein" - I'm amazed they got the guy from Big Wolf on Campus to play a Blutbad, but wow, that Juliette dream sequence was intense because they actually showed her ripping Rosalee's throat out. I'm glad Nick and Hank didn't bend over backwards to apologize to Wu. They have bigger problems.
Family Guy "Stewie, Chris, & Brian's Excellent Adventure" - Agreed about Rupert, but it's only depressing if you think about it. Him talking out of the blue was funny. Loved the Italian guy, and the fact that they went back to him. Dark as it was, I loved Brian's attack on Pavlov.
Family Guy "Our Idiot Brian" - That Black Widow joke was dumb and lazy for the reasons you list, but I think Family Guy's done worse so I wasn't that upset.
Parks And Recreation "2017" - I dunno, the bit with Tom apologizing to Ben and both of them getting super emotional was great. I was worried about the time skip last season, but I'm loving these future jokes.
Parks And Recreation "Ron And Jammy" - This episode CRACKED me up! Oh man, I've missed this show. Loved Leslie slapping Jamm all those times. You're right about Tammy 2, she blows Frasier's Lilith out of the water.
Arrested Development: Season 4 - I forgot who the interview was with, but one of the AD producers said they should've "warned" us that it would be individual characters with their own plots to better prepare the audience, which is why the response wasn't good. Even with that, the things that bugged me most about it was splitting up the cast (because they were SO STRONG together) and making everyone, particularly Michael, dumb (you're right, he was always a bad father, but he was the smart straightman in a sea of idiocy before, now he's the source of the idiocy). I like that they aged George Michael appropriately and him being with a woman who reminds Michael of his deceased wife fits with the themes of this show, but the Maeby stuff was...gross.
Indian Takers: Ron Howard appearing as himself was a little self indulgent, but...you're right, he worked well as a parody of himself.
A New Start: Depressing, yeah, but I did dig the Corman Fantastic Four jokes (and it's a fun historical footnote that Jessica Walter is technically the first person to play a live action Marvel super villain)...still, they could've given more episodes to someone else.
A New Attitude: Wasn't totally feeling Gob and Ann, but I did enjoy this episode.
Off The Hook: I liked this episode because of Hale's performance.
Working With Two Directors: Really slow paced, and I think the fact that they had to play catch-up with where all the characters have been took away a lot of where the jokes should be.
The Writing And The Scripts: Agreed, but at least in typical AD fashion, you understand more in second watches, and even though I thought breaking up the cast was a bad idea, at least everyone's stories intersected.
Barry Zuckerkorn: I liked Barry trying to unlock the gate and reaching for the chachi.
Rebel Alley: As far as the controversial things on this season went, I didn't mind hers, and like I said, I liked George Michael and Michael with the same woman. You didn't mention Lucille II at all, what did you think about the plot with her?
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Sleepy Hollow "Pittura Infamante": Looking at Winter is like looking at the sun. If you do it in real life it's probably REALLY bad for you. And I know Irving isn't willing evil. But he is a pawn of it which is the same thing.
Grimm "Wesenrein": I realized once I wrote the Un-Iverse that there is a definite lack of dreams sequences. But they work for this show (unless NBC bases a promo around them.)
Family Guy "Stewie, Chris, & Brian's Excellent Adventure": I forgot about the Pavlov joke. That was funny.
Family Guy "Our Idiot Brian" : It was more a "last straw" moment for me.
Parks And Recreation "2017": One of the reasons I didn't like that bit (and resented how awesome it was) it because Ben SHOULDN'T have forgiven Tom that easy. But now (annoyingly) we know why he did.
Parks And Recreation "Ron And Jammy": How can you even put Lilith in the same sentence? Lilith isn't actually horrible at all. Frasier is such as ass he NEEDS to be taken down a few pegs. I always root for Lilith.
Arrested Development: Season 4: I knew that about the season going in and planned to keep an open mind. But that was the least of the show's problems (it actually didn't bother me at all).
Indian Takers: He sort of showed how to portray a REALLY nice guy as really horrible. Which is bizarre.
A New Start: Who did Jessica Walter play?
Off The Hook: Hale was amazing.
Working With Two Directors: Again, these weren't the things that bothered me (although unlike the catch-up thing the slow pace was actually a real problem).
The Writing And The Scripts: I'm not watching it a second time. I hated it that much.
Barry Zuckerkorn: I get it now.
Rebel Alley: Lucille's was the only plot I enjoyed. I thought I mentioned that in her episode review but I guess not.
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Sleepy Hollow "Pittura Infamante": Nice imagery. She's got a lot of natural grace and beauty, helped along by the costuming. In real life she's probably stunning but not blindingly so.
Grimm "Wesenrein": NBC needs a "Dream Sequence Promo" Jar like people use Swear Jars.
Family Guy "Stewie, Chris, & Brian's Excellent Adventure": The 90's joke was funny too.
Parks And Recreation "Ron And Jammy": My memories are a little hazy, but wasn't Lilith always rude to Martin and Niles and the others?
Arrested Development: Season 4: I feel like a lot of your complaints were a result of this original issue.
A New Start: She played Morgan Le Fay in the 1970's Dr. Strange movie. I'm fairly certain the Spider-Man and Hulk shows at the time didn't have any named villains from the comics, and if Hulk did, it wasn't until later (did he fight Absorbing Man?)
The Writing And The Scripts: Clearly, but this IS Arrested Development, and you know some things look differently on a second watch with this show.
Rebel Alley: I was referring to Lucille Austero.
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Sleepy Hollow "Pittura Infamante": Bruce Timm once related that Gina Torres is a stunningly beautiful woman in real life, even without help from professional make-up artists. I'm betting Winters is the same way.
Grimm "Wesenrein": If the penalty was a nickel they could use it to fund all of he Avatar sequels.
Family Guy "Stewie, Chris, & Brian's Excellent Adventure": What was the 90's joke again?
Parks And Recreation "Ron And Jammy": I don't remember that although I believe it. To be fair they were on Frasier's side in the matter and Frasier was a total butthole.
Arrested Development: Season 4: They were not. I deliberately promised myself to keep an open mind about the format ahead of time. The entire family not being in every single episode was not a concern for me at all.
A New Start: I don't remember anything about the Hulk show.
The Writing And The Scripts: It was too unpleasant an experience. I'm not going through it again.
Rebel Alley: Her stuff sucked. Big time.
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Family Guy "Stewie, Chris, & Brian's Excellent Adventure": Someone doing a weird dance to "King of Wishful Thinking" by Go West and Stewie saying that's all there was to the 90's.
Arrested Development: Season 4: I was just thinking for the balance. You like Tobias more but said his episodes are depressing, I think they could've done that as a subplot in another episode and it would've been fine paired along with a not-so downer Michael A-plot.
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