Fear not, friends. We love this show! It’s a great show and a great time, but it was suggested that we chat a little about what we think of the new episodes so far, so we figured why not? We’d love to hear your opinions about the new episodes in the comments section!
Ariel’s Thoughts:
I have watched the original three seasons a disgusting amount of times, and what I feel is missing from the new episodes is the ensemble feel. Focusing each episode on a specific character isn’t really doing it for me so far. I loved when we jumped around to different stories within an episode – it prevented anyone from getting to be overwhelming, and the interactions between family members is my favourite part of the show! I mean, sure we’ll see Lindsey and Tobias interact in Lindsey’s episode, but I want her rolling her eyes while GOB and Michael talk or the whole family together at a party being ridiculous. I get that they’re all doing their own thing right now, so I’m hoping once they kind of all return to each other’s orbits it’ll be better. I just wish we started with that point and had flashbacks to their separate lives. It feels very disconnected right now, and though it’s been funny at points, it’s not giving me the kind of laughs it used to. And Michael is way more painful to watch than he ever was before. So cringey!
Matthew’s Thoughts:
I only just watched the original three seasons of Arrested Development, uh, last April. I got a late start on this one. So while I don’t have the seven year wait that many people did for new episodes of this show (I only finished watching it a week and a half ago, in comparison), I can’t really imagine the disappointment most of these people had when they started watching the new fourth season on Netflix. I think it’s a fascinating experiment that Netflix has picked up a canceled cult show and is doing something different with it, but the results are pretty sub-par from what I’ve seen so far. Again, I’ve only seen three episodes of the new season (continuing my being completely behind with Arrested Development trend), but it’s enough for me to notice that the character-specific episodes really don’t play into the show’s strengths. What made the first three seasons work so well was the show’s ensemble cast and how characters would bounce off of each other, which you don’t get when you split up the characters so thoroughly. It’d be like if they made an eleventh season of Friends, but with each episode centering on one Friend. Except they did that. It was called Joey. Everybody hated it.
I agree, I am pretty underwhelmed so far. They use to pack everyone into a 22 minute episode and now they are focusing on 2 or 3 for 35+ minutes in most episodes. The pacing is off and they’ve lost the family dynamic. Michael is no longer the relatable one, I mean he was always a bit of an ass in his own way but it was funny how he presented himself as the noble one. No more.
But the worst is Gob. His first episode, “Colony Collapse”, had me cringing in discomfort most of the time and not in a good way. Will Arnett has been playing versions of this character ever since the first AD ended and he feels desperate to make Gob even more outlandish now and he’s trying way too hard.
But I still laughed a fair bit, it’s not all bad. Way more bird jokes than I would have expected…. But then, I don’t know that I expected any.
I haven’t seen the GOB episode yet, but I’m dreading it. GOB is a fantastic supporting character (like Joey was in Friends), but I seriously doubt he can carry an entire episode by himself (like Joey was in Joey).
“It’d be like if they made an eleventh season of Friends, but with each episode centering on one Friend. Except they did that. It was called Joey. Everybody hated it.” What a good analogy. Also, from what I have seen so far, the music has changed. It used to punctuate the comedy and gave the show it’s offbeat vibe. Now it feels intrusive and does not enhance the story. And…. what happened to Michael???? (You are so right Chuck.)