So, before I start with the recap, I have to start with an update. Yes, I am putting the recap of Desperate Housewives Season 1 on hold, but I will get back to it (unlike my ill-fated 'Top 5 NFL Teams of the 2000s" which died as soon as I realized I would have to wax poetic about the Steelers and Patriots). I realized that doing a full 22-episode season of a one-hour dramedy is a little too ambitious for a first time reviewer, so I decided to hone my chops with a half-hour comedy, albeit one dense and layered enough to still make it challenging to perfectly encapsulate. Arrested Development has already been covered twice on this blog in excruciating detail. First, I wrote about it when I named it "The Best Sitcom of the 2000s", and then again when I compared its characters to the major players in the NFL's lockout. I've said on numerous occasions that I consider it the best sitcom I've ever seen. That doesn't mean it is the funniest (still Seinfeld, in terms of pure laughs and enjoyment), but it is the best, and definitely the most carefully, and deliberately written. It is a joy to watch, and unlike a lot of other good sitcoms, it is infinitely rewatchable (unlike my new pet Community, which really becomes slow and stale on multiple viewings). So here we go, a re-review of Arrested Development's Season 2, an 18-episode run of brilliance in comedy.
I picked Season 2 partly because 'The A.V. Club' is already doing a re-review of Season 1, and they do that sort of thing for money (in other words, a lot better than me), and partly because I am more fond of Season 2, a season with a better running plot, an extra character (although we lose Annyong), and just a little more spunk and layers than Season 1. To set the table for those who don't know, Season 2 begins with George Bluth escaping from the hospital after faking a heart attack, and Michael finally deciding to move away from the family. For those who really don't know, the show is about a rich family who's father and with him who's wealth gets taken away after they defrauded their investors, as well as making deals to build houses for Saddam, as in "Hussein" (as Buster lets us know). Son Michael is hardworking and takes over the Bluth Real Estate Company. His older brother GOB is a failing magician. His twin sister Lindsay is a failing socialite married to a chronically dissarayed, and failing actor Tobias, who also is a walking double entendre. Their younger brother, Buster, is a scared, nervous momma's boy. Michael's son Goerge Michael is in love with both his cousin, and an unwelcome, ordinary girl named Ann Paul Veal. The cousin in question is Meabe (pronounced 'Maybe'), and is the rebellious, scheming daughter of Lindsay. Of course, it is complete with their mother, Lucille who is as biting and caustic as any tv character ever. They all make up their happy little family, along with Uncle Oscar, who is George's haired twin brother, who happens to have an affair with Lucille. Yup, it is that kind of family. Anyway, That's the Bluth Family.
Season 1's main plot was about the arrest and incarceration of George Bluth, but the running theme was everyone was looking for something that they can't have. GOB was looking for a way back into the magic business, but kept screwing up (like losing magnate Earl Milford in his Aztec Tomb trick, or using unregistered help to perform his 'saw a lady in half trick'). Michael is looking for love after losing his wife to cancer, and only found it in the form of GOB's Columbian girlfriend Marta. Lucille is looking for a way to be rich again, but keeps getting her luxuries stripped away, like being relegated to pool-only members of the country club. Lindsay looks for a way out of her marraige, but is bound by her daughter to stay with Tobias. Tobias looks to be an actor, but instead all he gets is reserve-understudy to the Blue Man Group. No one is happy, but it makes for a whole lot of funny. Season 2 is more about reconnecting with what was lost, and that makes for a more interesting season in my mind.
Anyway, Season 2 of Arrested Development is about as good as the show got (although there was a brief 4-episode stretch in Season 3 where the show basically said "Fuck You" to FOX after realizing it was doomed, and let itself go, and the quality in that stretch was amazing). It was a tightly packaged season, that actually responded well to having its order cut-back from 22 to 18 episodes which allowed for a even-more packed finish. Having George Michael and Maebe one year older (and the actors themselves much more confident in their roles and abilities) allowed them to become just as important as the adults. It also amped up the self-referential and inter-textual humor, which made it more dissectable than its comparatively straight Season 1 (again, a lot like how Community ramped up its stylistic experimentation and meta-humor in Season 2 of its run, although Arrested did it and it improved the show - I'm not so sure Community got better, just more creative). I'll start probably tomorrow with "The One Where Michael Leaves", an episode where the title alone is a reference to Friends' persistence in starting each episode name with "The One Where/Which/When/With. It will also be the one time where this really isn't as much revisiting a show as it is writing down what I think about the show when watching it, since I've pretty much seen the show enough times to know the episodes line-by-line. But like in any watching of Arrested Development, I guarantee I'll unearth a couple jokes I missed the previous 10 times along the way.
