Final "Arrested Development" Appreciation
Dustbuster
278 Posts
As tommorow they will show the final four episodes of AD in a series finale mini-marathon. I hardly knew ya . . . 
Comments
LATE PASS:
Just started watching Season ONE. It's awesome.
fuggin' sucks. and to think i've missed 2.5 episodes this season also. what a travesty. put them season 3 dvds out like pronto.
Anyone know if you can buy season 3 episodes on iTunes?
I must say, I hate Fox for this move. What, shows need about 100 shows to go into syndication? You already have 50-odd episodes. Why not just shoot another couple seasons, and recoup your losses when you sell the syndication rights? And while I know it is an expensive show, the DVDs sell through the roof and pulling 6 million viewers can't be any worse than the numbers for the last 3 seasons of the Simpsons. (who watches new Simpsons anymore? I haven't watched a new episode in 3 years...which just makes me angry, when I think about how much an influence that show had on me.)
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seinfeld is one of the greatest tv shows of all time and arrested development wouldn't have been possible without it.
spoilers in white:
[[color:white]i could've done without the shameless and pointless justine bateman and judge rienholt plots of the first two eps [color:white](aside from the william hung jury, which was corny but great), but i thought the second half more than made up for it. specifically the fact that [color:white]george michael got to pete rose maybe and they weren't cousins that shit made me so happy, i've been rooting for him to get with her since i first saw the show. the gob/anne relationship was predicitable but funny and it was also great to see GM grow some balls. really i'm so glad that kid came out on top. he's always been my favorite character. and word to franklin's george bush doesn't care about black puppets chain.]
it's a really good look for the show to go out like this.
Arrested Development will benefit from the Biggie/Coltrane/Cobain syndrome, in that it will die before it gets a chance to suck, a la the final 3 seasons of Seinfeld, The Simpsons, et al.
While I would sacrifice the risk of that sucking for more episodes any day, we will look back on this show as one that never got a chance to slow down. It kept a break neck pace from start to finish, because the ax was always over its head. Tonight? It fell. But, in the future, we'll remember it for being great from start to finish and never getting the chance it deserved...like all the greats, it goes out too early.
This has been debated here before but everyone I know agrees that it peaked at the end (except the last 2-part episode).
But as for AD (in white): [[color:white] I am also happy they let GM and Maeby work. There might have been more humor available in them actually being cousins but this was a rare case where I am happy sentimentality won out.[/color]]
I will have to dl the torrent.....
i think it's over, man. the epilogue pretty clearly alluded to this (the fact that an epilogue even exists says enough)
Noz - they filmed this a few weeks (if not months) back so I wouldn't put a ton of faith in that. Will Arnett, when he was on The Daily Show, was a bit cryptic. He said something to the effect of, "these will be our last shows [pregnant pause] on Fox"
http://www.eonline.com/Gossip/Kristin/Archive2006/060210.html
this says that there are offers on the table from ABC and Showtime, but hurwitz ultimately will make the final call in June. i guess time will tell but i honestly think i'd prefer if they ended on a relative high note. the final episode was a nice circular throw back to the first episode which begun with a yacht party (no fauxmo). not to mention it tied up all major plotlines.
if ABC were to pick it up it would most likely be cancelled very quickly again, and if showtime picked it up the budget restraints would make it a very different show, probably some of the large ensemble cast would have to be cut back.
I'd rather see Hurwitz use his critical clout to push another hopefully brilliant and maybe commercially sucessful show. arnett's movie career is about to take off, cross can focus on making his unfunny political stand up funny again.
or
maybe ..........
if anyone hasn't seen the pilot, there was a lot of references to it in the final ep. nice symmetry. also, this was the best pilot of any show i've ever seen. stop what you're doing and go rent/buy that now.
I agree that the third season was just a lot more disjointed and weird than the first two...with the first season being the greatest season of a TV show I've ever seen (Yes, I know Seinfeld and the Simpsons are classic, but the arc of that first season was unbelievable for such a young show).
But, on the third season, I'm willing to give them a pass. First, they got moved, then a bunch of episodes got cancelled, then they effectively got cancelled and had to cram everything into the four episodes on Friday. They clearly weren't writing for new viewers, and made a lot of inside jokes and just threw in some crazy shit. I'm not saying it made for hilarious TV all the time, but its still better than The War at Home, and they were dealing with some shit that was taken out of their control.
Mitch Hurwitz puts AD out to pasture
It's not a trick...
...it's an illusion.