Arrested Development

How do you describe a series like ‘Arrested Development’? Words like ‘Funny’, ‘Rib-tickling’, ‘Smart’ etc seem so inadequate!!

I was getting restless after watching dark, brooding movies and comedies like Seinfeld and Everybody loves Raymond over and over again. I needed something different - something like, well, like nothing I had seen till then!! Something, that could make me marvel at the creator’s intelligence, something that would make me go ‘Wow’! My cousin mentioned about the series a couple of times. He told me it was one of the best series he had ever seen, that it was very funny etc. Although he owned the DVDs, I never felt like watching it.

One weekend, he brought the DVDs along to my place and I told myself that I would watch one episode. In the end I had watched a third of the first season (about 6 episodes) back to back, non-stop and I didn’t want it to stop, although my cousin and his wife were getting groggy!

Thus began my love affair with the series, which I think is the best I have seen in my life. Unlike other popular comedy sitcoms that are episodic, this was a series that revolved around a single story thread. I had not seen any of the actors’ performances before (except maybe that of Jason Bateman in Juno) and I was blown over by the performances. I spotted many of them in movies later though.

The story is about the Bluth family, a wealthy dysfunctional family, that is made up some colourful and really dark characters like George Bluth Sr, his wife Lucille, sons Gob Bluth, Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman), Buster Bluth and grandson George Michael Jr. Add to this daughter Lindsay Funke, her husband Tobias Funke and daughter Maeby, and you get one of the funniest and weirdest family in TV history.

What sets the series apart from other sitcoms is not one but many things. The narrative, for instance, is documentary style, with an unseen narrator, offering insights into what the characters say and think throughout the series. The use of hand held camera gives the serial a realistic and interesting look. Acting is top-notch, but what rules is the script. For a comedy, the script is unbelievably intelligent and brilliantly layered. Like wine (or so they say), Arrested Development gets better with time and with every watch. The only movie that I remember having a similar effect is ‘Michael Madana KamaRajan, because I used to discover a new joke with every watch. But while the jokes in the movie were due to the constantly flowing dialogues, Arrested Development works at multiple levels. Several sequences in previous episodes make more sense in later episodes.

The writer Mitchell Hurwitz is nothing short of a genius. As I have said before, it is very very difficult to write 2 genres - Comedy and Thrillers. As we get more and more exposed to movies, books etc from all over the world, the overdose of entertainment makes us more impervious to comedy and the daily newspapers and news footages of murders and carnage have made us immune to bloodshed and thrillers. Writers have to struggle to scare readers and struggle harder to make them laugh. And that is why, a series like Arrested Development, makes me spellbound, by the sheer power of writing behind it.

Sadly, for all its merits, the series had to be ended abruptly in the 3rd season of its run. For all the awards and critical acclaim it garnered, Arrested Development did not get the magical numbers right in the ratings. Today the series is a big hit on DVD and has a cult following (with me being the head of the India chapter!!).

I own very few original DVDs and almost none of them are of TV series. But with one watch of Arrested Development, I ordered the series online and consider it a treasure that can be and will be revisited over and over again.