Wait, Ron Howard is still the narrator? I only watched the first half of the first and second episodes (fell asleep both times, but I’ll make it through tonight, I promise), but the narrator’s voice sounded different to me. Is it just me?
It’s still him. The only reason I can think of that you might not think it’s him (thought this didn’t affect his voice at all) is that it’s now recorded in 5.1. Some of the sounds end up in the rear channels and they’re making use of discrete front channels, but, like I said, Ron still sounds like Ron.
I’m really glad they’re filming in widescreen though. It really makes you realize how old the original ones are when you watch the reruns and they have bars on the sides.
As I recall, the first few minutes of the first episode of this season was in 4:3. I was going to mention (complain about) that in this thread but then it switched to 16:9.
Weird. I just watched an old and new episode, and it sounds like two different people to me. I’m not sure what it is.
I’m loving the way the parts intersect. I wish there was a way you could watch them in chronological order just to get a better notion.
Trivia: the young Barry is played by Henry Winkler’s son, Max.
Maybe it’s just because he’s 7 years older.
I’m still not entirely sure what all happened. It was a complicated storyline*. OTOH, if you did that, I’d be willing to bet the entire season would have been closer to 2-3 hours in stead of 7.5. There was a lot of overlap and after watching the entire thing pretty quickly, it felt like a long movie.
I have to say that I think it really was designed for marathon viewing. I think it’s going to be hard for people that are planning to watch an episode here and there with the plan of watching the entire series over the course of a two or three weeks.
*It sounds like in the end the only rights they got were Buster’s. Actually, he said “the murderer’s”. I’m curious as to whether the things they talked about in the show, about the movie, will hold true for the actual movie (Michael cutting people out, it not getting made, Maeby saying that movies are out/TV’s in etc).
I love the middle name of Alley for Ron’s illegitimate daughter. His real children’s middle names are Dallas (after the city where she was conceived), Carlyle (after the hotel where they were conceived), and Cross (after the road where the building he was conceived was on), so there have been “good thing they weren’t conceived in _____” jokes for years; nice to see him play along.
Favorite consecutive one liners so far:
“That’s a low blow, Bob Loblaw!”
“It’s a Bob Loblow law bomb!”
Don’t forget Fonzie and Chachi shaking hands. I think that was supposed to be kind of a big deal (in a joking way). Bob Loblaw was brought in because he can skew younger…with juries and such. I didn’t watch enough Happy Days, but I assumed the same thing happened there with Fonzie when Scott’s character was brought in.
Barry also made some kind of comment about jimmying the chachi- I didn’t quite catch it, but it’s on my “to pick up on second viewing” list.
Yeah, I remember hearing that. The made a big deal about having to reach over the gate to reach the door knob and he said something like that or “I can’t reach the chachi”. I think it was him saying chachi that made me catch the handshake. I’m hoping buzzfeed or cracked or something comes out with a list of jokes I missed, because this season seemed pretty in your face with the jokes. It wasn’t very subtle. That is, I’m hoping there’s a lot of jokes I missed. I’m hoping there’s a lot of subtle stuff like there was in the past.
One of those websites came out with “53 jokes you probably missed” and then did another 53 things you probably missed. Come to think of it, one of the jokes was that Tobias is actually an albino black man. They did to a callback to that joke that you almost certainly wouldn’t have caught unless you knew the joke to begin with. It’s nice to know that it’s not just an abandon storyline.
I loved it! I am disappointed I watched it so quickly. Now, I don’t have any Arrested Development to look forward to. But, it was worth it for the blur of laughs that the new season gave me.
They did an excellent job of blending the old running gags with brand new, just as hilarious, ones. And, they kept pouring them on faster and faster.
I’m looking forward to Peter Scolari in the sequel to Angels and Demons.
My only complaint would be that there wasn’t nearly enough Buster.
I don’t believe Arrested Development was ever in anything but Widescreen. They sometimes showed flashbacks in a window with bars around it to emphasize that it’s a flashback. It went to the bars in this episode, when they went from the present day, to young George and Lucille as the Grinch.
Yep, exactly!!
Watched the first two episodes yesterday. Was not impressed at all. But everybody is saying it gets stronger as it goes.
But today when I sat down to watch the next I found myself saying “eh, they’re not going anywhere” and ended up watching something else. That’s not a good sign, hopefully I’ll watch the rest but I’ve been saying “eh, they’re not going anywhere” to several other series for a long time.
Agreed with this, the biggest shame of the entire ‘season’ is that we didn’t get a second Maeby episode. Also, my phone is going to ring to “Getaway, Getaway” at some point this week, and people are going to look at me really funny.
Overall I was really happy with the quality of what we got, though I agree that the first few episodes took a bit to get into it. The Buster episode was really straddling the line between awkward-funny and awkward-OMG-painful, though I suppose that is the point of the entire character. I could have also done without finishing with so much George Michael in such a short succession. Really, though, I liked it more than enough to be worth the time sink of watching the entire season over the course of about 24 hours.
I was not floored and amazed, but I was amused and entertained. I too found that it started slow, but picked up. By the end, it was pretty awesome. I wonder on a rewatch if I’ll think differently. I liked how it was darker, but I would have liked to see everyone all together in at least one scene. The continuity and cameos were pretty good, but they didn’t make it one-note or completely reliant on “Hey! Is that ___?” gags. A nice balance. I love Isla Fisher and John Slattery, so they were much appreciated.
Did George Michael really never meet or even hear about Lucille 2? I don’t recall that being any kind of running gag on the first three seasons. If they didn’t set that up on purpose, it seems like one of those things where someone had to run through all the old episodes to make sure the joke would work. Actually, there were a lot of jokes (even in the original series) that I always imagined one of the writers making someone go through all the old shows to make sure the continuity would work for some one-liner.
I’d have to go through the first seasons myself to be sure, but GM only rarely went over to Gangie’s place, and I think it may be true that he never met Lucille 2.
I just rewatched the first three episodes (the wife is now watching them for the first time), and I’m still having fun with it. Now I get to pick up on all the overlapping stuff with foreknowledge of the upcoming reveals.
One question. In the first episode, a blonde dude with headphones walks past Michael and GM, and Michael quips something like, “That guy thinks he’s a musician.” Is that guy indeed some musician?
One weird side note: I misheard one time when Michael referred to GM’s roommate P-hound. I could have sworn he called him “Ni Hao”, which would have been really funny.
Bit incongruous using the word “hella” while staking out your own stance as one who is concerned about holiness.
So Tobias’ blackness is pretty much confirmed now, right?
The African middle name, Terry Crews reminding Lindsey of a young Funke, etc.
I haven’t seen it mentioned yet, so maybe it’s just me, but didn’t Michael seem like a different character? He seemed like more of a straight man it the previous seasons. Mostly just used to show how ridiculous everyone else was.
In this season he came off as just as ridiculous and over-the-top as everyone else. Much more conniving and self-centered, while at the same time kind of slow-witted and oblivious.