I Watched: Arrested Development

For me, Arrested Development was always a band/group (with Speech in my Top 10 Rappers, at worst), so when a sitcom of the same name came along, I kinda dismissed it at the time. However, being a big Archer fan, people talked about the similarities of Jessica Walters roles (Mallory Archer and Lucille Bluth), and had recommended the show as being in a similar vein. Plus, I had seen so many of the memes and references over time, so clearly there was a following and some good gags.

So, I finally sat down to watch it, and to spout an unpopular opinion, I found it to be a challenge to get through. For me, more often than not the gag setups were so heavy-handed that I either knew what was coming, or knew where it was going I wasn't going to find funny. I while I know there needs to be a bit of suspension of disbelief to make most comedies work, Arrested Development just asks too much most of the time, especially with some of the "misunderstandings" that have to purposely be understood incorrectly to make the stories work.

The acting was fine for a comedy, but just suffered from the story being told, which was about on-par with "Dumb and Dumber To". About the only actor on the show that really makes the over-the-top work is Alia Shawkat (Maeby, and the movie studio story line works fine given she's apart from everyone else so much), while I found David Cross overused (and I generally find him to be "too much" in most of his roles) and Will Arnett criminally underused and/or misused (especially given how well he nailed Bojack Horseman and was hilarious in Murderville).

While I've heard fans say to stop with Season 3, which was the end of the broadcast run, I actually found the original Season 4 to be the most enjoyable of the bunch (the first Netflix season, and not the re-cut chronological version), as it wove the story in a more interesting manner for me.

But even then I stopped at Season 4, even though they set up a murder mystery for Season 5, it just wasn't enough to keep me watching.

Apologies to those who loved the show, but it just wasn't for me.