The Most Important Thing I Did All Day

Well, to be perfectly honest, I was pretty disappointed with the season debut of Arrested Development. The pace was off. And the timing made most of the jokes fall flat. The characters came off a little flatter than normal. The camera, always excellently done, ended up telling most of the laugh out loud jokes. But something was just off. For instance this bit of dialogue should have killed:

Lucille: "Anti-depressants lead to street drugs, that's what the handsome doctor on the Today show said."
Michael: "That's Tom Cruise, Mom, he's an actor."
Lucille: "But they say he's some kind of scientist...."

But it just didn't work. They either rushed it, as this show seemed faster paced than past shows, or else they gave it too much of a comic pause, at the end. As if it were a sitcom with a laughline and they were pausing for the laughs.

I think a big problem is that the characters all seemed a little bit too self-aware of the character they were supposed to be. Honestly, I felt like I was watching David Cross pretend to be Tobias, and Will Arnet play Gob, and etc. And I honestly felt they fucked up Gob when they had him strand his reunited son in Reno. Gob's always been a bit of a cad, a charming guy with a faux arrogance that overcompensates for his insecurities. He was kind of a jerk, but he was never that kind of jerk. He was a jerk with a good heart. Now he's just callous. And that's not Gob. That's not the Gob I know and love.

Also, the Lucille and Buster stuff seems a little cliched and forced at this point. And the punchline for the flashback of her watching the news report of when Susan Smith drowned her kids, while Buster did his tribal drumming was pretty underwhelming. The build was too long for a simple "good for her," to do the trick. Which is weird because so much of the show relies on understatement and subtlety that it seems like a weird criticism for a fan of the show to make, but it just didn't work. Much of the show was just not clicking tonight.

But a few things were pretty great. George Michael, was as usual, awesome. I think he's the most underrated actor on the show, because he seems so boring, and it's hard to compete with Buster, Tobias, and Gob for attention. But that kid is brilliant. I had my loudest laugh when he told Maebe, he was going to stay in the car to watch "the sunset," and she said, something like well isn't it behind us. And George Michael says "yeah, but there are mirrors... it'll seem even closer." Which doesn't seem that funny, but that kid delivers the line so perfectly. He's fucking great. Maebe's awesome too. Such a little cutie. And I'm not saying that in an oldery brother way. I'm saying it in an "I'm willing to go to jail for you, honey" sort of way.

Henry Winkler was pretty awesome too. The incompetent lawyer in over his head turned hooker. He played his part to perfection. Fuck a cliche. Michael was Michael, which doesn't really matter, because Michael is nothing more than the moral center of the show. He holds it all together, so he's essential, but I don't think anyone watches the show to see what Jason Bateman's character is going to do. At least I don't. The rest of 'em had some faults in execution, especially Gob who is probably my favorite character, though I feel like it was the writing, more than the acting. Though like I said, some of the jokes should have been funnier, but the timing felt off. My biggest peeve, was when Ron Howard, doing the narration, slipped out of objectivity and commented on Tobias, saying something like no wonder Linsey doesn't want to go back to him or something like that. They've done that a handful of times before, and I really don't care for it when they do. I think it's funnier when they have Ron Howard stick to the deadpan objectivity that he does so well.

So I guess in conclusion, I felt that this episode was a bit of a mixed bag. It wasn't one of their stronger episodes, and certainly not up to the standards I expect of the show, but it wasn't bad. On a scale of 0-100, I give it a 68.7983065555555 and that 5 repeats ad infinitum. I appear to be in the minority, however. A quick glance around the internets has shown heaps of unwarranted praise for the show. And I'll share with you a comment I unearthed of the unintentionally funny sort from some discussion boards. I didn't read the comment of the guy he was responding to. Which is just as well. It's better to imagine the insanity I think.

"I'm not sure if you watch the show, but arrested development is by no stretch of the imagination conservative. If anything, it is one of the most liberal ("ultra left hoolywood (sic)" as you called it)shows out there. Arrested Development' loss has less to do with "liberal bias" than probably any other factor that I can think of.

Felicity Huffman was a mess because nobody, let alone herself, expected her to win because her part is very low key when compared to her costars.
While I agree that in many ways arrested development was robbed (dorris roberts over jessica walter), I fully accept that there are other shows worthy of praise. Are the emmy voters out of touch? Yes! DO they vote for sentimental reasons? Yes. DO they like Will and Grace? Obviously.

But let's remember that without awarding Arrested Development with the best comedy emmy in its first year, it probably wouldn't be coming back for a third season.

That is all."

And now I can't wait till next week.