Arrested Development: Netflix S4.

[Merusk]

So this came out last week, in case you missed it with all your Tivo and DVR skipping of commercials.

The wife and I watched the first 7 episodes over the weekend and it's nearly as good as it was. I feel like they've missed a beat on a few of the characters - particularly Michael, who seems much more creepy, obsessive and overall incompetent than he was in the original run.   While those markers were there before it's much more overt now and he seems to be missing the sense of caring the character had.

Still, the comedy is there as are the typical references and foreshadowing.  As expected there's several digs at Fox's cancellation dusted throughout.  The title narration, for example, says "...a family whose future was cut short..."  There's also the digs at Hollywood and other cultural giants, like Google who didn't let them use the company name or logo.  So there's a nice one-liner about Google's two-faced stance on fair-use when showing a blurred Google logo Ron Howard says, "It's their right, after all they own it."

It's a slightly different format because they're trying to wrap-up what happened in the last few years and lead-in to the movie at the same time.  They're focusing on one character's story each episode and it's rather fun to see how the events of one episode play in to another character's arc.  It's not something they could have done in a week-to-week format because it's really better served by watching chunks of episodes.

If you enjoyed the original run, you'll enjoy this one.

[Ruvaldt]

I agree about Michael.  I just don't understand his place in the show at all right now, and he doesn't seem like himself.  Still, I'm only on episode 8 so maybe it'll change a bit later.  Also, the Oscar/George thing is a little confusing because they now look identical.

I think the show starts slow, but by Tobias' episode the comedy really starts to fly.  I like the Show Stealer Pro gag, too, though apparently some people didn't get the joke.

[Merusk]

I had to explain that one to my wife.  I thought it was awesome but it's a very meta and geek-centric joke.

I agree on Oscar/ George getting a bit confusing, but with the events after Cinqo de Quatro I expect they'll be a little more discernible.

[Tebonas]

I almost gave up after the Michael episode because it was like he was written by different people, but the other characters feel true to themself. I guess Michael had a breakdown.

[Ruvaldt]

Yeah, that's the explanation I settled on as well.  It makes sense, but I just don't like the character like I used to.

[Bunk]

[Margalis]

This is pretty bad. At times it's boring to the point of being nearly unwatchable. Way too much narration, too much remixing and revisiting - at times it feels like half of every episode is a recap or alternate take on existing material. It's kind of clever that in one scene a guy is almost hit by a car and a couple weeks later it turns out the driver of that car was another character on the show but it serves no real purpose. It merely exists to prove they could do it. There's also a disturbing lack of genuine comedy, and what comedy there is is often killed by excessive belaboring.

It feels to me like that episode of Star Trek: TNG where the Enterprise explodes and gets caught in a time loop. Clever premise but by the end of the episode it got a bit repetitive. This is like that stretched over an entire season instead of one episode. I really don't need to see the events of Quatro de Mayo play out 15 times.

These new episodes are dense with plot interleaving but light on everything else.

[Yegolev]

I had to explain that one to my wife.  I thought it was awesome but it's a very meta and geek-centric joke.

I had decided in the end that it was a joke but I also didn't get it.

Shows are very dense.  Michael has definitely had a breakdown.  Trying to follow along and what happened to Wiig?  THERE'S MONEY IN THE BANANA STAND.

[MahrinSkel]

A lot of the 'problem' with the dense and recursive story is that they're trying to cover five years of "where have they been" without just making the first half of the episodes being about that.  A lot of the "real time" plot is show business in jokes, Hollywood looking up it's own ass (which gets even more labored when they're telling jokes based off of Entourage, it's Hollywood pointing and laughing at itself for looking up it's own ass).

It's fun enough, but sometimes I want to tell Ron Howard to shut the fuck up, I got the joke the first time and it was funny until he explained it.

--Dave

[Ozzu]

After having watched the whole season, I really enjoyed it.

I do think it took too long to get rolling though.

[Soln]

I agree with Margalis.  It's disappointing.  They should've stayed with the original format.  And I loathe Hollywood tales about itself.   

Too much exposure to these characters shows them all to be quite creepy and shallow.  And not funny.  The original format mixed everyone up enough that you laughed and sympathized a lot more. 

David Cross at least nails it.  He eats every scene.

[Margalis]

Yeah, the Hollywood emphasis is also annoying. In general I really dislike when things get too far up their own asses - movies about Hollywood, books where the protagonist is a writer...it can work, but usually it indicates a loss of perspective and a retreat into a bubble.

David Cross is always good and his episodes have some of the most new material which helps. (In terms of plots that don't intersect heavily with other episodes) I have 2 episodes to go, it has definitely gotten better, but I still feel like I'm forcing myself to eat my vegetables by watching it.

[Tannhauser]

I'm only four episodes in.  It reminds me of Inception, with all the layers going on.  That's really clever and I look forward to seeing how G.O.B. and Tobias' storylines converge.  Not a lot of belly laughs, but I'm smiling through each episode.  It just has so many sly jokes that threaten to pass by you like a wisp. 

[Hayduke]

I didn't like the first two episodes, but thought it was mostly great after that.  I found it depressing that Michael has been Homerified.  And having each episode devoted to a character rather than the ensemble seemed like a missed opportunity, but I understand why they had to do it that way with everyone's schedules.