Arrested Development S4
Thoughts on the new season of Arrested Development:
*Spoilers everywhere under cut*
By Story:
George Sr/ Oscar: I had a hard time keeping interested in this story, mostly because I never really cared about these characters. The whole "George Sr now has a testosterone deficiency that may or may not be caused by the macca root and is now acting like a problematic stereotype of a woman" thing really put me off. And Oscar basically rapes Lucile, which is awful. I did think the idea of Oscar and George Sr becoming more like each other was kind of interesting, though by the end I feel like there should have been a bit more of an emphasis on Oscar acting like George Sr. In their last scenes together, I could still tell Oscar was Oscar and it would have been interesting to have them completely switch identities. I did really enjoy the latest get rich quick scheme and how it tied into GOB's story with the mud hut thing.
Lucile: I honestly don't remember much of Lucile's story, which probably shows how interested I was in it. She really was kind of a background character for the season, though her reaction to finding out that Oscar and George Sr took advantage of her and demanding a real divorce was heartbreaking. I felt like this season did show a side that the Arrested Development Prime didn't focus on as much in that she does truly love George Sr. I liked that she started to break down in her cold, heartless persona (though hated Tobias for cutting her off, but more on that later) due to seeing how her alienation and treatment of her family caused her downfall and imprisonment (and the spa prison was pretty funny, though I kind of wonder why it wasn't an option for George Sr in ADP--aside from it not being thought up as a plot point, yet. Maybe it was only an option for white collar women criminals).
Lindsey: I really enjoyed her story. Her struggle with her identity after finding out she's adopted I thought was well done and I loved her realizing and accepting that, whether she's blood related or not, at her core she is a Bluth, though I would have liked for her to do it without running back to Tobias for the millionth time before realizing for the millionth time that they don't love each other. Her shallow road trip of self discovery after only reading the Eat and Pray parts of Eat Pray Love was pretty funny. My only real wish for her story, though, was that she would reconnect with Maeby in a meaningful way and realize how neglectful she'd been to her daughter to the point where she doesn't even realize that she's still in high school at the age of 23. I felt like that would have been a really good place for some character growth and they dropped the ball. (Though I'm kind of sad that it's really obvious Portia De Russo has had some work done).
Tobias: There was nothing good about his story. Nothing. He's always kind of felt like a caricature more than a character to me and this didn't really help matters any. I really can't even talk about his story without being annoyed by it, so I won't. It was just all around awful.
Maeby: I always feel bad for Maeby. All she wants is attention from her parents and she doesn't really understand that she'll never get it. But I also can never feel too badly for her because she is just as shallow as they are and puts herself in bad places. I really wanted her to succeed in the movie exec career that she scammed herself into. She was doing really well and had an obvious talent for it, even if she started out using other people to do her work. The fact that she's deliberately (or not so deliberately if her test scores are to be believed) still in high school at the age of 23 is pretty depressing and now she is pretty much screwed out of having a future right when she realized that she needed to make a huge change in order to have one (though I wonder about Romeo and Juliet laws in CA...though this CA is not real CA so it probably doesn't matter). I do admit that I kind of wanted her to be secretly dating George Michael. He is kind of the only one in the family who truly cares about and sees her and wants to help.
GOB: I was surprised how much I ended up liking GOB's story since I've never liked his story. I think he was really the only character who got any real growth in this season. his giddy happiness over his fake gay relationship/budding friendship with Tony Wonder was kind of cute and it showed a part of him that had never come up before (which makes me wonder if he isn't really gay seeing as how he's never been shown to enjoy having sex with the women he's had sex with and goes out of his way to alienate the women he's with but then gets sappy and twitterpated over a dude, even if the narrator says that their feelings are just friendship, which is something neither has felt before which is why they were confusing it for love). And I really liked that Tony reciprocated and was just as lost and confused as he was (though, man, I hope they put some weird make up on Ben Stiller because he looked awful). He hit rock bottom in this season with the roofie circle and then kind of pulled himself out of it in his own way, which was a really interesting move on the writers' part. I kind of wonder what happened in the bedroom between him and Tony--did they have sex and somehow not realize until the end they were both dudes? Did they figure it out and have sex anyway? I kind of missed part of his rambling 'hypothetical' to Michael, so it may have been explained in there. But all around, I did really like what they did with him.
Buster: I love Buster and really felt like they didn't use him enough. He really is the funniest character on the show, even though he's also one of the saddest because of how utterly damaged he is. I really liked his small bit of character growth in realizing that he wanted a lover and not a mother, and was pretty sad that he had it ripped out from under him. Also it was sad how Lucile 2 took advantage of his innocence to betray Lucile and how guilty he felt that he was "responsible" for his mother going to prison. I was a little confused with the army sideline in that I thought he was tricked into rejoining towards the end of ADP and I don't remember him getting out of it. I did really enjoy using him as commentary on the drone program and his giant hand was pretty funny in a way his hook never was.
George Michael: George Michael has always been the heart and voice of reason of the show and, as much as I really enjoyed him struggling with what to do as he dug himself deeper with one lie after another, it was hard to see him lose some of his integrity. He felt the realest out of all of the characters this season with his struggle to gain some independence and privacy from his dad while not alienating him in the process and his feelings of guilt and then utter betrayal felt very real and were utterly heartbreaking. I feel like, in a way, he's a different version of Buster--Michael has smothered George Michael in much the same way as Lucile has smothered Buster, though GM has realized how much damage Michael is doing to his life and breaks away, something Buster's never been fully able to do. This chapter was a turning point for him and will keep him from becoming like his uncle, though I wonder how he's going to deal with the eventual backlash of Fakeblock not existing as promised because I'm preeeeetty sure he could face fraud charges for it.
Michael: God was Michael unlikeable. His character has always been just as shallow as the rest of this family, even though is heart is vaguely somewhere in the right place. And I did feel bad for him in places as this season made it pretty pointed just how much he is like the family he wants to separate himself from--he failed his real estate attempt (GOB), he's smothered his kid to the point of alienation (Lucile), though he also keeps blowing him off for his own selfish reasons whenever his kid tries to connect (George Sr), he's obsessed with his status and looking like a better person than he is (Lindsey), he continues to run back to his family, unable to really survive on his own (Buster). It was really hard to watch him shoot himself in the foot over and over again with each family member as he kicked them out of the movie, which was his only way to really save himself. But I'm not sure if I can forgive him for his part in the Rebel/GM/Michael triangle. That was such an utter betrayal and I'm really not sure how he can pull himself out of it and redeem himself.
Stray observations:
-Discovered yesterday that George Maharis was an actor in the 70s who was busted for having gay sex in a public restroom. Poor George Michael. Every name he ends up with is doomed.
-Loved Seth Rogan as young George Sr, even though it was a complete change from the style of the flashback scenes in ADP.
-I liked that the callbacks didn't really feel like pandering to the fans. They were fluid and organic within the various stories.
-I also enjoyed all of the random minor side characters showing up.
-Didn't like making light of sex offenders, especially as it was shown in the scenes with GM living in Sudden Valley that they weren't all registered as such for misunderstandings like Tobias had. The whole line with the kid "being more of a danger to them that they were to him" was really kind of sketchy. Did find it interesting that there was at least one woman in the bunch, though.
-The maritime court being a seafood restaurant was rather amusing.
-Confused as to what was going on the Perfecto and Lucile 2. It kept sounding like Lucile 2 didn't really have an adopted kid or that he was taken away, and but then it's implied that it was Perfecto and he was living there because he and Maeby had sex at Lucile 2's apartment, but it was referred to as the invisible kid's room and I really feel like I missed something there.
-Also, I'm assuming that the mystery of what happened to Lucile 2 will be the plot of the movie this season is supposed to set up for, but I wonder how they'll do it in a way that wouldn't require you to have watched this season, since some people probably don't have Netflix. And I also wonder if, as large as the fanbase is, if it's large enough to make a movie financially worth it. It's kind of a cult show, unlike Sex in the City (which, for some reason, got two movies). I know Bryan Fuller did it with Dead Like Me (which I'm sad is on Netflix while the show isn't because I'd really like to watch that before watching the movie), but I'm not sure how well that did, or if it was in theaters. Maybe the movie would be a straight to Netflix thing, too.
-Kind of bummed Annyong was just a small clip of what happened with him.
-Steve Holt(!), you look awful, man.
-It was kind of jarring to hear Ron Howard as Narrator and Ron Howard as Ron Howard.
-Loved Ann growing a spine and deciding to fuck with GOB and Tony Wonder (also "How's your egg?" "I told you were fine!" hahaha)
-That last scene still just rips my heart out when I think about it. Though Michael can either take a punch better than GOB, or George Michael pulled it because he loves his dad so much.
-GOB is eating Let's brand potato chips in one scene. Community and Arrested Development share the same universe?
-Really needed more Buster.
*Spoilers everywhere under cut*
By Story:
George Sr/ Oscar: I had a hard time keeping interested in this story, mostly because I never really cared about these characters. The whole "George Sr now has a testosterone deficiency that may or may not be caused by the macca root and is now acting like a problematic stereotype of a woman" thing really put me off. And Oscar basically rapes Lucile, which is awful. I did think the idea of Oscar and George Sr becoming more like each other was kind of interesting, though by the end I feel like there should have been a bit more of an emphasis on Oscar acting like George Sr. In their last scenes together, I could still tell Oscar was Oscar and it would have been interesting to have them completely switch identities. I did really enjoy the latest get rich quick scheme and how it tied into GOB's story with the mud hut thing.
Lucile: I honestly don't remember much of Lucile's story, which probably shows how interested I was in it. She really was kind of a background character for the season, though her reaction to finding out that Oscar and George Sr took advantage of her and demanding a real divorce was heartbreaking. I felt like this season did show a side that the Arrested Development Prime didn't focus on as much in that she does truly love George Sr. I liked that she started to break down in her cold, heartless persona (though hated Tobias for cutting her off, but more on that later) due to seeing how her alienation and treatment of her family caused her downfall and imprisonment (and the spa prison was pretty funny, though I kind of wonder why it wasn't an option for George Sr in ADP--aside from it not being thought up as a plot point, yet. Maybe it was only an option for white collar women criminals).
Lindsey: I really enjoyed her story. Her struggle with her identity after finding out she's adopted I thought was well done and I loved her realizing and accepting that, whether she's blood related or not, at her core she is a Bluth, though I would have liked for her to do it without running back to Tobias for the millionth time before realizing for the millionth time that they don't love each other. Her shallow road trip of self discovery after only reading the Eat and Pray parts of Eat Pray Love was pretty funny. My only real wish for her story, though, was that she would reconnect with Maeby in a meaningful way and realize how neglectful she'd been to her daughter to the point where she doesn't even realize that she's still in high school at the age of 23. I felt like that would have been a really good place for some character growth and they dropped the ball. (Though I'm kind of sad that it's really obvious Portia De Russo has had some work done).
Tobias: There was nothing good about his story. Nothing. He's always kind of felt like a caricature more than a character to me and this didn't really help matters any. I really can't even talk about his story without being annoyed by it, so I won't. It was just all around awful.
Maeby: I always feel bad for Maeby. All she wants is attention from her parents and she doesn't really understand that she'll never get it. But I also can never feel too badly for her because she is just as shallow as they are and puts herself in bad places. I really wanted her to succeed in the movie exec career that she scammed herself into. She was doing really well and had an obvious talent for it, even if she started out using other people to do her work. The fact that she's deliberately (or not so deliberately if her test scores are to be believed) still in high school at the age of 23 is pretty depressing and now she is pretty much screwed out of having a future right when she realized that she needed to make a huge change in order to have one (though I wonder about Romeo and Juliet laws in CA...though this CA is not real CA so it probably doesn't matter). I do admit that I kind of wanted her to be secretly dating George Michael. He is kind of the only one in the family who truly cares about and sees her and wants to help.
GOB: I was surprised how much I ended up liking GOB's story since I've never liked his story. I think he was really the only character who got any real growth in this season. his giddy happiness over his fake gay relationship/budding friendship with Tony Wonder was kind of cute and it showed a part of him that had never come up before (which makes me wonder if he isn't really gay seeing as how he's never been shown to enjoy having sex with the women he's had sex with and goes out of his way to alienate the women he's with but then gets sappy and twitterpated over a dude, even if the narrator says that their feelings are just friendship, which is something neither has felt before which is why they were confusing it for love). And I really liked that Tony reciprocated and was just as lost and confused as he was (though, man, I hope they put some weird make up on Ben Stiller because he looked awful). He hit rock bottom in this season with the roofie circle and then kind of pulled himself out of it in his own way, which was a really interesting move on the writers' part. I kind of wonder what happened in the bedroom between him and Tony--did they have sex and somehow not realize until the end they were both dudes? Did they figure it out and have sex anyway? I kind of missed part of his rambling 'hypothetical' to Michael, so it may have been explained in there. But all around, I did really like what they did with him.
Buster: I love Buster and really felt like they didn't use him enough. He really is the funniest character on the show, even though he's also one of the saddest because of how utterly damaged he is. I really liked his small bit of character growth in realizing that he wanted a lover and not a mother, and was pretty sad that he had it ripped out from under him. Also it was sad how Lucile 2 took advantage of his innocence to betray Lucile and how guilty he felt that he was "responsible" for his mother going to prison. I was a little confused with the army sideline in that I thought he was tricked into rejoining towards the end of ADP and I don't remember him getting out of it. I did really enjoy using him as commentary on the drone program and his giant hand was pretty funny in a way his hook never was.
George Michael: George Michael has always been the heart and voice of reason of the show and, as much as I really enjoyed him struggling with what to do as he dug himself deeper with one lie after another, it was hard to see him lose some of his integrity. He felt the realest out of all of the characters this season with his struggle to gain some independence and privacy from his dad while not alienating him in the process and his feelings of guilt and then utter betrayal felt very real and were utterly heartbreaking. I feel like, in a way, he's a different version of Buster--Michael has smothered George Michael in much the same way as Lucile has smothered Buster, though GM has realized how much damage Michael is doing to his life and breaks away, something Buster's never been fully able to do. This chapter was a turning point for him and will keep him from becoming like his uncle, though I wonder how he's going to deal with the eventual backlash of Fakeblock not existing as promised because I'm preeeeetty sure he could face fraud charges for it.
Michael: God was Michael unlikeable. His character has always been just as shallow as the rest of this family, even though is heart is vaguely somewhere in the right place. And I did feel bad for him in places as this season made it pretty pointed just how much he is like the family he wants to separate himself from--he failed his real estate attempt (GOB), he's smothered his kid to the point of alienation (Lucile), though he also keeps blowing him off for his own selfish reasons whenever his kid tries to connect (George Sr), he's obsessed with his status and looking like a better person than he is (Lindsey), he continues to run back to his family, unable to really survive on his own (Buster). It was really hard to watch him shoot himself in the foot over and over again with each family member as he kicked them out of the movie, which was his only way to really save himself. But I'm not sure if I can forgive him for his part in the Rebel/GM/Michael triangle. That was such an utter betrayal and I'm really not sure how he can pull himself out of it and redeem himself.
Stray observations:
-Discovered yesterday that George Maharis was an actor in the 70s who was busted for having gay sex in a public restroom. Poor George Michael. Every name he ends up with is doomed.
-Loved Seth Rogan as young George Sr, even though it was a complete change from the style of the flashback scenes in ADP.
-I liked that the callbacks didn't really feel like pandering to the fans. They were fluid and organic within the various stories.
-I also enjoyed all of the random minor side characters showing up.
-Didn't like making light of sex offenders, especially as it was shown in the scenes with GM living in Sudden Valley that they weren't all registered as such for misunderstandings like Tobias had. The whole line with the kid "being more of a danger to them that they were to him" was really kind of sketchy. Did find it interesting that there was at least one woman in the bunch, though.
-The maritime court being a seafood restaurant was rather amusing.
-Confused as to what was going on the Perfecto and Lucile 2. It kept sounding like Lucile 2 didn't really have an adopted kid or that he was taken away, and but then it's implied that it was Perfecto and he was living there because he and Maeby had sex at Lucile 2's apartment, but it was referred to as the invisible kid's room and I really feel like I missed something there.
-Also, I'm assuming that the mystery of what happened to Lucile 2 will be the plot of the movie this season is supposed to set up for, but I wonder how they'll do it in a way that wouldn't require you to have watched this season, since some people probably don't have Netflix. And I also wonder if, as large as the fanbase is, if it's large enough to make a movie financially worth it. It's kind of a cult show, unlike Sex in the City (which, for some reason, got two movies). I know Bryan Fuller did it with Dead Like Me (which I'm sad is on Netflix while the show isn't because I'd really like to watch that before watching the movie), but I'm not sure how well that did, or if it was in theaters. Maybe the movie would be a straight to Netflix thing, too.
-Kind of bummed Annyong was just a small clip of what happened with him.
-Steve Holt(!), you look awful, man.
-It was kind of jarring to hear Ron Howard as Narrator and Ron Howard as Ron Howard.
-Loved Ann growing a spine and deciding to fuck with GOB and Tony Wonder (also "How's your egg?" "I told you were fine!" hahaha)
-That last scene still just rips my heart out when I think about it. Though Michael can either take a punch better than GOB, or George Michael pulled it because he loves his dad so much.
-GOB is eating Let's brand potato chips in one scene. Community and Arrested Development share the same universe?
-Really needed more Buster.