So, How Is: Arrested Development's Revival

First things first: does The Netflick's fourth season revival of Arrested Development measure up to the high standard of elaborately plotted and riotous comedy set by the original three seasons? Thankfully, the answer (to borrow Tobias' improv skills) is a resounding YES, and... how! After seven long years of absence, the Bluths are as hopelessly and obliviously self-involved as ever in 15 wonderful episodes (most of which are over 30 minutes long, improving upon the previous seasons' broadcast standard of 22 minutes) that catch us up on what's been going on for the last five years of each character's life since the season 3 finale. Although these episodes were pitched as merely a preamble to a movie that would finally bring the family back together, they really are a main event and even benefit from binge-watching too, as there is so much going on and it is so crammed with parody that (just like the original) re-watches will prove increasingly rewarding. The new episodes feature plenty of flashbacks and flashforwards, while  many of the same scenes are shown multiple times, but from different characters' perspectives in different episodes. Each character gets a focal episode (most get two actually) where other characters make appearances and affect that story in ways the focal character (and sometimes even the audience, until they see that character's own episode) is unaware of (Michael is the only one who appears at some point in every episode), so episodes are best seen in order, for these and other surprises, at least for the first viewing. The movie may still happen, or perhaps it will just be another season, though much will depend on cast schedules and creative availability (judging by these episodes, it will still be well worth the wait if it ends up taking longer than a year again). Although it is logistically quite different from the original series and plays more like a reunion, season 4 of Arrested Development is a true gift to fans, as "the story of a wealthy family whose future was abruptly canceled" is still full of the running gags, interwoven storylines, interconnected characters, series callbacks (and easter eggs/Anns), classic cameos, abundant miscommunication, and spirit that made it so hilariously special to begin with.

Two of the new cameos include flashbacks of Seth Rogen (understated and serviceable) and Kristen Wiig (showy and perfect) as George Sr. and Lucille in their younger years, when their schemes (like the Grinch-like Lucille's Cinco de Quatro to combat "the Mexican war on May 5th" and George's BabyTock to re-purpose all those defective cornballers) were only slightly less disastrous, but just as deliciously absurd. Yes there are plenty of flashbacks revealing events set before the original series, in addition to those set during the early seasons (jokingly ripped with "Showstealer Pro" software), and those set in between the season 3 finale and Cinco de Quattro (May 4th) 5 years later. In fact there are so many cuts back and forth, that it can get difficult to follow what happened when, but it helps that many events are shown multiple times and only adds to the re-watch-ability (the extended flashbacks also use a clever Cover Flow-style streaming-video animation as a transition between past and present as well). Additional cameos include all five Richter brothers appearing throughout the season, as well as Ron Howard playing a version of himself and Isla Fisher as his illegitimate daughter (whom Michael of course mistakenly presumes is his mistress). Ben Stiller's Tony Wonder returns in a more prominent role in GOB's story, as does his wife Christine Taylor's Sally Sitwell, who may or may not also suffer from the same illness as her father. Liza Minelli's Lucille 2 has bigger role as well, now controlling a substantial piece of the Bluth Company, and we meet her brother played by Tommy Tune as well. Henry Winkler of course returns as Barry Zuckercorn (as does Scott Baio's Bob Loblaw) and we find out how he became the family's "trusted" lawyer in the first place. Mad Men's John Slattery joins the show as a similarly loopy burn-out doctor friend of Oscar's, who still providing semi-useful medical advice despite being on all kinds of drugs, while Mary Lynn Rajskub plays a new lady-friend of Oscar's named Heartfire who doesn't speak, but communicates with her own personal subtitles. The cast of comedy Central's Workaholics also cameo as airport workers, and Mae Whitman's Ann "Egg" Veal (her?)  is also back, with brand new aliases such as Blank, And, and Mouth. This is just barely scratching the surface, as most of your favorites make at least one appearance, while potential new favorites are introduced (and Michael's dead wife is finally shown briefly in a flashback with a baby George Michael, though its not specifically stated).

The new season catches up on a lot of the cultural change that has taken place in the past years, including parodies of Entourage (GOB falls in with a Bieber-esque pop star's crew), storage auction shows (after a botched trick, GOB is discovered months later on Locker Hawkers as he's auctioned off), Bravo reality shows (Lucille ends up on The Real Asian Prison Housewives of the Orange County White Collar Prison System after no one from the family shows up to testify at her trial), Mexican immigration (George Sr. plans to build a wall on the border and then sell the land to the US government), the internet (Michael gives George Michael the stair car for college and trades up to a Google Maps car with a giant camera on top), modern warfare (Buster becomes a military drone pilot, thinking its only a video game), social technology (Maeby explodes George Michael's privacy software into an empty company for the world's first anti-social network), politics (Lindsay gets involved in an illicit affair with a Herman Cain-like politician named Herbert Love), and of course many many more. All of these new cultural parodies fit in perfectly with the ones from the original episodes and further demonstrate consistency throughout the series.

While all the gags, cameos, callbacks, and the elaborately intertwined plot help make Arrested Development Redux delightfully dense with the same brand of hilarity viewers have come to expect, what really clinches season 4 as a worthwhile extension of the show's legacy is the consistency in how the characters behave. Michael continues to smother his son and misread situations, succumbing to his pride by pouring money into his eventual ghost town Sudden Valley ("That's not a great sign" he declares when a vulture lands on the mailbox next to him). Meanwhile, George Michael has logically evolved into a true Bluth boy, carefully digging himself deeper and deeper with unnecessary lies despite his trepidation (he and Michael go back and forth in an elaborate session of voice mail tag about a fictional traffic jam disaster), while exploring his developing "overt sexuality" (he also reveals his own take on the Bluth chicken dance). Maeby still seeks her parent's attention with absurd scams no matter how detrimental it is to her own well-being, even though she seems to be following in their footsteps more than she would like, while the elder Funkes' dreams of Indian enlightenment and marital rejuvenation are pushed aside for new relationships. Lindsay's relationship with activist Marky Bark makes her feel like she's finally following her stated mission, but she can't seem to let go of her old lavish lifestyle and superficiality (Marky happens to be face blind, so she's forced to keep reminding him how beautiful she is) and literally goes back and forth between liberal and ultra-conservative movements. Tobias is as oblivious as ever, attending a methadone clinic (he think its a Method One improvisational acting class) where he falls for former actress and current junky DeBrie, attempting to reignite her passion by illegally using the likenesses of the Fantastic Four (and no one would be surprised in the least by his ill-conceived vanity license plates or his eventual appearance on To Catch a Predator). George Sr. is still colluding with Lucille on business schemes (such as a sweat lodge resort for corporate bigwigs that is essentially just a simple con selling lemonade to thirsty people in the desert), but can't seem to handle the pressure like he used to, as his stress grows and his testosterone decreases. Lucille is still upper-class entitled and prejudice towards everything, thriving in her country club prison while cutting people down and laughing at her own puns. GOB is still so un-self-aware that he continues to sabotage his own chances at happiness, after turning a Christian wedding into a stage for a wildly offensive and sacrilegious illusion and later getting caught in a "roofie circle" from taking too many "forget-me-nows," losing months of his life (his colony of bees--beads?, bees!, beads?!, bees!-- is in disarray as well), while new insight into his psyche is provided by Simon & Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence" as GOB slips into his old friend, darkness. Finally, Buster reacts exactly how you would expect when Lucille is arrested, later seeking out new mother figures to take care of him, and his hook is eventually replaced by something so ridiculous its best to be completely surprised by it (and its not Franklin, who unfortunately does not appear in the new episodes).

So whether you're an original fan from the series' first airing on FOX, or a binge-watcher who hopped on to this gem well after its premature demise (well you are gonna get some hop-ons), all should agree that it was worthwhile to save our Bluths. There are a few minor shortcomings however, including the aforementioned potential for chronological confusion with all the flashbacks, some sub-par green screening (due to scheduling conflicts, there are also a few short scenes where an actor had to be green screened in, which is really only noticeable because the actors weren't able to play off each other as usual and some reactions aren't quite in sync), and many of the plotlines that take place in the flash-present are left very open-ended (which is actually pretty positive actually, since the goal is for it to continue anyway). Hopefully these episodes will prove once and for all how ahead of its time this show was, and demonstrate how it can continue to thrive, creatively and hilariously, in its new medium of internet streaming.