If you’re pining for the earlier seasons:
Myles McNutt sounds off on the new season:
I admire the season for its problem-solving skills, developing some intricate narrative structures that allowed them to make those limitations work in their favor on many occasions. I think one could look back on the season and observe a number of compelling choices that reflect a desire to create a new way of telling television stories (even if many of them proved unsuccessful). I appreciated returning to these characters, I’m glad that my $8 a month Netflix subscription gave me the ability to enjoy another season of a show I enjoy, and this in no way stains the series’ legacy in the way that some might have feared.
However, it’s also an experiment that didn’t work as often as it did. We admire experiments without fully embracing them, and there was never a point in the season where it felt like the show was fully comfortable in its own skin for more than an episode or two at a time. Taken as one larger story broken up into fifteen parts, the larger plot developments that string the various characters together are thin to the point of boredom, functional rather than funny; the election has no stakes, Michael’s movie becomes a background excuse for him to visit each member of his family, and the Cinco celebration is sketched in predictably enough to lose any of its convergent potential. And yet the season spent enough time developing these ideas that for the finale to pay none of them off seemed as though it left the puzzle unsolved, while simultaneously failing to provide enough points of interest to make me desperate to see the puzzle solved in the future.
Readers share their thoughts:
I’ve seen the first five episodes of Arrested Development Season 4, and I think in some ways it is even better than the first three.
It certainly seems to be more intricately plotted, and has at least as many subtle jokes per minute; I have no idea what Jace Lacob is talking about when he talks about a lack of finesse in this season. The mural at the end of episode one, while Ron Howard’s voiceover talks about Phoenix being Michael’s destiny, is pretty amazing (though I only caught it after someone mentioned it on a comment thread). The whole Google/privacy thread is fun. Rebel’s laughing when Michael says he knows Ron Howard is funny, but you don’t know why, because you don’t know that Isla Fisher’s character is Rebel at that point. The whole scene where Michael tries to get a copy of the inflight magazine from the guy at the airline counter is also priceless. I’m having a great time just recalling these scenes for this email!
I really have never seen anything so carefully plotted on TV. The closest I can think of is the 1960s comedy troupe The Firesign Theater, which did records that you had to listen to repeatedly, because they unspooled out of order – they’d do things like have one side of a phone conversation on one side of a record, with the other side of the conversation being on the other side of the record.
On the whole, I love season four. But as Jerry Garcia once said, when asked about the Grateful Dead’s lack of technical proficiency “You can’t please everyone.”
Another:
I binged on all the episodes yesterday, and I loved it. I immediately wanted to watch it again. It’s a matter of expectations. If you’re expecting a continuation of the first three seasons, everyone should know it’s not that. I went in thinking that it’s just the ice cream course after a hilarious meal of mayonegg and hot ham water. Many of the new episodes had us rolling on the floor laughing. The knee-jerk criticism was completely predictable. People view Arrested Development through rose-colored glasses. Some episodes of the original Fox series don’t even live up to the platonic ideal some people have crafted of “Arrested Development.”
After watching season 4, episode 15, Netflix cycled back to the pilot. It’s striking how different a show it is from season to season. Not better or worse, just different. For example, I actually love that season 4 doesn’t hold Michael Bluth up as a paragon in the way earlier seasons did. My recommendation: Watch the fourth season, then rewatch the show again. (Not redundant!) The beginning is just so bitter and acerbic that it’s jarring. The new episodes are softer. It’s a different feel, and that’s fine. I think it’s honestly done a little more lovingly, and all of the characters are treated with equal affection.
Remember that the thing is called Arrested Development. Their emotional development is still stunted, but 10 years have passed. They’re still immature, but now it manifests in new ways. It might take time for the audience to get used to it, but it’s still brilliant.
Another:
I’d like to tell the media critics to stop the hand-wringing and buy a damn Netflix subscription so there is monetary incentive for more Arrested Development. K thx.
The Dish 