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"Arrested Development" is not the kind of TV show you watch
when you're bored and there's nothing else on, it's the kind of TV show that
you buy on DVD to watch over and over again so you don't have to watch
whatever boring show is on TV. I got rid of my TV over a year ago, shortly
before "Arrested Development" went on the air, and I wasn't
introduced to it until my friend showed me a few episodes of season one which
she owned on DVD. From that moment, I was hooked.
The show portrays a wealthy Southern California family struggling with
their family business after the patriarch of the family, George Bluth, is
arrested for white-collar crime. "Arrested Development" revolves
around the experiences of Michael, the good son who seems to be the only sane
one in the family. As the narrator's voice states in the opening credits he
is "the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together."
This task is much more difficult than it may seem, considering that each
person in the family has their own selfish agenda. Michael is the only one in
the family who has the skills needed to run the business and who realizes
that you must make money to spend money. His mother is an incredibly rich,
incredibly rude old woman who has many issues but admits to none of them.
Michael's father is spacey but equally as critical and crazy as his mother.
His siblings are not much better; his older brother is a sleazy magician and
grade A idiot, and his twin sister is a gorgeous but insecure blonde who is
extremely selfish. His sister's husband is a nutcase psychologist turned
unsuccessful actor and their daughter, Maybe (who was made in a test tube),
is a disillusioned teenager whose saneness is adrift in the household
along with Michael's. Michael also has a son named George Michael, who is an
intelligent, shy and socially awkward teenager. George Michael is portrayed
as wanting to make his own way while his father holds him a little close
(George Michael's mother died when he was young). Another odder character in
the family is Buster, the never-weaned thirty-year-old youngest brother.
He still lives with his mother and often acts childish or just plain weird.
He has spent much of his life studying but still seems to know nothing about
the world from lack of experience. For that matter he actually doesn't know
much about academics either.
Such a plethora of eccentric characters obviously creates an offbeat and
interesting sitcom, but it is the comedic writing and the cohesive nature of
the episodes that really make "Arrested Development" worth
watching. This show has a following and the writers know it. New episodes
often make references to other episodes, so if someone made a blue handprint
on the wall in one episode you might see it again a few episodes later if you
enjoy observing such details. The show is not presented as a model of how
one should live, and there are no life lessons at the end of each episode. It
simply depicts a crazy, dysfunctional family trying to live and work
together. Although it is a hilarious sitcom and the antics of the characters
are often outrageous, the family also has a human element. Addicted
viewers, like me, find themselves relating to the characters and invested in
what happens to each of them. At that point you realize that you are no
longer watching just to see what crazy thing they will do next (although that
will always remain part of the allure of the show), but that you actually
care what happens to these crazy people.
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