Review: Arrested Development - The Original Modern Sitcom?
- Apr 24, 2018
- 2 min read
Confused by my headline? Allow me to explain.
2003's Arrested Development may not have been the first sitcom, or even the first "single-camera" sitcom (which is a general term applied to the modern style of sitcom with no audience or laugh track, and sets that a camera can fully explore rather than film from a fixed angle). But it was hugely influential on the format, because of its unique style of filmmaking and humour, and its obsession with running gags of all types. It also had phenomenal talent both behind and in front of the camera.
Put now-legendary directors Joe & Anthony Russo (the directors now in charge of Avengers: Infinity War, the largest film project ever undertaken) behind the camera, with Ron Howard as an executive producer and Mitch Hurwitz as the writer, and you're already prepared to make magic. But put comedy heavy-hitters Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and David Cross in front of the camera, alongside brilliant child actors such as Michael Cera and Alia Shawkat, and veterans such as Jeffrey Tambor and the Fonz? You've got yourself a show that will change the face of television forever.
The Bluth family is incredibly messed up. After patriarch George Oscar Bluth Sr (Tambor) is arrested, the Bluth Company real estate empire is entrusted to whiny straight-man Michael Bluth (Bateman). But his siblings (Portia De Rossi, Tony Hale, Will Arnett) all need money, his mother (Jessica Walter) wants the company for himself, and his son George Michael (Cera) is in love with his cousin (Shawkat). Got that?
Arrested Development is witty, incestuous, and endlessly entertaining. The stories may all be caused by the same misunderstanding tropes, and they may all be resolved with a dose of the same old Bluth bad luck. But it's one of the most intricately-crafted pieces of continuity porn ever put to television.
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