MovieChat Forums > Arrested Development (2003) Discussion > Does this ever get better?

Does this ever get better?

posted 4 years ago by EricCartmanBrah (426)
13 replies | jump to latest

I'm a couple of episodes in to season 2 now. People say this is among the funniest shows ever made, but i'm sorry, I just don't see it at all. Sure, there are some genuinly funny moments from time to time and lots of very clever ideas, but the show has some glaring flaws that becomes more and more noticable for every episode. most of them boils down to the fact that there are absolutely NO character development! Michael's family are all the exact same self centered assholes with zero social cues as they were from episode 1. As for some of the family's individual traits. Lindsay still is the same cringe flirter with other men that's never funny, just embarrassing to watch, Tobias and Gob still has delusions of grandeur about their "skills" in life and they never learn from any of their "genius" ideas. Buster is still the same manchild, Lucille is still the same bitch, Annyong...what was the point of him, really? Adds nothing to the show. His son and niece both carry one of those two aforementioned traits, but not both, so I guess that's somewhat of an improvement? And Michael himself while he does express his annoyance at his family all the time, he rarely ever snaps and forces them to change like any sane person would have done ages ago. Getting really tiresome. I comparison, the show Freaks and Geeks had less than 20 episodes before getting canceled, but you could find all characters developing a lot as people throughout the little duration of the show. I also think that those misunderstandings of eachother in the dialogues are getting tiresome too because they're so predictable and only ever mildly funny at best. I do enjoy peak South Park which had a lot of this aswell, but I think it works much better there because that's an ridiculous over the top cartoon show where it's much easier to suspend your disbelief in regards to those occurances.

I'll also add that I think the show jumped the shark with the introduction of George Sr's twin brother Oscar. They obviously knew that they couldn't really show that much more of his time in jail without it getting really stale, so they decided to have Jeffrey Tambor do more interesting things in the show through another character. Maybe he himself complained about the exact same thing that I am pointing out now which made them add Oscar.

And I've heard that i'm watching the best parts now and that it's only getting worse from here on out. I've also been spoiled that Buster is gonna lose one of his hands and replaced with a pirate's anchor which i'm sure is not gonna get outplayed joke wise at all, nonono...

If you enjoy this show, I want to know where you may agree or disagree with me. Do you think I got some points here or am I completely wrong?

[–] sunezno (226) 3 years ago

Since no one else has yet, I feel like I should point out that the title of the show is Arrested Development.

I will agree that seasons 4 and 5 weren't the best, but there are legitimate reasons for that. The first three are pure gold, though.

Also, I've found that it's one of those shows that gets even funnier each time I re-watch it, specifically because of the many, many layers of jokes/humor they folded in.
For instance, once you know that Buster loses a hand later on, you may notice earlier jokes that point to it.

Since this was posted six months ago, I'm curious to know if you ended up finishing the show (or at least the 3rd season) and if your opinions have changed at all.

[–] EricCartmanBrah (426) 3 years ago

I finished season 3 and the show got a bit better again after the abysmal first half of season 2. Gob and Lucille being leaders of the company was definitely the lowest point of the first 3 seasons. But all in all, this was a mixed experience. You point out all the genius foreshadowing in the earlier episodes. Any of them relating to Lindsay being adopted and 3 years older than Michael, which we don't find out about until the very last episode? In the last episode, we saw a flashback of the two of them where Lindsay looks older, but I remember previous flashbacks where they look the same age...

The same goes for Annyong. Was anything around him being a planned infiltrator of the Bluth family to take revenge for his grandfather ever foreshadowed?

Oh yeah, i'm never gonna watch season 4 and 5. At least not voluntarily.

[–] sunezno (226) 3 years ago

I'm glad you at least powered through the main seasons lol

And there's some foreshadowing, of course, but not necessarily about every big thing that happens in the show. Sometimes it's just silly little nods to things that happen later, without being what I would consider "foreshadowing," if that makes sense.

As far as Lindsay being adopted and older than Michael, there are quite a few nods to that, too. Or, like I said, at least little quips along the way.
And I think it's mentioned a few times that George Bluth was the original creator of the frozen banana (also on their sign, "Bluth's Original Frozen Banana"), which we find out later was untrue. I feel like there might be a couple of other small bits, but I'm forgetting them at the moment.

Like I said, it's one of those things where you notice so much more with each subsequent rewatch, and the jokes get funnier each time because of that.

[–] trevorh321 (5495) 3 years ago

The first two seasons are genius. The third sees a slight dip.

[–] rateater (9201) 3 years ago

i agree

[–] TandyMan (10329) 3 years ago

This ain't a character development show. It's more like It's Always Sunny and Seinfeld. It's just absurd characters getting into absurd situations. For me the pleasure comes from the fast paced witty dialog and witheringly dry sarcasm.

[–] TheReccher (343) 3 years ago

You didn't notice the title of the show is Arrested Development? They can't grow up. That's the joke.

[–] EricCartmanBrah (426) 3 years ago

I'm not from an English speaking country. I don't know the definition of all English terms. I didn't even know that it was a term before 4-5 years ago. I always thought the title just referred to the fact that his dad was in jail, unaware of the double pun.

[–] sunezno (226) 3 years ago

Ahh, okay, that makes more sense then.

[–] emo_ville2002 (381) a year ago

Then you probably didn't notice 80% of the jokes.

[–] EricCartmanBrah (426) a year ago

Then you would definitely be wrong in that assumption.

[–] Kowalski (57209) a year ago

NO...NOT REALLY...IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND REFERENCES AND TERMS AND USAGE OF WORDS,ETC...YOU WOULD MISS A LOT OF JOKES NOEMOJI

[–] emo_ville2002 (381) a year ago

It's not really an assumption. It's a deduction from what you made it a point to tell us: You're not from an English speaking country and (therefore) you didn't get even the title. How do you even know if you're noticing all the jokes? Even native English speakers don't notice all of the jokes after watching the first time.

Almost every sentence is a joke.