by Eddie Brawley

Created on: January 06, 2009

It is now fashionable to praise FOX's now-cancelled Arrested Development for being one of the best television comedies of all time. It has officially become a show that, much like The Simpsons, is enjoyed by the broad audience of network TV while being considered a hip, smart show by people to whom network sitcoms are normally no more than a punchline. This reputation is completely deserved, as Arrested Development is indeed one of the most cleverly written and superbly acted comedies of the last few decades, but the show does have its flaws.

Arrested Development is about a formerly wealthy family in California, the Bluths, who still live as though they are wealthy. The main character of the show, Michael Bluth as played by Jason Bateman, is the only member of the family who ever seems worried about their financial situation and thus spends most of his time trying to keep the family business in the black and the family itself from slipping into insanity. Michael is usually the straight man, although he does have his shortcomings. For example, he is lovably out of touch with his teenage son, George Michael (Michael Cera). In an early episode we find Michael enthusiastically planning for a weekly father-and-son bike ride that George Michael has obviously outgrown. This dynamic between Michael and George Michael is somewhat explained by Michael's relationship with his own father George Bluth Sr., played by Jeffrey Tambor.

George Sr. is in jail throughout most of the series for the white collar crimes responsible for the loss of the Bluth family fortune. Even in prison, George Sr. can't be bothered to show any genuine paternal care for his son or any family member. He would rather manipulate them and play them against one another to get his way. His wife Lucille, played by Jessica Walter, is a similarly inept matriarch of the family who never looks a waiter in the eye and is rarely seen without a drink in her hand. If Lucille understands that the family has lost their fortune, she doesn't show it.

The rest of the unusually large but uniformly superb cast is rounded out by Lindsay Bluth (Portia de Rossi), Michael's twin sister who clearly takes after her mother; George Oscar Bluth II (Gob - pronounced Job), Michael's brash but clueless older brother and amateur magician played by Will Arnett; Tobias Funke (David Cross, reinforcing the show's hip image), a former respectable psychologist who married Lindsay and promptly decided to become a laughably terrible actor,

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>