Arrested Development, Season 5: Part 1 of 2, I Guess?

Now the story of a cancelled cult classic sitcom, and the online streaming service who had no choice but to bring it back for the second time.

It’s Arrested Development: Season 5.

Arrested Development never really had mainstream notoriety, and that’s a real shame. It’s one of those shows that can somehow create a cast of awful people that never change for the better, and yet make them endearing. It’s got a masterful use of running gags and bizarre, fast-paced comedy that probably isn’t for everyone, but it’s certainly an overlooked relic of the mid 2000’s.

With all that praise, Season 4 was less than spectacular. While I only watched the first two episodes of the original cut of Season 4 before I gave up, the recut of the season still wasn’t living up to the expectations of the rest of the show. Between keeping the family separated, not-so-compelling subplots, and the confusing timeline of the season cutting back and forth between present day and flashbacks, it didn’t really feel like the Arrested Development I knew and loved.

Season 5 is slightly better, but seeing as how we only have the first eight episodes of the season right now, I feel like it’s sort of unfair to review and judge the season at the moment.

That doesn’t mean I’m not going to.

The first thing I’ll praise is that it does get the Bluth family back together so we can see them interacting off of each other, which was the backbone of the show during its original run. This being the fifth season in the show’s run, it also pokes fun at some of the recurring tropes of the Bluth family, such as Michael’s repeated “I’m leaving this family for good” attitude – which at this point is such a casual thing he says that even Michael doesn’t believe it most times.

However, even this familiar aspect of the show can get shaky at times. Lindsay is gone for a good chunk of the season after she pulls a Michael and leaves the family, despite the fact that her running for Congress is one of the big recurring bits in the season. I’m assuming she’ll be in more of the season once the final eight episodes drop and we’ll return to the election plotline, but the fact that she’s not there for a portion of this half means that there’s a hole left in the family dynamic.

Because of Lindsay’s absence, it also feels like Tobias has very little connection to the family anymore. They try to keep his presence useful to the season by introducing his bastard son Murphy-Brown (who just kind of stumbles into the show without any real explanation), but he doesn’t feel as connected as everyone else. Of course, that’s often the point of Tobias’s character, but considering he’s my favorite member of the Bluth family, the fact that he’s been so far underutilized in Season 5 greatly disappoints me.

Contrasted to Season 4, Season 5 has a lot more intriguing plot threads that feel more “Bluth-y.” Despite Tobias’s lack of focus, I thought the parts with him trying to impersonate missing members of the Bluth family in order to prove his place among them was fun. Lindsay running for office was an interesting way to go with the character, despite the fact that that plotline has so far been stumbling with the absence of Lindsay. Gob coming to terms with his possibly homosexuality and Maeby hiding out in disguise at a retirement village were both in tune with their characters, and seeing as how these plotlines seemed to be resolved by the end of part one of the season, I’m curious to see what roles they’ll play in part two. Buster being the one in prison now is also a fun way to go with the character and one of the show’s most prevalent themes: a family member in jail.

I still don’t think it’s as laugh-out-loud funny as the first three seasons, which was a similar problem I had with Season 4. But while Season 4 had a lot of moments were it was just uncomfortable to see how unlikeable these characters could be, Season 5 starts off with a lot of familial drama that kind of bogs it down. And not the funny family drama that the show it known for, either. Fortunately, the second half (of the first half of the season) gets much better with that, trying to steer the show back to what it was in its original run. It’s not the same laugh-a-minute comedy of the first three seasons, but it feels like it’s at least trying to be at times.

When I initially completed this run of episodes, I was much more critical with my review of it since it didn’t feel complete. So many plot threads were left dangling and it felt like Arrested Development had lost its steam. But right before typing this review up, I found out that this was merely part one of Season 5, and so I decided to rework my thoughts so I didn’t make a huge mistake and completely lambast one of my favorite sitcoms.

So yes, the first part of Season 5 feels incomplete, but that’s because it is. It’s a somewhat shaky start, but certainly better than Season 4 in many spots. It still doesn’t feel exactly like the original run of the show, but it does feel a few steps closer than the previous season. It leaves you with questions to be answered in the second part, like what Oscar’s stake in all this is, and what’s going to happen with the murder of Lucille 2 (if she even is dead).

In addition to the outcome of those questions, I am curious to see the outcome of the season overall, and if it lives up to the previous seasons I so loved. Because I would hate to pull a Michael and leave the Bluth family for good.

On the next Matt Reviews: Arrested Development:

Matt contemplates whether recreating the running gags and style of an Arrested Development episode would have been better translated in a video review like he used to do, maybe with a cheeky narrator with a successful directing career.

And Ron Howard decides to compete with Netflix’s Marvel shows by trying to tie Arrested Development to his Han Solo origin movie, only to get into hot water with Disney and the police for trying to steal a Chewbacca costume and kidnap Donald Glover.