Netflix gave Arrested Development “ANUSTART”, and after marathoning it on the day it was released- I am conflicted.
Getting reacquainted with the familiar theme song and seeing it coupled with updated cast photos certainly brought a smile to my face. It had been so long! I managed to maintain the hope that the new season would feel like a natural continuation of the series, but alas, it did not.
I realized this as soon as I saw Lindsay’s new face. My first reaction to seeing her was a scream followed by the reasonable question asked in an unreasonable volume: “WHY DID YOU DO THAT PORTIA?”. She is also wearing a really bad wig (to mimic her hair from 5 years ago), and that probably makes it worse. Things have obviously changed. So pretty much right away, my expectations for the series were put in check. This experience would be at best kind of funny, and at worst horribly depressing.
Aside from the cosmetic issues of Lindsay’s face and George Michael's loss of adorableness, there is also the matter of the format. It is awesome that Netflix made 15 new episodes for a show I love, but the very nonlinear storyline becomes such a chore. I was on board for the say, 6 episodes, but 15?! There is just way too much repetition. Perhaps this would have been more tolerable had I not finished my marathon in one day, but I was not warned against this. I had a goal to celebrate the show’s return in one day, and I achieved this goal- to the detriment of my enjoyment of course.
I was really relieved when I got to the end of the new season, but wait- a cliffhanger? What? No Season 5 has been greenlit that I know of, why would they torture us with a maddening nonlinear storyline AND a lack of resolution? I guess Netflix is trying to force me to hope for a Season 5, and it’s somehow working. I am a simple creature after all.
Still, the show provided some laugh-out-loud moments for me, and I am not often a LOL’er. Plus it was really amazing how many of the cast they managed to bring back. So yes, I guess this new Arrested Development was overall worth it. I laughed, I cried (mainly on the inside when I saw Lindsay’s face), but I did watch. I saw the whole new season in one day as I had planned for months, so... go Netflix?
It is just unfortunate that I felt the need to end that statement with that question mark.
