Well I was delightfully surprised where they went with GOB’s storyline. Actually I’m not so surprised. 
But surely Buster would have mentioned his girlfriend, Lucille would have mentioned Lucille Austero, Michael would have mentioned Lucille 2. In this season he didn’t see her and ask who it was (IIRC), someone just mentioned her and he asked who it was. I think he said something like “Who’s Lucille 2, I’ve never met her” <-Which get’s back to what I was saying about not being very subtle with the jokes. Just a quick, under the breath “Who’s Lucille 2” would have been enough. Eventually, people would have said “Hey, GM never met her ha ha, that’s so funny and that’s why we love this show, they don’t rub those jokes in your face or explain them to you”.
But you’re right, GM or Maebe were rarely over there. In the first three seasons, GM was probably only over the, if i had to guess, less then 10 times and Maebe, maybe 4 or 5 times. As opposed to Michael/GOB/Lindsey who were there in almost every episode.
Those looking for hilarity didn’t find it, and I can see that perspective. If you’re expecting non-stop hilarity, you won’t find it in this season.
The show has often been praised as one of the smartest shows ever on TV, and I don’t think they’ve lost that title. However, this season seems to be more about the call backs, cameos, and in-jokes than anything else, along with the intricately related story-lines.
Things like Tobias’ license plate, his misinterpretations of things, his acting like a homosexual and being oblivious to that, all factor in to the web of misunderstanding that the whole show is based on.
The show is called Arrested Development. This can mean people learning at a very slow pace, it hints at all the times people have been actually arrested, and the main scene was in a housing development.
The show is a meta-gag writ large. I’m not a fan of puns, but they do it well, and the wordplay is often masterful.
I think this season focused more on the genius that the series was known for, and less on the actual comedy.
I think I figured it out. His pacing is slower and it sounds more like he’s reading off a script rather than the more breezy, upbeat, conversational tone the first three seasons had. I don’t know why it’s bugging me, but it is for some reason. The tone just doesn’t sound quite as casual.
The whole show had to be much more carefully timed this time around, so that could have been it. Everything had to be edited so it all meshed and they only had to do that once it a while as a gag in the past.
I got kinda sick of Ron talking over the characters this time (with them both saying the same thing). At first it didn’t bother me, I assumed it was a joke, but then when it was almost constant throughout the entire show, it got annoying.
It’s almost like the writers spent the last seven years watching Family Guy reruns.
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They changed the format. Each episode is retelling the events over the same time period from a different point of view. It doesn’t work. They can recut the footage to return to the old format and save this.
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There’s no theme. The point of the series had been Michael keeping the family together. It provided a direction for each episode. In the latest release there is no theme, even though they could have used it again since Lucille was in hot water this time.
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Each episode was 10 to 15 minutes longer then the original 21 and 22 minute episodes. This means it could be recut into more episodes, however there was a lot of material that should be cut altogether. Too many long scenes of unbroken dialogue, stuff that should have been editted out already like extended scenes of GOB and others stammering.
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Too much Ron Howard as a character, too much Ron Howard narrating about himself (but leave in the Bruckheimer jokes), not enough Ron Howard narrating to break up the dull parts and move the story along.
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Not enough humor. The episode plots were designed around highlighting jokes, not telling a story. This time they had some kind of story to tell, but it’s a comedy not a soap opera.
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This should have been first I guess. They developed the characters, and nothing is worse for comedy that character development. Comic characters have to provide a predictable based for the humor. Luckily in this show it’s impossible to care for the characters so they didn’t end up carrying it that far.
All in all I though it was good material but poorly presented. Probably rushed, and not quite what they wanted because of the logistical problems in getting everyone back together. But that shouldn’t have prevented them from returning to the original fast paced densely packed format that they originally had. David Cross once again provided the best and most humor by maintaining his original character and sticking with that theme. Alia Shawkat was also very good, and under utilized as she was previously. Michael was awful. He was originally the central character reacting to the others, giving him his own story didn’t work well, and changed his character in an unfortunate way. Tony Hale and Will Arnett did well, but didn’t work well in the continuous story format. The others, meh.
I watched through half of episode 3 and shut it off. :eek:
I really didn’t enjoy what I saw. It felt like they took all the bad from Season 3 and ran with that.
I’m still going to watch the rest of the season, and hopefully it’ll improve, but what I’ve seen so far didn’t do it for me.
Question after watching the whole season: Did they ever explain what happened to Lucille 2? I enjoyed it, but found the last episode very strange in that a lot of stuff seemed to be left up in the air (though it’s possible I blinked and missed some things). It just seemed odd that they’d have such a major plot point at the end (Lucille 2 getting abducted/murdered) and not give any indication as to what happened. Also, did Tobias and Lindsay’s boyfriend survive the boat explosion?
The weird loopy plotting is going to take some getting used to, I think. I’m pretty sure the Lucille 2 mystery is left open (I’m thinking as something to address in an upcoming movie). In the part of the very first episode that takes place after Cinco de Quatro, it seems that Michael does know something, and is feeling very guilty about something he did, but Gob give him his last forget-me-now. In any case, it didn’t quite feel right - a split-up loopy cliffhanger just creates an unusual sensation.
I seem to remember Tobias and Barker jumping clear just in time, but now I’m wondering if I’m confusing my memory with some other explosion on some other show.
He’s more pathetic and clueless, less likable, and his being so computer illiterate was something more suitable to GOB or Buster. That’s my main dislike about Series 4.
Although it did give an opportunity for
which is one of my favorite site gags.
Is there more to that than George Michael wanting to be anonymous? Is that a callback that I didn’t catch? Or is it just funny that he started with Dad and switched it over?
This seems to be a running refrain, to which I’ll add my own voice. I watched the first two, and realized there were long stretches where I not only didn’t laugh but was essentially detached and not really following what was going on (nor caring). I’ll watch the rest of them and hope they really do improve, as almost everyone says they do.
Does Maeby have even more freckles than she used to, or am I imagining it?
Yeah, she does. I counted. 62 vs. 47.
I think four of them are CGI.
Yeah, I just attributed that to growing up (and maybe spending more time in the California sun) along with the tattoos and piercing.
OTOH L2 had some weird thing going on with Perfecto and the freckles, so it’s possible she was making them more noticeable for her.
But, no, I think they’re just darker then they were seven years ago, IRL.
We watched the first 3 episodes and hated it. Very disappointing. I have often described AD as the greatest comedy ever made for TV, including the much maligned 3rd season. I decided to try one more episode before giving up.
Glad I did. It gets much better from episode 4 going forward. Much of that is from allowing the callback jokes to develop. Not as good as season 2, but worth a watch.
On the negative side I feel like Tambor is just calling it in, for both characters. I also think Lindsey has screwed up her face so much with plastic and botox that she seems distant now. Also, yes the production value is way down. But I’m still enjoying it.
My theory is that…
…Michael accidently killed Lucille 2, and tried to cover it up. Of course based on the timing of the roofie all he’s going to forget is seeing Tony Wonder in a bathrobe and GOB drugging him, not the murder. :smack:
It’s obviously something they deliberately left open (like Maybe, GOB, & George Michael’s storylines) for either the movie or a 5th season. Personally I think a movie might be a mistake. They’d wreck it by making too many compromises to make it accessible by people who aren’t familiar with the series, but at the same time if they didn’t do that it’d be a box office flop.
The wife and I were unsure if it was her or another actress.
I think I got it. It’s not much.
In episode 4 Zuckercorn says, when talking about Ron Howard’s new project, that it’s “in get this, Beverly Hills.”
Previously, in the first episode, when talking about George Michael wanting to go by a different name, they cut to a newscaster announcing that the other George Michael just got caught in a restroom “in, get this, Beverly Hills.”
“Ninja, please.”
My favorite line so far.