TV
Arrested Development
Recently, there’s been a spate of TV series to feature the super-rich. Be it ones that take place in modern day like Dynasty or in the recent past like Trust or even in the new HBO show Succession, apparently Hollywood thinks that the rest of the 99% of the people out there are dying to see just how the 1% live. Which I’m happy to report that my favorite series to focus on a 1% family, or at least they used to be a 1% family, Arrested Development has returned for a fifth season on Netflix.
So far, Arrested Development has survived two administrations, one economic crash and two networks and is still going strong.
The path of Arrested Development is an interesting one. Always on the verge of being cancelled by FOX where it originally ran for three seasons from 2003–2006, the series was eventually axed but was brought back by Netflix in 2013 for a fourth season, with the fifth having premiered last week.
The Bluth family, the focus of Arrested Development, are the stereotypical rich family who think only of themselves. There’s not a good one in the bunch. Even elder son Michael (Jason Batemen) who seemed like the normal one in the early seasons of the show turned out to be just as selfish as the rest of the family in later ones. He wants to be the guy who does the hard work and comes in and saves things when past accounting practices and some “light treason” by father George (Jeffrey Tambor) threaten the family business. But he’s always looking out for himself. Michael wants to be the “good guy” but also wants everyone to know just how great he is.
Ironically, what started out as an over-the-top take on a rich family back in 2003 quickly became not so over-the-top as the unbelievable things that happened in Arrested Development became reality. The most famous of which was of George and wife Lucille (Jessica Walter) sinking a fortune into land in order to build a wall between the US and Mexico. Which became a part of the 2016 election and is still something in the news today.
The selfishness continues in the fifth season of the series with Michael trying to dodge his neighbor for the $700,000 he owes her, son George Michael (Michael Cera) visiting Mexico for a cultural experience but finding it basically exactly like California, cousin Maeby (Alia Shwkat) taking after her grandmother when it comes to alcohol consumption and Maeby’s mom Lundsay (Portia de Rossi) running for office since she, “…wants to be part of the problem.”
I love Arrested Development and really like this latest Netflix season. I just wish we would have heeded the warnings present from the first episode of the show. 😉
Cool Movie & TV Posters of the Week
