Unfortunately Uncertain Audience: Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events Season 1 Is Unsatisfying.

The Good: Good production design and make-up, Acting is generally good, Moments of cleverness
The Bad: Obvious blue screen shots, Repetitive plots, Sheer volume of idiotic characters
The Basics: The first season of Netflix's Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events is appropriately unpleasant, but fails on too many fronts to entertain an adult audience.


One of the interesting things about the age gap between my wife and I is that there are entire phenomenon that she knows about that were so far after my time that I was not even aware of them. The book series upon which the film and new Netflix series Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events were based is one such phenomenon. While my wife knew about the books in the A Series Of Unfortunate Events Saga, they did not hit my radar at all. In fact, I was only peripherally aware of the film Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events that starred Jim Carrey when it was released and when Netflix announced the production of the first season of Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events, I made a conscious effort not to track the film down. I did, however, dutifully wake up to binge watch and review the Netflix Neil Patrick Harris vehicle as soon as it was released. As such, this is a very pure review of Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events as it stands on its own; anyone looking for a comparison to the books or other film will need to look elsewhere.

What struck me right away about Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events is that its audience is awkwardly unclear. The villain in A Series Of Unfortunate Events is Count Olaf, a murderous actor who has an overt goal of stealing the Baudelaire orphan's fortune and breaks the fourth wall. Olaf has a violent streak that is legitimately frightening, from menacing children with a knife to making references to STDs. But A Series Of Unfortunate Events is so repetitive and focused on the Baudelaire children that it seems like it is geared toward children. The constant repetition of common words seems designed to inform children less smart than the Baudelaire orphans as to their meaning, but such things are painfully obvious to adult viewers. Similarly, by the second episode, it seems utterly ridiculous that Violet and Klaus ever turn their back on Sunny given that every time they do, Olaf takes her hostage and uses her to extort the other two orphans!

The brief appearances by Cobie Smulders are intended to delight adult viewers who were fans of her with A Series Of Unfortunate Events star Neil Patrick Harris on How I Met Your Mother (season 1 is reviewed here!), but those who might be so delighted are also likely to roll their eyes every time Lemony Snicket appears on screen to deliver exposition. Snicket's appearances as narrator are unnecessary for an adult audience and are frustrating because the bulk of Patrick Warburton's appearances as Snicket place him on what is clearly a green screen (or blue screen). Warburton appears to have done a great number of his scenes alone in front of a blank screen with footage put in back of him and the superimposed nature of the actor over the background footage is unfortunately obvious.

Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are out at the beach in a gloomy day, experimenting with their rock skipping retrieval device, when they are visited by Mr. Poe. The children recognize Mr. Poe from the local bank and he informs them that their parents have been killed in a fire that has destroyed the family mansion. Mr. Poe takes the children to his home while he tries to find the nearest relative for the Baudelaire orphans and he quickly places the children with the local actor Count Olaf. Count Olaf claims to be a relation and he quickly starts using the children as slave labor around his dilapidated mansion while he plots with his "acting troupe" how to get the Baudelaire fortune. Count Olaf plans to stage a play where he marries Violet, but Klaus - using the kindly neighbor's, Justice Strauss's, law library - quickly figures out the scheme. Despite Olaf taking Sunny hostage to extort the children, Violet and Klaus work vigilantly to save their baby sister and expose the villainy of Count Olaf.

Following the disastrous attempt to marry Violet, the Baudelaire children are sent to live with their obscure relation, Dr. Montgomery Montgomery. Monty is a herpetologist who quickly recognizes Count Olaf when he shows up posing as the scientist's new assistant. The quintet (including "Stefano") go to the movies where Monty gets a secret message telling him to take the children to Peru. Olaf kills Montgomery before he can take the children out of the country, which leads to a brief caper within his reptile room. The Baudelaire children learn of the existence of their Aunt Josephine right before they are sent to live with her in Lake Lacrymose. Olaf and his henchmen are right behind the children and when Aunt Josephine goes out on a date with Olaf's latest persona, she appears to kill herself. While Mr. Poe tries to transfer custody of the Baudelaire children, the children follow clues to their aunt. Following the clues, the Baudelaire children end up at the Lucky Smells lumber mill where they encounter another person who knew their parents . . . and another incarnation of Olaf!

A Series Of Unfortunate Events exists in a very strange anachronistic time period. While the pilot episode opens with narrator Lemony Snicket telling viewers that the story begins a long time ago, there are references that make the show increasingly modern - from James Brown to credit cards to the internet to streaming television. So, while vehicles, Justice Strauss's wig, and the attention to newspapers have a much older feel to them, there are a lot of contemporary references that undermine the idea that the episodes occur in the past.

The volume of idiotic characters in A Series Of Unfortunate Events quickly becomes frustrating as well. Viewers are expected to believe, for example, that when Justice Strauss sees the mysterious telescope Klaus brought from the ruins of his family's mansion she does not recognize it at all. The front of Count Olaf's mansion - which is directly opposite her home - bears the same symbol. Strauss sees that symbol every time she looks out her front door, but she shows no sense of recognition of it when she sees it on the telescope.

The telescope is the key element that reveals the existence of a secret society working in the background of A Series Of Unfortunate Events. There is a network of people working to save the Baudelaire "orphans," a network that includes Mr. Poe's assistant, Monty's assistant, and Aunt Josephine. The network knows about Count Olaf and has safeguards in place to try to reunite the children with their parents in Peru, as well as tunnels below the town. The secret society is alluded to and barely explored in the first season of A Series Of Unfortunate Events.

A Series Of Unfortunate Events is excellent for detail-oriented viewers, though a number of the details are presumably from the books and translate oddly into the television show. So, for example, whenever Violet metaphorically rolls up her sleeves to leap into action, she very noticeably ties her hair back. There is nothing within the television series that explains why Violet - who is pretty constantly in peril - would ever let her hair down instead of constantly keeping it back. The episodes of the first season of are essentially four two-part mysteries and the clues are often painfully obvious - like the grammar-obsessed Aunt Josephine leaving a note that is riddled with grammatical mistakes that viewers can see when the note is first shown on screen (well before Klaus starts making the argument that Josephine did not write the note).

A Series Of Unfortunate Events is focused on creating a sense of mood that is weird. I love weird, but esoteric still requires characters who are interesting in order to make them empathetic and the show worth watching. A Series Of Unfortunate Events does not quite have that. The show has characters who are more types than intriguing individuals. In the first season of Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events, the important characters are:

Count Olaf - A villain who has a love of costuming and theatrics, he is an actor who assumes many identities in his quest to steal the Baudelaire fortune. He prides himself on his handsomeness, though he frequently alters it in order to assume other personas. He is terrible at remembering lines and frequently relies upon the help of his five lackeys to keep details straight and pull off his capers. He drinks a lot of wine. He is quickly recognized by Violet and Klaus whenever he pops up, but manages to keep one step ahead of the law in his attempts to rob the children of their fortune,

Violet Baudelaire - The clever oldest daughter in the Baudelaire family, she is inventive and protective of her brother and sister. She is articulate, scientifically-minded and frequently frustrated by Olaf's using Sunny against her. She understands Sunny's baby-talk and is allergic to peppermints,

Klaus Baudelaire - An articulate twelve year-old boy, he is an excellent researcher and uses reason to try to convince others - usually Mr. Poe - of Count Olaf's machinations. Like Violet, he is detail-oriented and articulate beyond his age. He finds the mysterious telescope/decoder in his parents' home after the fire and manages to grab the photograph of the secret society members before Aunt Josephine's home is destroyed,

Sunny Baudelaire - An exceptionally smart baby with a chewing ability that is superhuman. She has complex thoughts (which are subtitled) and a simple speaking pattern, who is able to outsmart Count Olaf's hook-handed henchman,

Mr. Poe - The somewhat idiotic banker, he is the executor of the Baudelaire estate. He is eager to get a promotion at the bank and is often unwilling to believe the Baudelaire children when the assert Count Olaf is in whatever new guardian's home he places them at. He is married with two children and coughs a lot,

and Lemony Snicket - The narrator who is charged with telling the unfortunate story of the Baudelaire children, he is full of exposition and irony. He has a lost love and a past history with Olaf. He or his family members were in the secret society (unless the character on the far right of the "blink and you miss it" photograph shot is supposed to be Lemony, as opposed to the Snicket relation that Olaf alludes to knowing) and does not directly interact with the Baudelaire children.

The acting in A Series Of Unfortunate Events is a mixed bag in its first season. Neil Patrick Harris is undoubtedly going to get a lot of praise from critics for his portrayal of Count Olaf, but it is hard for fans of his to watch A Series Of Unfortunate Events and be thrilled by his performance. Harris is undoubtedly a gifted actor, but the eight episodes of A Series Of Unfortunate Events have Harris playing Count Olaf in the same way he portrayed Billy in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Harris gives viewers nothing new in his performance of Count Olaf than we already saw in the way he played Dr. Horrible.

Similarly, Patrick Warburton's Lemony Snicket plays to the actor's articulate deadpan that we've seen from him in many of his other roles. Alfre Woodard is wonderful in the role of the grammatically-precise, but terrified-by-everything Aunt Josephine. A Series Of Unfortunate Events marks the second Netflix project Woodard has been involved with where she has not gotten "godson" Jonathan Frakes directing work for the series and it seems like Frakes would have been great directing her episodes. Woodard makes Josephine energetic and unnerving to watch with her manic performance of the secret society member! Similarly good in his performance is K. Todd Freeman, who plays Mr. Poe. Freeman's cough for the role is somewhat intermittent (and how is it that he doesn't get Olaf sick when he is constantly coughing in his face?!), but there is not even a hint of the way he portrayed Mr. Trick in the third season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer (reviewed here!) in his performance of Mr. Poe.

A Series Of Unfortunate Events is led by Malina Weissman and Louis Hynes. Weissman steps on a couple of lines, but for the most part she sells Violet as being clever and articulate. Weissman plays despair surprisingly well for a young actress as she acts sad through almost the entire first season of A Series Of Unfortunate Events. Hynes is tasked with appearing as a young intellectual and he rises to the occasion in a credible way. Hynes is given a number of lines that involve a higher level of diction and jargon and he delivers them as if he completely understands them, which is essential to making his character appear realistic.

Netflix clearly spend a significant amount on the production of A Series Of Unfortunate Events. From the first episode where Count Olaf's mansion includes details like dried leaves on the floor to the cracks on the walls of Aunt Josephine's home, A Series Of Unfortunate Events is lush with visual details in its first season.

Ultimately, I kept watching the first season of A Series Of Unfortunate Events, waiting for it to pop. The characters are all fairly flat (save, oddly enough, Mr. Poe who is given a decent variety of traits beyond simply being eccentric) and the performances tend to hit a single essential note for each character and the plots are so repetitive as to bore. A Series Of Unfortunate Events is not unpleasant to watch, but it is not funny or clever enough to intrigue viewers to make it even worth watching all eight episodes.

For other works from the 2016 – 2017 television season, please check out my reviews of:
One Day At A Time - Season 1
Travelers - Season 1
"A Christmas Special" - Sense8
The OA - Season 1
Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life
"Invasion!" - Arrow
"Broken Promises" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"Flashpoint" - The Flash
"The Chicago Way" - Legends Of Tomorrow
"The Adventures Of Supergirl" - Supergirl
Luke Cage - Season 1
Stranger Things - Season 1

3.5/10

For other television reviews, please check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Almost Subversive, The Lego Movie Hedges Its Bets!

The Good: Good voice cast, Themes, Good plot progression
The Bad: Overstates itself, “Twist” guts the adult aspects, Predictable
The Basics: The Lego Movie has a strong start, but becomes unfortunately obvious and thematically heavy-handed.


There are only a handful of films from 2014 that I am still looking forward to seeing. Near the top of the list was The Lego Movie and so, as the new year gets under way and my wife and I have more date nights, it was one of our first choices to pick up and watch. The Lego Movie initially lives up to its promise of being a smart, thematically-subversive film intended far more for adults than the obvious children’s audience. With its impressive voice cast, most of whom are familiar to adults as opposed to children, The Lego Movie is a fun film.

In fact, the real issues with The Lego Movie come from overstating itself. In the last fifteen minutes of the film, there is a twist that nails the themes home in such a way that The Lego Movie pretty much mortgages its own themes and cleverness. While The Lego Movie makes allusions to things like The Empire Strikes Back (reviewed here!) and has some generally adult themes on the nature of capitalism and social order, it plays a number of its jokes over and over again, making it a tougher sell than it should have been.

Emmet is an ordinary worker in the Lego block world that is surprisingly mundane. He is a construction worker who follows all the rules and has a very regular schedule. President Business runs both the government and the big business in the world and the citizens are thrilled when he announces the forthcoming Taco Tuesday. As Emmet is leaving his construction site, he sees a mysterious stranger, Wyldstyle, who is sifting through the rubble for something. Emmet wakes up with a device – the Piece Of Resistance - stuck to his back, in the custody of Bad Cop. Emmet is rescued by Wyldstyle, who takes him to Vitruvius.

Vitruvius explains that Emmet is The Special, a man of prophecy. It is his destiny to bring the Piece Of Resistance to Lord Business’s Kragle weapon and stop the villain from unleashing his weapon upon the many Lego realms. Pursued by Bad Cop’s forces (after President Business removes his “Good Cop” alter-ego), Emmet, Wyldstyle, and Vitruvius try to escape using their imaginations to reorganize their vehicles. Rescued by Batman, the heroes head to Cloud Cuckooland where all of the disparate Master Builders are meeting to plan how to get the Piece Of Resistance to the Kragle. But Bad Cop’s forces break things up and soon the heroes are fleeing once again. While Emmet slowly learns how to live up to his potential, Lord Business begins to reveal his maniacal plans!

For a film that is basically an advertisement for every property Warner Brothers is affiliated with (the DC Comics universe, Harry Potter, LEGO The Lord Of The Rings), The Lego Movie does a decent job of attacking corporate mechanisms. Lord Business utterly screws over his most loyal lieutenant and that plays well throughout the film.

The Lego Movie utilizes an incredibly talented voice cast. Led by Chris Pratt as Emmet, The Lego Movie has fun vocal performances from Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman, Elizabeth Banks, Charlie Day and Will Arnett. Each member of the cast is expert at emoting using only their voice talents and whatever problems exist with the film, the cast and their line deliveries are not at fault.

The Lego Movie looks good and has moments of charm, but it plunges into average territory as it progresses and takes a safe, albeit somewhat surprising, route. The departure from the main narrative beats home the themes the film was building to and it undermines the imagination and style of the film. The result is that The Lego Movie is good, but far from flawless.

For other works with Chris Pratt, please visit my reviews of:
Guardians Of The Galaxy
Her
Movie 43
The Five-Year Engagement
Moneyball
Bride Wars
Wanted
Strangers With Candy

5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Arguably The Best Of The Dr. Seuss Movies: Horton Hears A Who!

The Good: Wonderful themes, Good voice acting, Character stuggle
The Bad: Somewhat predictable, Moments of forced humor
The Basics: Horton Hears A Who! might well be the most underrated of the Dr. Seuss film adaptations as a story of an elephant struggling to save a microscopic world, despite social pressure against him.


There are very few Dr. Seuss books that I actually remember. It has been such a long time since I was a child and was read the stories, so whenever I have seen one of the films based upon the works of Dr. Seuss, I have been able to do a very pure review of the movie for what it is, without the comparative analysis to how the movies stack up against the books. In the case of Horton Hears A Who!, I have no memories of the book and I was very surprised when my wife excitedly bought the movie on Blu-Ray when it was dirt cheap on Black Friday.

For me, the surprise was how mature Horton Hears A Who! was when the movie commits to its more adult themes. Horton Hears A Who! is essentially a piece that argues a liberal perspective and contrasts reality and faith. The result is a movie that is occasionally geared to children that educates them on both the value of life, the importance of imagination, and the power of one person to stand up to the hive mind for a principle that is right (as opposed to going along with the crowd).

Horton is an elephant living in the jungle who is imaginative, clever, and very active in the jungle community. While Horton mentors the children in the jungle, the community is actually controlled by the fearsome and socially repressive Kangaroo. While taking a bath one day, a speck finds its way to Horton and he hears the voice of the Mayor Of Whoville coming from it. Putting the speck on a flower, Horton listens to the Mayor – who has more than ninety daughters and a single, asocial son (named JoJo). Looking around the jungle, Horton realizes that there is nowhere truly safe for the tiny world of Whoville, so he commits to saving the people living on the speck.

In Whoville, the Mayor works to convince the town council that the Whocentennial should be postponed until the town is safe, though no one believes they are all living on a speck and he is being spoken to by a giant elephant. While Horton makes a journey to a mountain, where he believes the speck will be safe, he tells the children about the Speck and Whoville and the children begin to emulate Horton, carrying around flowers which they claim have speck worlds of their own. Kangaroo is outraged by the influence Horton has and she hires the vulture, Vlad, to destroy Horton’s flower and the speck. As Horton tries to save Whoville, the Mayor works to protect his people despite being utterly powerless.

Horton Hears A Who! features two protagonists who are combated largely by social pressure. Even Horton’s allies push for Horton to give up the flower and the speck – to which Horton declares he made a promise and he has to protect the people of Whoville because “people are people, no matter how small.” The Mayor is terrified about being ostracized when Horton advises him to get the people underground and he has to tell everyone that they are living on a speck and he has been talking with a giant elephant.

Horton Hears A Who! is rich in allegory and metaphor and the messages of the film are smart and worthwhile. The writing team uses the source material to create one of the most compelling films to advocate for imagination and social rebellion to come along in years. Both Horton and the Mayor are characters with deep convictions. Horton is loyal and determined in addition to being imaginative. The Mayor might spend most of the movie hampered by fear of social ramifications to his standing up to reveal the truth of their existence, but when he makes an impassioned case based on reason and science, he does so with great courage (albeit rather problematic plot twists at the same time).

The adversaries in Horton Hears A Who! are largely monolithic. The leader of the town council of Whoville and Kangaroo are solely interested in power and control. Kangaroo uses children as an excuse to be repressive and mean to Horton and in that way the film adequately exposes the way fear is used to manipulate people (perfect for a Bush Era movie!).

The voice acting in Horton Hears A Who! is homogenously wonderful. Carol Burnett is appropriately snooty as Kangaroo and Jim Carrey gives an impressive performance filled with (alternately) energy and determination. Steve Carell is funny as the Mayor, though he is not given much in the way to do where his character could ever have credibly been a mayor had he not essentially inherited the role.

The animation in Horton Hears A Who! looks incredible even on the small screen. Because the flower is so essential to the plot, the fact that on a decent HDTV, one may see every hair of pollen on the flowers is absolutely incredible. Horton Hears A Who! has a fantastic sense of physics which contrasts the heavy and realistic themes in the movie. Even better, the sense of movement is very manic in the Jungle and comparatively much more still in most of the Whoville sequences, which helps to clearly differentiate the two worlds in the movie.

Ultimately, Horton Hears A Who! is fun, funny, and smart enough to entertain children and adults alike!

For other works works with Jim Carrey, please check out my reviews of:
Kick-Ass 2
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
Nantucket Film Festival’s Comedy Roundtable
A Christmas Carol
I Love You Phillip Morris
Yes Man
Fun With Dick And Jane
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
How The Grinch Stole Christmas
The Truman Show
Batman Forever

7.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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It’s Back! But Season Four Of Arrested Development Is Hardly Great.

The Good: Wonderful character development/progression, Great in-jokes
The Bad: Very different tone (to start out with).
The Basics: With fifteen episodes, Netflix returns Arrested Development with the entire original cast but short on the charm that made the first three seasons a classic.


When it was announced that Arrested Development (reviewed here!) was being given a fourth season, I was working at a blogging job for a small computer company. In the days that followed the announcement, Netflix revealed that its subscriber base had abruptly increased. I recall writing about how it was incredible that the loyal fan base of Arrested Development would show support for the preproduction by subscribing years ahead of the programs actual release. Today, I find myself wondering what will happen tomorrow. With Season Four of Arrested Development dropping in a single fifteen episode block on Netflix (an event my wife and I enjoyed partaking of beginning at 3 A.M. this morning), I wonder how long that fan base will stick with Netflix. It seemed to me like a tactical miscalculation to release the entire season all at once instead of drawing the season out in order to actually keep those subscribers.

My musings on the relationship between Netflix and Arrested Development is a valid one, but it is also a delaying tactic. The delay comes from not wanting to (inevitably) lose the readers who stop reading after they see the line, “it’s enjoyable, but it lacks the spark that Arrested Development had originally.” Because Season Four has to figure out where all the characters have been since the previous season’s finale, it spends a great deal of time re-establishing characters and filling in the plot and character developments from the past few years and telling new viewers what the loyal fans already know (“Stan Sitwell suffered from alopecia . . .”).

That is not to say that season four is without charm. Mary Lynn Rajskub joins George Sr.’s storyline as a silent character named Heart Fire, who is subtitled hilariously and there is quite a bit of humor pertaining to the housing market collapse in the late 2000’s. The appearance of the cast of Comedy Central’s Workaholics (season 1 reviewed here!) as airport personnel, the watermarks on the screen for all footage from the prior three seasons (“Showstealer Pro Trial Version“), and in-jokes to the original series (like Lindsay wearing the blouse from the first episode) are all cute, but there is nothing in this season as distinctive as “There’s always money in the banana stand” or “No touching!” In other words, it has moments where it is good, but the new version of the show is hardly as distinctive or fresh as it originally was (though “Three does sound bigger” came close). The refreshing aspect of Season Four of Arrested Development is that, after a clunky start, it does get better so that by the longer episode “Red Hairing” the show is actually funny and fun again.

Flashing back to the final episode of Season Three, the fourth season of Arrested Development is built around how none of the members of the Bluth family showed up for Lucille’s hearing in maritime court. The episodes then work up to all of the characters converging on the Quatro De Mayo harbor celebration!

After indebting himself to Lucille Austero and missing his mother’s hearing in maritime court, Michael Bluth finishes the Sudden Valley housing development and when it goes bust, he moves in with George Michael in his son’s college dorm room before fleeing to Pheonix. George Sr. flees to the Mexican border after buying property there to try to sell to the U.S. government to use to build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants. After Lindsay goes to India on a spiritual retreat, she and Tobias buy a mini-mansion in 2006 and end up at a Methadone Clinic (Tobias thinks it’s “Method One Clinic”) where Lindsay meets Mark Bark, the son of Johnny Bark, the guy she once spent time with in a tree. Tobias ends up as methadone addict and actor while Michael goes to work for Imagine Entertainment. G.O.B. pops up, having started an unsuccessful Christian magic act before George Sr. asks Michael to give him a job. The episodes build up to the hearing and then deals with the aftermath, building up to the Quatro de Cinco and the aftermath of the collapse of Herbert Love’s campaign.

Opening with “Flight Of The Phoenix,” Michael Bluth finds himself in debt to Lucille Austero to the tune of $700,000. After debasing himself with her, he flees to the old model home he and G.O.B. uses a roofie on him. Six months prior that forgetful Quatro de Mayo, Michael was attending the University Of Phoenix while living in George Michael’s college dorm room at UC Irvine. George Michael, his new roommate and Maeby (posing as George Michael’s boyfriend) vote Michael out of the room and he flees to Phoenix, as he has long threatened to do.

“Borderline Personalities” picks up the story of George Sr. and his twin brother, Oscar where the pair is working on fleecing executives in a sweat lodge on the border of California and Mexico. The complicated scheme – whereby Oscar and George swap positions between a sweat lodge and an “inspirational classroom” type situation to get money out of the CEOs – is how George Sr. is avoiding of government questioning after stealing Stan Sitwell’s border wall contract out from under him!

A particularly humorless episode, “Indian Takers” tells the story of how Lindsay ended up in Shuturmurg, India on a mystical journey that ends up in a shopping trip. Returning to the U.S., she trades positive testimony at Lucille’s hearing for a house with Tobias and a fling with Mark Bark. She finds herself on an ostrich farm, missing Lucille’s hearing.

“The B. Team” returns to Michael’s story as he gets a producing credit in Beverly Hills as he goes to work for Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment. Loaded with in-jokes and the return of Kitty Sanchez, this episode follows Michael’s quest to get his father to sign his life rights to the project in order to make it happen. Along the way, he assembles a creative team with Warden Gentles, Carl Weathers, and Andy Richter in a pretty righteous lampooning of the Hollywood “creative process.” And he starts dating a mysterious woman who turns out to be the most obvious person possible given the set-up . . .

In “A New Start,” opens with Tobias getting entrapped on a local To Catch A Predator television show and is flashed back to how he went to India! After fracturing his skull in three places, Tobias ends up in City Of Hopelessness Hospital in India! Returning to the United States, Tobias recommits to being an actor and ends up working with Debrie where he tries to make money having his picture taken as the Thing while Debrie goes as the Invisible Woman and the two get repeatedly arrested and fined.

George Sr.’s story is picked up in “Double Crossers.” George Sr. works to aid Republican Herbert Love. After effectively bribing the politician, George discovers that Oscar’s land is not actually on the border. Oscar, posing as George convinces Lucille to send G.O.B. to work on the border. When that does not work out, G.O.B. comes to work for Michael trying to sell the units in Sudden Valley.

Gob’s story comes out in “Collony Collapse.” Before the Queen Mary sailed, George Michael attacks Gob when he finds out his uncle is dating Ann Veal. After deflowering Ann, Gob tries to break up with her (the funniest line of the season comes in this episode when Gob sees a print of Jesus), but ends up engaged to her. When he gets out of the engagement, he falls in with a youth entourage and he almost gets them all killed.

“Red Hairing” catches up with Lindsay in the desert working on the ostrich farm with Marky Bark and their ostrich. After Lindsay finds a check for a facelift from Lucille to Maeby, she goes with Marky to commit an act of nonviolent protest against Herbert Love. The disaster reunites Lindsay and Maeby. It also puts Lindsay in the position to be Herbert Love’s mistress.

Tobias returns to the forefront in “Smashed.” After a stint in prison, is registered as a sex offender (unjustly), and goes to work at Lucille 2’s Austerity rehab clinic. There, he is reunited with DeBrie and begins staging a Fantastic 4 musical. In order to advance that project, Tobias has to meet with Ron Howard and that leads to a catastrophe in the making.

At long last, Lucille gets an episode of her own in “Queen B.” Flashing back to fleeing the S.E.C., Lucille tries to use Buster for her alibi. When he does not come through, she is sentenced to three to five years at a very light security prison. There she joins a Chinese gang that is willing to finance the wall on the Mexican border and gets transferred to Austerity.

“A New Attitude” refocuses on Gob. Committed now to destroying Tony Wonder, he tries to get Michael and his son Steve Holt to help him ruin Tony Wonder. After signing his rights away for the movie, he has George Michael come with him to the Gothic Castle where he actually has a conversation with Tony Wonder and comes up with a new revenge scheme.

Maeby’s years are accounted for in “Senoritas.” After trying to get her parent’s attention, she flunks out of high school, briefly works for Imagine Entertainment, gets fired and goes through high school for five years. After a brief scare where she is worried she will be exposed by an undercover cop at high school, she pimps out her mother and helps George Michael start his own internet company.

“It Gets Better” fleshes out George-Michael’s five years. Right before his software company launches, he was in a band, becomes an exchange student and creates a software that is not what other people think it is.

At long last, the final Bluth gets his episode when Buster is the focus of “Off The Hook.” Flashing back to Buster getting cut off from Lucille, he goes a bit crazy and simulates having her around, but after a night of juice, he gets a juice hangover and misses Lucille’s hearing. After trying to make a go of his relationship with Lucille 2, he re-enlists in the Army as a drone pilot and after an injury is given a new (oversized) hand to replace his hook. He is given an anti-bullying badge and falls in with Herbert Love’s wife, Ophelia. On Cinco De Cuatro (sic), Lucille Austero reveals the truth of her manipulations of Buster to him.

The season finale is “Blockheads” and it opens with George-Michael and resolves the relationship he has with Rebel and has all of the main characters colliding at Herbert Love’s campaign event . . . with all of the self-serving characters focusing on their own stuff.

Like the series that preceded it, Arrested Development includes a wealth of guest stars. In addition to familiar recurring guest stars like Henry Winkler, Ed Begley Jr. and Judy Greer, the fourth season of Arrested Development has cameos by Alan Tudyk, Ben Stiller (he shows up for a shot in a print ad, several background shots and two decent exchanges in a later episode!), Mae Whitman, and Scott Baio. Isla Fisher has a decent recurring role as Rebel and Mary Lynn Rajskub’s Heart Fire steals the scenes she is in. John Slattery’s Doctor Norman also becomes a memorable supporting character. Seth Rogen and Kristen Wiig open the new season exceptionally well as younger versions of George and Lucille.

The main cast is incredible. Given that all of the main performers return and they are great in returning to their familiar characters. Portia de Rossi looks unfortunately gaunt at the outset of the season and Mae Whitman fails to look as plain as Ann Veal originally did. But they perform their characters flawlessly and in a familiar way. Jessica Walter is given the best chance to show serious range when the show finally focuses on her. When Lucille has to illustrate complex human emotions, she sells it at least as much as she has previously sold her character’s loathsome indifference to everyone and everything. Will Arnett and David Cross get to perform opposite one another and their time together on The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret (season 1 is reviewed here!) clearly paid off as they are given more scenes together this season and they play off one another incredibly well. For most of this season, the performers look like they are having fun and they play their characters well.

The biggest danger of watching Arrested Development Season 4 as a fan is that one will spend the episodes gleefully pointing out connections between these episodes and the prior ones. By the time I recognized the waitress from a first season episode where Lucille did not understand her question, my wife began glaring at me (you can’t talk over the new episodes of Arrested Development!).

Arrested Development is a welcome show to get new episodes and the fourth season might start a little rockier than fans might want, but it builds up to the logical concluding point and it peaks in the middle well, making it well worth watching and getting Netflix for . . . even if for only this month. In fact, it is executed so well that it feels far more fresh than it actually is (the main plotline between Michael and George Michael was actually done in the first season), though it progresses the characters fans knew and loved. Season Four is more than enough to hold fans over until the movie is released and fans successfully get a fifth season.

For other continuations of once-cancelled shows, please visit my reviews of:
Family Guy - Volume Three
Serenity
Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

6.5/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Movie And Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Let’s Go To Prison Is Funny Viewing After Viewing.

The Good: Deliciously crass, Funny, Generally original
The Bad: Light on character, Light on acting, Light on DVD bonus features
The Basics: Funny and decent over multiple viewings, Let’s Go To Prison is more crude humor than social commentary and more average than extraordinary.


If it seems like my quest to watch all of the movies that have won Best Picture has been broken up by a rather obscure collection of movies, this is because my partner and I have vastly different standards and desires for our movies. She has absolutely no interest in joining me on going through all of the movies that won Best Picture and I have a pretty strong desire to make peace and spend time with her. So, when she picks the film we will watch for a night, she dips into her collection and we end up seeing a ridiculous comedy, like Let’s Go To Prison.

To be fair, Let’s Go To Prison is a movie I have wanted to see because I have heard some pretty wonderful things about it. All I honestly knew about it going into the film was that it featured Will Arnett and that everyone who I know who has seen it has said it was hilarious, including my partner. Having now seen it twice, I agree the film is funny, but like a lot of comedies the humor does not hold up incredibly well upon multiple viewings. While I appreciate the film, Let’s Go To Prison is actually a fairly average comedy. It is good, but it trades quite a bit on shock value for humor and as a result holds up less well than the initial impact might suggest.

John Lyshitski is a petty criminal who is busted rather early in his life for a minor infraction and he ends up going to juvenile detention, thanks to judge Nelson Biederman III. After a life in and out of prison, Lyshitski serves his last sentence and ends up on the outside ready to perform acts of revenge against the judge whom he feels has robbed him of most of his life. Unfortunately for him, Biederman III has died and Lyshitski decides to revenge himself upon Nelson Biederman IV. High strung and needing medication, Biederman IV breaks into a pharmacy and his expensive legal team refuses to back him, so Nelson Biederman IV is sentenced to prison. Feeling bad, but seeing an opportunity to continue his torment of Biederman, Lyshitski gets himself arrested and sentenced to the same place as Biederman.

On the inside, Lyshitski appears to befriend Biederman while tormenting him as much as possible. Lyshitski arranges for Biederman to become the "property" of Barry, the resident hulking, yet sensitive guy. As Biederman tries to wrangle with his legal team to get set free, Lyshitski continues to pay off others to beat on his nemesis. But in a freak accident, Biederman kills the head of the jail's white supremacists. This makes Biederman the new alpha in the prison yard and he and Lyshitski come to blows, which puts them in a dangerous position when the chief jailer arranges a fight to the death between them.

Let’s Go To Prison is funny, but it is frequently crude. Much of the humor is very stereotypically masculine, with jokes being filthy and revolving around crude sex jokes ("Did you have to put a finger up my ass?" "No. . . but it happened") and surprise violence, like Biederman getting punched in the face abruptly. The humor is, fortunately, not as violence oriented as something like Observe And Report. But, most of the humor hinges on being gross or shocking for how far over the line it appears ready to go.

The most unsettling incident of this type of humor comes when Biederman first visits Barry's cell. In that scene, the viewer clenches for the inevitable bit of rough prison sex that has been telegraphed from almost the first moment Barry entered the film. Here, though, is where Let’s Go To Prison actually manages to be surprising for a film of its type. Instead of being predictable and horrific, the scene is resolved with an anticlimax that is far funnier. This is one of the scenes that actually holds up better on the second or third viewing as the viewer knows that the tension is playing out for a wonderful punchline, as opposed to something truly excruciating.

But Let’s Go To Prison is otherwise a remarkably straightforward movie with little to no actual character development. Lyshitski is an unlikable protagonist and his desire for revenge upon the Biederman family is cruel and often ridiculous. As well, Biederman the Fourth is hardly likable as he is constantly stressed and yelling at everyone until the moment he is imprisoned and broken. And then, the viewer's reaction to Biederman's plight is much more a generic human reaction to seeing suffering than actually empathizing with Biederman on a specific character level. Biederman suffers and we do not feel he deserves it, but we also do not care much for him as a person as he was not much of a decent guy before he was arrested.

In this regard, the surprise of Let’s Go To Prison comes in how likable Barry ultimately is. The giant who appears to menace Biederman is actually all he appears to be. He's a sweet guy who is looking to rehabilitate and find love in the world. As such, he actually becomes a surprisingly decent character by the standards of being a positive gay character. Unlike most prison movies with gay sex being the result of loneliness or hate, Barry is motivated by exactly what he appears to be: love. He's smitten with Biederman and this leads him to take the risks he does for him.

Barry is played by Chi McBride and were it not for Waiting. . . (reviewed here!), this would probably have been a shockingly different role for McBride, who is often cast in dignified roles. But he makes the role of Barry work and he illustrates just what a great actor he can be by selling the role perfectly. Unfortunately, the rest of the acting is more the result of inspired casting than anything else. Will Arnett is essentially replaying Gob - his Arrested Development (reviewed here!) character - in a new setting. As well, Dax Shepard, who plays Lyshitski, is playing what he virtually always plays, a twentysomething slacker who is pretty much the worst stereotype of characters that age. Having seen very few things with Shepard, it is disappointing how familiar his performance here seems.

On DVD, Let’s Go To Prison is presented in an unrated form so the language and sex-jokes are pretty explicit. However, one of the bonus features allows viewers to see the original version of the film. Outside that, the only bonus features are fairly explicit deleted scenes and they are VERY funny. Anyone who enjoys the rest of the film will love the bonus scenes.

Let’s Go To Prison is a fun comedy, but it is very average. While it is one of my partner's favorite movies, I enjoy it, but it is objectively far more ordinary than than it is extraordinary. Still, it is worth watching; those who like it will find it is worth the buy as it does stand up over multiple viewings.

For other works featuring Dax Shepard, please check out my reviews of:
Parenthood - Season 1
Old Dogs
Baby Mama
Without A Paddle

6/10

For other movie reviews, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Secret World Of Arrietty Is A Slow, Animated Fantasy

The Good: Interesting characters, Interesting concept, Great sound editing
The Bad: The proportions keep changing, Very slow, Very basic plot
The Basics: The Secret World Of Arrietty is a Studio Ghibli film too slow for children and too much of a one-trick pony for adults.


My wife is a big fan of Studio Ghibli animated films, but she had never seen one on the big screen. So, with the release of The Secret World Of Arrietty, I decided to do my part to give her the chance to see it on the big screen and I was actually excited to go see it with her. I'm not sure why I was so excited; we've watched three other Studio Ghibli films together and even the one I liked the most - Ponyo - I nodded off during. I figured that I had fallen asleep during my three prior Studio Ghibli film experiences because it was late at night each time and I was super-comfortable as we watched the movie from our bed. Unfortunately, The Secret World Of Arrietty proved to me that that theory was not entirely a good one, though I only dozed off in the theater for a few seconds (nodding my head jerked me awake).

The Secret World Of Arrietty is very slow. It is so slow, in fact, that there are parts that are just tiresome, drawn out and somewhat unexciting. The Secret World Of Arrietty seems to hinge on its own concept and it does not do much with that concept, so once you've heard what the movie is about, you've pretty much seen it. Sadly, it does not do much with the idea and it failed to wow me . . . and today I was actually excited to be out with my wife to see it.

Shawn is not well and he is sent to his aunt Jessica's house to rest before his heart surgery. On his way into the house the first time, he sees his aunt's cat attacked by a bird and he is convinced he sees a tiny girl. In fact, he did: her name is Arrietty and she is a fourteen year old girl who is about three inches tall. Arrietty has made her first excursion out into the real world and she is able to impress her father and mother with the idea that she was not captured by the cat. So, her father, Pod, allows her to come with him to "borrow" a sugar cube from the human's house. While out trying to get the sugar cube and a tissue, Arrietty is discovered by Shawn and she and Pod flee without their sugar.

Shawn, however, is not afraid and he tries to deliver the sugar cube to Arrietty the next day. Pod and Arrietty's mother, Homily, warn Arrietty to stay away from Shawn. But Shawn and Arrietty have a furtive meeting, where Arrietty gives him a little information on the little people. But the housekeeper at Aunt Jessica's house, Haru, soon becomes suspicious when Shawn tries to give the little people part of the dollhouse built for them by his grandfather. Haru begins to wreck the little people's house and captures Homily. While Arrietty tries to rescue her mother with Shawn, Pod prepares to take the family far away.

The biggest problem with The Secret World Of Arrietty is in the animation. The exact size of Arrietty and the other Borrowers is unclear. Various items used by Arrietty, Pod and Homily keep changing, making it impossible to understand just how small they are actually intended to be. So, for example, the bricks used by Arrietty to use as stairs to climb up to the grate that leads to the outside vary dramatically in size. Similarly, it is hard to guess what the actual application of the plastic clip Arrietty uses in her hair is unclear.

The Secret World Of Arrietty is exceptionally light on character. Arrietty and Shawn pretty much establish themselves, but do little significant with their characterization. So, for example, Shawn has a heart condition and the sense of mortality is not impressed upon the viewer in a way that makes it seem like a vital matter. In other words, he says he is potentially dying, but it never feels like his death is as imminent as the adult viewer feels like it ought to. The characterization is kept consistent - Shawn easily gets out of breath when trying to save Arrietty - but it does not have a real impact. In a similar way, in The Secret World Of Arrietty, Arrietty and the Borrowers are fearful that their race might be moved toward extinction. But even with the desire to flee, the viewer feels more like The Secret World Of Arrietty is about the potential destruction of a single family, never the end of the whole group of people.

The pacing in The Secret World Of Arrietty is very off. The film is slow. Dreadfully slow. In fact, even the children watching The Secret World Of Arrietty at the theater my wife and I went to seemed bored with it; walking through it in a way I did now see during, for example, Tangled (reviewed here!). The Secret World Of Arrietty does, however, have amazing sound editing. While the visual effects may be woefully inconsistent, the sound effects are incredible. When Arrietty enters the living room at one point, there is a thunderous noise of a clock ticking and the perceptive viewer picks this up instantly because it is so clear. Similarly, the sounds of water in the pipes, faucets dripping and things like the roof getting torn off the Borrower's house are loudly accented.

The Secret World Of Arrietty is an interesting idea that is far less exciting than it could have been, no matter who the intended audience was.

For other anime films, please check out my reviews of:
Perfect Blue
Princess Mononoke
The Triplets Of Bellevue

4.5/10

For other movie reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Very Short Season: Arrested Development Comes To An Abrupt End With Season Three!

The Good: Entirely funny, Good performances, Decent DVD bonus features
The Bad: SHORT, Replays less well.
The Basics: Funny, well-acted and with a strong, serialized story, Arrested Development Season Three is a hilarious conclusion to the neglected television comedy.


Recently, a friend of mine said Arrested Development was recommended to her and when she started watching it, she just did not get it. This did not, actually, surprise me. Arrested Development is one of the rare examples of an American sitcom which possesses wit. The humor is dry, the deliveries are often understated and the show does not usually spell out all of the jokes, so if one goes over your head, you're likely to be lost for some time. As well, Arrested Development is one of the rare serialized comedies, so the episodes build upon one another.

With the third season of Arrested Development, the series found itself in the odd situation of being renewed, yet getting very little support from the Fox network, where it aired. In fact, one of the ironies about the series, illustrated in this DVD set, is that the show had its aired series finale ("S.O.B.s") before the network burned off the final four episodes on a single night over a month later! I remember seeing "S.O.B.s," but I had not even heard about the other four episodes, so the real treat of Arrested Development - Season Three on DVD was being able to see the rest of the series! Because the show is serialized, this set picks up right where Arrested Development Season 2 (reviewed here!) left off, with only minimal recapping. As a result, new viewers are likely to be a bit lost from the outset.

In the third season, Michael Bluth realizes that his father, George, is not in prison when the man he visits at the prison says "family comes first" and Michael realizes George's twin brother, Oscar, is serving George's term. While Michael tries to straighten that mess out, he tries to be a better father to George-Michael, who is avoiding his cousin, Maeby after they kissed in the prior season. When Michael finds George, he learns that all of the family's legal problems may be a setup as the British may have hired George to build homes in Iraq. With George under house arrest, Michael works to find the evidence to exonerate his father and his family.

In the process, Michael falls for Rita, a British woman who has a secret of her own. As the Bluth Company rebounds from its years of bad press, Gob deals with discovering he is a father and Lindsay and Tobias move closer to a divorce. To that end, Lindsay tries to seduce her new divorce lawyer, Bob Loblaw (say it fast and you'll get the joke) with mixed results. With Lucille wearing George out with her daily needs, George starts working on escape attempts as Buster works to avoid re-enlisting in the Army.

Arrested Development, truly, is one of those shows where describing the program seldom prepares viewers for the actual experience of watching the show. Instead, this is a comedy which is filmed as if it were a documentary - including voice-over narrations from Ron Howard - and the humor is quick, dry and not accompanied by an intrusive laugh track. So, for example, in the finale, as Michael plans the celebration of the stock moving up again, he puts Tobias in charge and Tobias realizes that because the party is happening on a boat, he might need to make some changes with the Hot Cops act that he hired. He says, ". . . something a little more nautical, Hot Sailors. Or better yet, Hot Sea. . ." at which point, Michael cuts him off with letting him know Hot Sailors is fine. Because the jokes are often language-oriented and fast without any acknowledgment of the fact that a joke has been delivered, frequently those not used to watching engaging television will be lost.

And Arrested Development is laugh-out-loud funny in its final season. The episode "S.O.B.s" pokes fun at both Fox for canceling Arrested Development and shameless pandering to test markets. As Michael tries to keep the family "relatable and likable," in advance of their "Save Our Bluths" fundraiser, the episode trots on a slew of guest stars, plays off the idea that one of the characters will die and even features the final few seconds "live" (it was live at the time, but not, obviously, on the DVD). The progression of cheap gimmicks is actually hilarious and it works because the show satirizes the establishments which were killing it.

As well, the show's humor works because it is so risque. George-Michael and Maeby are teenage cousins who are sharing a room and working to resist their growing attraction for one another, which is certainly not a common conceit in television comedies (all grossness with this long-running plotline is finally eliminated by the end of this season). Gob reveals that it is his habit to seduce the third place winners in beauty pageants because of their low self-esteem and when Ann - George-Michael's ex-girlfriend - comes in third in the "Inner Beauty" Pageant at the Church And State Fair, Gob sticks to his prior pattern. At the same fair, George gives a "startled straight" speech to the wrong tent of youth and basically graphically describes his prison experiences to a bunch of young homosexuals. The result is hilarious, but it is intended for adults. One of the funniest jokes is a simple cutaway to Tobias's new businesscard. When Tobias realizes has been both an analyst and a therapist, he tries to synergize the two and name he chooses is quite unfortunate ("It's pronounced 'ah-nall-rup-ist'"). And while the whole British spy parody plotline that occupies the early part of the season might not work for some, it is hard to argue with the humor of the Japanese disaster movie parody in "Mr. F."

Unfortunately, Arrested Development Season Three has only thirteen episodes, so many viewers are likely to feel cheated by the lack of content, especially compared to the prior two seasons which tend to be priced the same! On DVD, there are three episodes which feature decent commentary tracks and virtually every episode has deleted or extended scenes. There is also a blooper reel and a featurette about the last day of shooting the series (which insinuates the forthcoming film!).

To better understand the weird story of Arrested Development, it helps to know who the principle characters are. The Bluth family consists of:

Michael - The effective manager of the Bluth Company, he is the middle son of George and Lucille, left in charge when George was arrested. He has since been working to keep the family together. After selflessly working to hold together the various members of the family, he tries to prioritize George-Michael while still developing his own life. In this season, he falls in love with Rita, who may be a spy and he works to discover who Nellie Bluth - a heretofore unknown Bluth whose accounts seem to be holding most of George's embezzled money - is,

Gob - The eldest son, he discovers that he is Steve Holt's father. He also runs away from that both literally and through the use of his stash of roofies. He continues his slimy ways, though he makes far fewer attempts to work as an illusionist, including hitting on anyone he can as a form of revenge against Michael,

Buster - The youngest son, he is missing a hand as a result of an encounter with a seal. Tricked into re-enlisting, he becomes an unlikely hero when Gob is captured in Iraq,

Lindsay - Michael's twin sister, she is flirtatious and vain. When Barry Zuckercorn is fired as the family's lawyer, she begins to hit on the new lawyer, Bob Loblaw, and use him to try to get a free divorce and then set her up for a life without having to work. She is looking to be with virtually anyone but Tobias and one of the season's big secrets centers around her,

Tobias - Lindsay's husband, an out of work actor and therapist who is so deep in the closet only he seems to not know he is gay. He gets hair plugs, with disastrous results, which nearly cost him his life. He and Lindsay try to reconcile, but discover their mutual attraction for other men to be a stumbling block,

Maeby - Lindsay and Tobias's daughter, as proven by troublingly graphic photographs, she is a fifteen year-old who has swindled her way into working at a major studio as a script doctor, producer and director. After sharing a kiss with George-Michael, she freaks out and works to avoid him as best she can. In order to prove how the progressive beauty pageants still pander to traditional notions of beauty, she enters the Inner Beauty Pageant as her wheelchair-bound alter ego, Shirley,

George-Michael - The nervous son of Michael, he is attracted to Maeby and works to resist his attraction. Disappointed by Michael's lack of attention, he works to become a good worker and student, while slowly developing a backbone,

Lucille - The matriarch of the family, she is essentially a drunk who cares only for herself. With George under house arrest, she finally gets some with some regularity and neglects Buster as a result. She schemes constantly to keep the family fortune,

Oscar - George's twin brother, he is imprisoned in George's place, but is largely absent for the season,

and George - Under house arrest as the charges against him are investigated, he tires quickly of his wife's many advances and he makes regular escape attempts. He is a corrupt adulterer who has a strong survival instinct, which is engaged usually at the peril of his family.

Arrested Development's characters work so well because the cast is exceptional and they play off each other wonderfully. Jason Bateman holds the show together with his dry presentation of Michael Bluth. Bateman and Michael Cera (George-Michael) play off the absurdities of Tony Hale (Buster), Will Arnett (Gob) and David Cross (Tobias) to make the season hilarious. While Cross and Hale are used for physical comedy, Portia de Rossi does a ton of the show's sarcastic and more subtle humor. The ensemble plays to their strengths and by this season, they all have their parts down pat.

Arrested Development works out wonderfully on DVD, but because the season is so short, it does not replay as well as some of the others. As well, it holds up less well on its own because it is essentially the final act in a serialized story. Ideally, one should pick up all three seasons and under those circumstances, the third season is indispensable.

For other works with Jason Bateman, please check out my reviews of:
Couples Retreat
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Arrested Development - Season 1

5.5/10

For other television reviews, please click here to visit my index page on the subject!

© 2011, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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More From The Family On The Fall: Arrested Development Season Two Is A Quiet Winner!

The Good: Funny, Good acting, Amusing storylines
The Bad: Characters are almost universally unlikable, Plays same card (joke) repetitively.
The Basics: On DVD, Arrested Development shines as one of the best ensemble comedies of our time with a dysfunctional family of self-absorbed individuals and one son who binds them.


Perhaps the best moment in the DVD presentation of Arrested Development Season Two comes on the blooper reel. At the end of the reel, actor David Cross, who plays Tobias, artfully tells the camera and the audience a list of the awards the show had won and suggests that the problem with Arrested Development is not the writing, acting, directing or anything associated with the actual show, but rather with the marketing. He takes the marketing department at Fox to task for failing to capitalize on Arrested Development and, well, to market it effectively.

Following the escape of white-collar criminal George Bluth Sr. from prison, Michael Bluth abandoned the Bluth Company and his family, taking his son George-Michael and heading for Phoenix. Unfortunately for Michael, he forgot to get his last paycheck before going and he and George-Michael find themselves once again living in the model home of the Bluth Company with Michael's assorted siblings and in-laws.

While Michael strives to hold the Bluth Company together, he begins dating again and he finds himself in a power play with Gob for head of the company. Lucille continues to manipulate her children and the search for George Bluth takes a turn when an unlikely family member stumbles upon him. And once George is found, Buster loses something important . . . and hilarity ensues.

Arrested Development was, quite simply, too smart for the Fox audience. That is not to say the audience that continues to keep The Simpsons on the air is not smart enough to enjoy Arrested Development. But Fox, whose motto ought to be "Three episodes to success . . . or you're outta' here!," failed to keep Arrested Development in a stable timeslot, failed to promote the show and basically failed to market it. The series won its second season simply by blowing away the few people who watched it sufficiently to win all kinds of awards, like the Emmy for Best Comedy. Take that, marketing department! It's pretty much impossible to cancel the Emmy Award-winning Best Comedy right after it won, so Arrested Development got a second season and with the strength of the DVD sales, we're glad it got a third.

This show is essentially a comedy documentary on the fall of a family. Every member of the Bluth family is self-involved, with most of the family members never noticing what is going on in the lives of the others in the family. So, for example, no one notices that Maeby, Tobias and Lindsay's fifteen year-old daughter, has managed to land a job as a movie producer. The obliviousness of the characters to the people most important to them results in much humor.

But even better is the speed and quality of the dialogue. In one of the three commentary tracks in this boxed set, one of the participants notes that everything seen in the episode they are commenting on is packing into twenty-two minutes and it's fairly amazing how much can be accomplished in so short a span. This is a sharp show where the humor turns quickly on a muttered phrase, a look or the sudden changing of a circumstance.

Also, Arrested Development utilizes a narrator, a la a documentary, which keeps casual viewers up-to-date, reminds loyal viewers and amuses those who pay attention to it. What could be a cheap device is utilized quite effectively and Ron Howard, who voices the narrator, is an exceptional choice for the part.

Like all great works - and in its second season, Arrested Development hits a stride few comedies ever manage to - the show is about characters. Here is how season two finds the primaries:

Michael Bluth - Continually plagued by problems with the Bluth Company and trying hard to raise his son despite the influence of his other family members, he finds himself in the dating world once again. This season, he finds himself dating the daughter of the rival housing development company and in a tug-of-war with Gob for the leadership of the Bluth Company,

Lindsay Funke - While still Michael's confidant and twin sister, Lindsay begins to strike out on her own as she and her husband Tobias try opening up their marriage,

Gob - The magician, still blacklisted by the Alliance, attempts to run the Bluth Company in the absence of George and finds himself in over his head. This leads him to attempt to woo the Alliance with increasingly dangerous illusions,

Buster - In his quest to distance himself from his mother, Buster finds himself volunteered for the Army. As he prepares to ship out to Iraq, though, he learns a startling truth about his family and his father, which leads to tragedy,

George-Michael - Distancing himself from his cousin Maeby, he begins to explore a relationship with a bland Christian Fundamentalist named Ann Veal. His new relationship leads him to protests and family events with another family, possibly stranger than his own,

Maeby Funke - In an effort to help her father, Tobias, and rebel against Lindsay, the youngest member of the Bluth-Funke family swindles a school into charity drives and lands a job as a script editor/producer for a motion picture company,

Tobias Funke - Oblivious to the problems between himself and Lindsay, he becomes convinced he would be an ideal understudy for the Blue Man Group, until his professional attempts land him far from his family and his method of return becomes . . . disturbing,

Oscar Bluth - George's twin brother, harassed by police for his resemblance to fugitive George, finds himself living with Lucille. His attempt to rekindle a romance with Lucille and act as a father to Buster put him in the crosshairs of George's vengeance,

Lucille Bluth - Still meddling in the lives of her children and the Bluth Company, Lucille volunteers Buster for the Army, takes Oscar as a lover once again and essentially makes herself a pain to Michael with her spending habits,

and George Bluth - On the run from the law for allegedly building housing developments in Iraq, George finds himself on the run. After leaving Mexico, where he is presumed dead, he takes up residence closer to the family than any suspect, where he begins to go somewhat batty.

Arrested Development's characters are all self-centered and generally unlikable. What keeps the viewer engrossed in their story is the quality of the acting. The performers in this show are brilliant, creating one of the most memorable casts on television with performers who are not terribly well known separately.

Tony Hale plays Buster with brilliant awkwardness, David Cross brings his considerable comedic talents to the mix as Tobias and Portia de Rossi is fabulous as the always-preoccupied Lindsay. The children, Michael Cera as George-Michael and Alia Shawkat hold their own with established veterans like Jessica Walter (Lucille) and Jeffrey Tambor (George and Oscar). Given the absurdity of his character, it was a surprise on the commentary to learn that Will Arnett was primarily a dramatic actor before landing Arrested Development.

But it is Jason Bateman who is given the heavy lifting on Arrested Development. As his character ties together the family and business, Bateman's performance ties the viewer to the show. As the least objectionable character, Bateman evokes empathy for this family that would otherwise be delicious to watch crumble. He is funny with a very quick delivery and a simple ability to play a bemused expression with subtlety. It is no surprise he was nominated for awards as Michael Bluth.

Anyone who enjoys intelligent, serialized comedy and is looking for something new and clever will enjoy Arrested Development Season Two. And one of the nice things is, this show is very accessible to new viewers, including a bonus on disc one that recaps season one. Outside the repetition of some jokes that were pretty well beaten to death in the first season, this is a unique and charming series that will continue to entertain viewers for years.

For other worthwhile second seasons of comedies, please check out my reviews of:
Frasier Season Two
Gilmore Girls The Complete Second Season
30 Rock Season 2

9/10

For other television reviews, please check out my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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Arrested Development Is A Ballsy Concept Show That Never Captured The Attention Of The Masses.

The Good: Very funny, Very well-performed, Interesting characters, Decent enough DVD bonus features.
The Bad: Basic bundle pack, Characters are unlikable, Series has some unsuccessful arcs.
The Basics: For the three seasons in the Arrested Development Seasons 1 – 3 pack, viewers get an exceptionally funny serialized mockumentary that has some real highs and lows.


Last week, my wife and I did a marathon. She got a bit tired of watching The West Wing (reviewed here!) and wanted something more consistently funny. So, we decided this was a good time to give Arrested Development a chance together. There are very few comedy series’ in my permanent collection, but Arrested Development is one of the few. Rewatching the series, I was struck by both how funny the series was and by how wonderfully the series commits to itself. The three seasons of Arrested Development are heavily serialized and when the show works, it works for the entire bundle of episodes focused on the idea or plotline.

But when the show misses, it is mired in those failures.

Fortunately for those just looking to discover and enjoy Arrested Development now, in advance of the oft-rumored feature film, there is much to enjoy in the series, as represented by Arrested Development Seasons 1 – 3. It is worth noting up front that this is not a true “Complete Series” boxed set, but rather a bundle pack of:
Arrested Development - Season One
Arrested Development - Season Two
Arrested Development - Season Three
with no additional discs, bonus features or incentives in this bundle. One suspects if the film ever gets made, there will be a proper set, either before or after (perhaps including said film).

For those who are unfamiliar with it, Arrested Development is the story of the Bluth family. Told as a documentary (narrated by Ron Howard), the series is a record of the scandal-plagued Bluth Corporation and Bluth family that starts with the arrest of George Bluth, moments after he turns the company over to his wife, Lucille. This forces Michael Bluth, middle son of the pair, to remain proximate to the family in Orange County, California and try to restore the reputation of the Bluth family and Corporation.

In the first season, Michael Bluth visits his father frequently in jail in an attempt to learn why the federal Securities and Exchange Commission is after the Bluth Corporation and George Bluth. Discontent for being passed over to be the head of the company, Michael is trying to balance his work with raising his son, George Michael. While trying to unravel the webs of lies surrounding George's business practices, Michael has to house his twin sister, brother-in-law and their daughter, deal with the antics of his slighted older brother, a magician named Gob (pronounced “Job,” like the Biblical character, and deal with hassles from his mother. Lucille is discovering life without her husband more stressful than she imagined because her youngest son, Buster, whom she has coddled (smothered!) begins to try to stretch his wings to leave the nest.

In the second season, Michael works even harder to hold the family together after George Sr. manages to successfully break out of jail via the hospital. With Tobias still trying to act and his daughter Maeby working at a movie studio (as a fifteen year-old), the family is constantly getting into scrapes. Lucille is baited into signing Buster up for the army, completely unaware that the U.S. is at war at the time! And while Michael begins to date again, he becomes increasingly concerned with the girl George Michael is dating, a boring Christian fundamentalist named Ann Veal.

The third and final season of the show falls into two weird arcs, one where Michael finds himself involved with a mentally retarded British woman who may have ties to the forces that got the Bluth family into trouble in the first place and a desperate attempt to finish the overall storyline by bringing George Sr. to trial. Almost immediately, Michael realizes that George's twin brother, Oscar, is in prison in George Sr.’s place. And the open marriage between Lindsay and Tobias continues to be an issue when Tobias goes off to join the Blue Man Group. While George Michael and Maeby resolve their uncomfortable romantic tension, Buster deals with the loss of his hand.

Episodes of Arrested Development are about twenty-two minutes in length and one of the things that sets the show apart from virtually every other comedy series is that the show is heavily serialized. This means that each episode is not necessarily concerned with a single event or easy-to-describe plot point. In fact, many of the most significant moments come in blurbs at the end of an episode with what claims to be in the next episode – like Buster losing his hand to a seal. But the next episode will not actually have those scenes and instead feature reactions and the progression of the unseen plot event – like the family visiting Buster in the hospital and Buster returning home after being outfitted with his new prosthetic hand. The serialized nature works very well because it makes the episodes flow from one into another as a complete story and allows the mock-documentary to develop.

Unfortunately, it also leads to an incredible amount of repetition. Arrested Development, when viewed as one cohesive narrative, has an incredible tendency to repeat information. So, while doing the marathon of watching the complete series, my wife began to get more and more annoyed with the show because they spent so much time recapping and I am forced to agree with her. It is off-putting to have a show that engages more frequently in highbrow satire and wit that spends so much time repeating information. In other words, the audience that is going to be smart enough to get the jokes – like a cutaway to Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein after a comment about how pictures of George Sr. with the dictator would ruin his name and career if exposed – is savvy enough to recall what happened in earlier episodes. I understand that the writers and producers had to accommodate for those tuning in this week instead of last, but the sheer volume of information repeated is annoying.

Like most of the best comedies, Arrested Development is about characters and that is where much of the power of the series lies. The principle characters are:

Michael Bluth - The most sane, decent and realistic of the Bluths, Michael believes in family above all else and is a widower raising his son alone. When his father is imprisoned, he sacrifices his ambitions and plans to take over the work of running the company, while taking most of his family in under his roof in the model home he lives in,

Gob (pronounced Job) Bluth - A magician who has been isolated from the Alliance of Magicians (a union of sorts that he began) and who has been down on his luck since. He is dating a Spanish-language soap opera star he does not much care for and trying to maintain his lifestyle as a sponge,

Lindsay Bluth - Michael's twin sister, she has arrived from the East with her husband and daughter and is finding living away from the charity events and without the ability to buy whatever she wants whenever she wants it to be a strain,

(Former) Dr. Tobias Funke - Lindsay's husband, an eccentric psychologist who lost his medical license by performing unnecessary CPR. As he searches for something else, he becomes determined to become an actor, though he might not have the talent for it,

Maeby Funke - Daughter of Lindsay and Tobias, she is rebelling with the intent to get either of her parents to notice her. As a result, she finds herself working with her cousin George-Michael at the banana stand,

George-Michael Bluth - Son of Michael, an awkward teen who finds himself hopelessly attracted to his cousin Maeby. To distract himself from her, he often finds him emulating his workaholic father by taking his jobs (which include working at the family frozen banana stand) overly seriously,

Buster Bluth - The youngest brother of Michael, Lindsay and Gob is a directionless, often-clueless socially maladjusted man who is fixated on his mother. His fixation is broken when he falls in love with his mother's best friend, a woman with the same name as his mom,

Lucille Bluth - The scheming mother of the Bluths, she often sets one against the other to keep herself relevant in their lives. She is alone for the first time in her life as George is in jail and Buster's rebellious relationship leads him to abandon her,

and George Bluth - The patriarch of the family who opens the series by going to jail for shady bookkeeping. He soon discovers he enjoys life in prison and has an active disincentive to get out of the joint. Instead, he finds faith, manipulates the company from behind bars and occasionally meets with his witless lawyer to find out what the strategy for beating the government's case against him is.

Arrested Development also succeeds because it has a sterling cast who are amazing in their roles. Jason Bateman proves he is a master as Michael Bluth. He has a dry wit which has since gotten him quite a bit of feature film work and on Arrested Development, he truly honed that. Michael Cera was also noticed from his portrayal of George Michael on Arrested Development and here is where he first landed in the niche of quiet, smart, nice guy that he has been stuck in almost exclusively since. With a cast rounded out by Will Arnett, Alia Shawkat, Jessica Walter, Tony Hale, David Cross, Jeffrey Tambor and Portia de Rossi, Arrested Development is a masterstroke classroom for those looking to study deadpan and zany comedy performances. Moments like the one where de Rossi, Walter and Tambor all do their cowardly animal noises to goad Michael are absolutely hilarious.

But what Arrested Development doesn’t have are likable characters. In fact, the Bluths are homogeneously unlikable, which becomes a source of many jokes as Michael struggles to save the family. This doesn’t mean that they are not fun to watch, but it does mean that no one in their right mind is watching this show with the hopes of emulating the Bluths.

On DVD, the eight discs that comprise the complete series come with a handful of commentary tracks, a blooper reel for each season and a handful of deleted or extended scenes that one might wish had been kept in the show instead of the constant recaps. There are featurettes on the making of the seasons, as well, which are bound to keep die-hard fans happy.

All-in-all, Arrested Development is a fast series and if the producers and writers could do a film featuring the Bluth family right, it would be wonderful. But the dry wit, serialized nature of the show and sheer number of main and supporting characters who would have to be serviced in such a movie makes its success – mainstream, critical or for the fans – unlikely. Instead, fans might want to pick this set up, watch it every few years and just be happy with the resolution we have as opposed to risking illustrating what came after the series finale.

For other shows that originally aired on FOX, please check out my reviews of:
The X-Files
Family Guy Presents: It’s A Trap!
Glee - Season Two, Volume One
Fringe - Season Two
Wonderfalls
VR.5
The Adventures Of Brisco County Jr.

7/10

For other television show reviews, please be sure to check out my index page by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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