Wednesday, January 05, 2005
(7:26 PM) | Adam R:
Which Webloggers Do You Think Are Never-Nudes?
Arrested Development is one of the funniest, most dynamic shows ever.It only takes a moment before Jason Bateman's comedic talent overshadows the fact that, jeepers, it's Jason Bateman. And (often un-) funnyman David Cross even finds a niche in the show that manages to work with his too-hyper style. In fact, only Henry Winkler seems to struggle with a character that is too outlandish for him.
For the uninitiated, the show is about the Bluth family. They are a dysfunctional group of people whose father (George), the CEO of Bluth Corp., is imprisoned for illegal business practices. It's left to Michael Bluth to support his older brother (Gob -- pronounced Job, like in the Bible); his twin sister (Lindsay), her husband (Tobias) and her daughter (Maebe -- pronounced maybe); his younger brother (Buster); his mother (Lucille); and his own son (George Michael). Every character, with the exception of George Michael, is a parasitic ingrate too self-consumed to help keep the family and its business afloat while Michael deals with the lawsuit against the father.
Bluth Corp. is a construction company whose main concern is building those pre-fab, shoddy houses that have come to riddle subdivisions in the last twenty years. Most of the characters live together in one of their model homes, a place that becomes like a dormitory as more of the siblings are expelled from Lucille's apartment and -- being unemployable -- have no place else to turn.
None of the characters have much to redeem them, and yet I find myself liking each of them. This is different than the affinity I've found for, say, George Castanza, who is likable despite his despicableness because he always fails. While the house in Arrested Development may not be well-built, the characters are. Gob may be a money-grubber, but that's because he can't earn any of his own. That's because his magic career is bad because he's a bad magician. That's because he was never enabled by his parents. Which is why he never felt bad for failing to work his way out from their umbrella. In one episode he comes into Michael's office and Michael says:
MICHAEL: Oh no, you're not here to talk about money too, are you?
GOB: No, no. Well, no, not in the sense like, "Here, Michael, have some money." No, more like, "Could I have some."
My favorite character is Buster, the dimwitted youngest son who still lives with his mother. He's the underdog, that's for sure, and the creators don't fail to write in his humanity in ways they neglect for other characters. While Lindsay -- the materialistic, self-consumed sister -- is likable despite her foibles (mainly because her relationship with Tobias, her absurd, never-nude husband, is left so open), Buster shapes his identity out of them, and ultimately becomes likable because of them. When Michael begs everyone to come to their mother's surprise birthday party, he asks them to do it for him. Buster agrees to come but asks, "Can I do it for mom, though, because I really like her." What he likes about her is hard for the viewer to imagine, but remains a likable quality in him.
The writing on the show is impeccable, but Arrested Development has a hard to define element that makes it different from any other sitcom. Is it the hand-held camera style? The bleeped-out cussing? The Ron Howard narration? The variety of locales where the action takes place? Combine all of that. It's one of those things that people standing in line for tickets to the Interpol concert call "meta" and compare favorably to Twin Peaks. Which is good.
(But I think there's more to this and would like to see comments. I'd like to see them two posts down, until there are 100. )
