The Six Best ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT Episodes of Season Four (Original Cut)

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https://jacksonupperco.com/2024/09/1...-original-cut/

As with two other 2000s classics that were thawed after many years on ice (Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Comeback), Arrested Development’s Netflix revival mostly fails to recapture the magic of the original run. Season Four is different (even from Five) for reasons we’ll discuss, but in general, the version of the show produced for Netflix is far removed from what was produced for FOX, both because of their respective mediums, which speaks to changes between TV in the 2000s and TV in the 2010s, and also because, as usual, the long hiatus gave the show time to develop a legacy-based identity that, as with Curb and Comeback, created a big-picture reputation that becomes the show’s actual, practiced identity upon its return, and often at the expense of other, more elemental qualities that had been vital to its excellence in the first place. Indeed, everything that made Arrested Development stand out in the middle of the 2000s became synonymous with its legacy upon reflection, and that’s what’s accentuated here — a trend we first saw as the FOX run progressed, but never to this extreme, which is also more evident now because of the break. Specifically, the show’s reputation for inventive storytelling with speed and density — lots of plot! — becomes a guiding aspect of its projection of self, as does its penchant for self-referential comedy, built on in-show running gags that are understandably deployed to reinforce continuity between the classic run and this revival (where new jokes are created as well), along with a sense of forward and backward meta-awareness that, like all of this, has always been sanctioned by the single-cam mockumentary format (with narrator), which has given the series authority to basically do whatever it wants, although never before to quite this extent.

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The Ten Best ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT Episodes of Season Four (Remix: FATEFUL CONSEQUENCES)

Ahead of Arrested Development‘s fifth season, creator Mitchell Hurwitz went back to Four and re-edited the entire thing, reshaping 15 non-linear Rashomon-style episodes with varying runtimes and a rotating focus on individual characters into a somewhat chronological order of 22 episodes about 22 minutes in length, and with a more traditional narrative form. This was ostensibly done for potential syndication, but really, the original Four had gotten mixed reviews because it was complicated in a way that wasn’t popular — putting too much stock in hindsight and repeat viewings to bring compensatory value and offset initial confusion. And seeing this revision now exist as the version of Four in Netflix’s main collection (while you have to hunt for the original), it feels like a concession of defeat for the 2013 edit’s bold experiment. Now, if you haven’t read my take on the Original Cut, please do so, for this “remix” is based on its problems, boasting attempted remedies via insertions of footage, deletions of footage, tons of new narration, and a new structure that is not fully chronological plot-wise but endeavors to be easier to follow.

[TMC]

The Ten Best ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT Episodes of Season Four (Remix: FATEFUL CONSEQUENCES)

Ahead of Arrested Development‘s fifth season, creator Mitchell Hurwitz went back to Four and re-edited the entire thing, reshaping 15 non-linear Rashomon-style episodes with varying runtimes and a rotating focus on individual characters into a somewhat chronological order of 22 episodes about 22 minutes in length, and with a more traditional narrative form. This was ostensibly done for potential syndication, but really, the original Four had gotten mixed reviews because it was complicated in a way that wasn’t popular — putting too much stock in hindsight and repeat viewings to bring compensatory value and offset initial confusion. And seeing this revision now exist as the version of Four in Netflix’s main collection (while you have to hunt for the original), it feels like a concession of defeat for the 2013 edit’s bold experiment. Now, if you haven’t read my take on the Original Cut, please do so, for this “remix” is based on its problems, boasting attempted remedies via insertions of footage, deletions of footage, tons of new narration, and a new structure that is not fully chronological plot-wise but endeavors to be easier to follow.