Arrested Development Review

The construction here has no real precedent. Hurwitz's room wrote jokes that pay off four episodes later, narration that contradicts the image, and running gags that mutate rather than repeat, and the density is such that a first viewing catches perhaps half of it. The banana stand, the never nude, the chicken impressions and the ongoing lie about a magic act are all load bearing structural elements rather than catchphrases. Jeffrey Tambor and Jessica Walter play parents whose selfishness functions as a family constitution, and Walter's line readings are the sharpest in the cast.

Will Arnett and David Cross both found careers here. Michael Cera's straight man is underrated because the show gives him the least to do and needs him the most. The handheld single camera documentary look was still novel then and is now the default everywhere. The fourth season's staggered timeline experiment is admirable and does not work, and the fifth is a shadow. Three seasons of the best constructed comedy writing America has produced, plus a coda nobody needed.