What to regret on the new season of 'Arrested Development'

Two weeks has passed since Netflix released the long overdue new season of cult’s favorite sitcom ‘Arrested Development’ – you can see the piece I wrote about the revival in my previous post – and here I am, ready to give you piece of my mind about the Bluth’s reunion.

It’s really breaking my heart to write this review though. It really is. I expected so much from this new season, ultimately, because I have a deep affection towards this show and feeling so invested in each of the characters.

So, when I saw the first episode of season 4, I really wanted to love it and when it didn’t meet my expectation, I keep telling my self  ‘oh, it’s just the beginning, it’d get better’ or ‘I don’t understand why’d he do that. Oh, maybe I’ll get the explanations on the next episode’, and so the denial keeps going on until season finale had arrived, from which I couldn’t came up with any excuses for this lovable series anymore.

Don’t get me wrong, there’re still a lot to like in the new form of the Bluth. The jokes are still hilarious, I laughed so hard in many episodes – mostly when it involved GOB, Maeby, and Michael. Also, most of the old guest stars were coming back to upped the awesomeness of the show here and there, including the idiotic family lawyer Barry Zuckerkorn, Lucille's best friend/ nemesis Lucille 2, Lindsay’s old crushed Bob Loblaw, and even the glimpse of Bluth’s adopted Korean son, Annyong.

Nonetheless, I can’t help but notice there are many little things that missed from this Netflix’ version that somehow degraded the show’s greatness. I always love ‘Arrested Development’ because of the funny jokes and smart lines, no doubt about that. But also, I love it because of the Bluth family as a whole unity, which makes the show itself hilarious, dense, and people actually can relate into it.

As you all know, the brand new season was released in the different format in which every episode was focused in a certain main character and following them constantly without jumped into another character’s story. Thanks to this experiment, the viewers now could dig deeper into each of the chaos of Bluth’s member, yet as a whole season, I just got the experienced of watching a DVD’s extras.

This new format resulted in distant connection between nine main characters on the show, which was a very very bad idea. Why? Because we – well, certainly I – love the Bluth because each member has a specific role to keep the show as funny as it has. They need to be put together as a whole, in order to be funny and laughable.

For example, Michael Bluth is a superior son, selfish father, yet the most sane person in his dysfunctional family. His superiority always amusing the audience for he always becomes the first and only person who ends up cleaning up his family’s mess. So, without family’s member whom he could lectured and whose mess he could cleaned up, he only became a pathetic and clingy father for his only son. It was very hard to watch. Seriously, I had a heart-breaking moment with Michael right on the very first episode – when he got kicked out from George Michaels’s dorm – and it wasn’t cool at all.

This wasn’t happened to Michael only. As I continued to watch more episodes, I realized that maybe the Bluths weren’t as lovely as I thought they were. I love them as a family, but when their character exposed as an individual form, they lose part of their charm. That’s just an ugly truth I have to lived on with now. Damn.

Timing probably part of the problem as well. Because of the huge success of the first three season of the show, the casts then swamped with movies and TV series offers. Their affection of the show and the respect for the creator Mitchell Hurwitz, remain the reasons why they’ve had willing to shoot the new season for Netflix between their busy schedule. Thus, we could see most scene involving more than one main cast were shoot separately and then combined through the editing process. This, by the way, add the minus points of the new season, as the interaction of each character showed lack of chemistry.

The other thing I’d like to highlight is the new format was also created a slight confusion, regarding to the back-and-forth sequences. As we know, the show came back after 7 years absence on the air. Therefore, we had at least 7 years to catch up with the Bluth’s life on the new season. I don’t have problem with back-and-forth story, but the show didn’t provide a proper time explanation for background, both on the caption or the narration. This leads me to wonder which year the scene took place every changing sequence happens each episode.

Last, but definitely not least, the finale! Gosh, the finale sure did ended with the biggest cliffhanger I could ever imagine. So much questions left unanswered until the very end of the show and it’s frustrating! I know they intended to make the movie to wrap this show, but only God knows when, right? Seriously, after 7 long years waiting, they really expect us to wait longer to know exactly what would happen to our beloved characters? Haven’t they punished us enough?

I admit I’m a bit disappointed by this new season of ‘Arrested Development’, but not enough to diminish my affection and love towards this show. This remain one of my favorite sitcom of all time. Even some flaws on the new season wouldn’t be able to change that. So, any form of Bluths whether on a movie or TV show are more than welcome. And make it quick for God sake!