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paper-machine comments on June 2013 Media Thread - Less Wrong
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Television and Movies Thread
Arrested Development Season 4 was occasionally amusing, but didn't really catch fire like the original three seasons. I think a number of things hurt it:
Most of the actors have since become major stars with full schedules. Thus the story had to be written around their availability; and there were many fewer ensemble scenes.
The original series revolved around Michael Bluth's exasperation with his family's insanity. Because most of the adult characters were loathsome and pathetic in different ways, you shared Michael's pain in being part of this family. In Season 4, Michael stopped being the straight man and became as equally pathetic as every other adult. Only the younger characters (George Michael and Maeby) were somewhat sympathetic, and consequently only the episodes focusing on George Michael and Maeby actually clicked.
The story didn't really come to a climax. It was more like Act 1 of a three-act structure (and not a strong Act 1 either). It feels like the writers just hit the end of the contracted 15 episodes and stopped where they were.
On the plus side, there were still a number of laugh out loud moments; and lots of new Orange County Easter Eggs for the locals. I wouldn't subscribe to Netflix just to watch Season 4, but if you already subscribe, it's worth the ten hours it will take to view.
One additional problem with season four, in my opinion, is that it's not tightly written at all. Because the writers didn't have any time constraints, many jokes really outlive their amusement value. For example, the scene with Lindsay and Tobias in their house in the third episode.
When I become aware that a comedy is trying too hard, it can interfere with my enjoyment. The first few episodes of Buffy were like that. They were very tightly written. There were long stretches in which not 15 seconds went by without some sort of humor. I got the sense that the creators really cared about my reaction and were probably trying to impress me. All of which made me wary, which of course reduced the probability that I would laugh. In contrast, Arrested gives the appearance of sloppiness and not caring very much, but my guess is that that is a careful choice made by people who do care very much about what they are doing.
I understand that -- I'd rather call a show that's too tightly written "overwritten" (which a lot of modern comedies are, e.g., Modern Family, and the occasional episode of 30 Rock). I don't like that either.
What I'm saying is that several scenes in season four just keep going on past their natural end. When an episode had to be twenty-one minutes long, they didn't have this problem. On the other hand, several episodes from season three would have improved from being only fifteen minutes long after cutting out the slideshows....