“Arrested Development”
Tomorrow night at 8:30 on Ch. 5
(two stars)
I used to like “Arrested Development,” and now I don’t.
So shoot me.
This series was the critics’ darling last season, and in spite of drawing a measly average of 6.2 million viewers per week and coming in at No. 113 in the prime-time Nielsen rankings, it won an Emmy in September as last season’s best comedy.
I won’t argue with that; it was last season’s best comedy by process of elimination. And I was one of the critics urging readers to check it out.
Well, maybe I’ve become as fickle as the viewing public, but after watching the episode which ushers in the second season of “Arrested Development” tomorrow night, I’m having trouble remembering what all the fuss was about.
Maybe it had something to do with the way “Arrested Development” looked and sounded, which was different than every other sitcom.
The show is made with handheld cameras that move around a lot.
And the plots – such as they are – are propelled by tongue-in-cheek narration by executive producer Ron Howard.
Last season, the jumpy camerawork combined with the voice of Richie Cunningham seemed like the freshest thing on TV. Now, though, the combination gives me a headache.
In case you are among the estimated 274 million Americans who did not watch “Arrested Development” on average each week last season, the show is about a dysfunctional family (TV’s favorite subject) that runs into hard times when the patriarch – crooked real estate developer George Bluth Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor) – is arrested on some sort of fraud charges and the family business goes belly up.
To the rescue comes George Jr. (Jason Bateman), the only “normal” member of the family – you know, like Marilyn on “The Munsters.”
If “Seinfeld” was a show about nothing, then “Arrested Development” is a show about less than nothing, unless you consider George Jr.’s weekly fits of exasperation to be something.
I used to believe they were something, but I have come to realize they are nothing.