1. 

   Ralph Brown
   March 12th, 2010 - 23:04

   ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT’s rocky history is well known. Loved by critics and its fans, it fought to find an audience, and its final season was a short affair. However, the ride from the shows premier (included uncensored and expanded along with the aired version) to its conclusion (and, YES, it has a conclusion) is hilarious and worth many returns. There are so many jokes and resonating gags that multiple viewings are REQUIRED, but your first visit to the world of the spoiled Bluth family will be a reward for unfamiliar viewers.

   Here are three seasons of laughs. The series begins with the arrest of the Bluth patriarch and continues as the clan’s only responsible member, Michael (portrayed by Jason Bateman), tries to keep the family’s business afloat while his mother, siblings, and other family members selfishly grab for every freebie and dollar. His mother, Lucille, is a cold, controlling alcoholic whose loyalty to her family keeps her one step from pure villainy. His siblings include an older brother, Gob, a magician (of little skill), a younger brother, Buster, a mama’s boy who eventually loses a body part to a nasty seal, and a sister whose marriage is … complicated. Throw in a long-suffering son infatuated with his cousin and an uncle who is the twin of his father, and you can see how complicated Michael’s life becomes.

   Not your average family, not your average TV comedy (this is NOT a sitcom performed live in front of a studio audience but is filmed more like a documentary with the camera floating around like an unseen voyeur — think the old comedy series SOAP updated a la THE OFFICE). The jokes come fast and furious. It’s all absurd and incredibly entertaining.

   For the record, the series is presented widescreen, and there are deleted scenes and audio commentaries for selected episodes. To tell you the truth, I haven’t even skimmed these extras, but I have watched the series in its entirety far too many times to disclose without embarrassing myself. It’s too bad that ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT didn’t achieve the ratings necessary to keep it afloat, but it has more laughs than comedies that lasted twice as long.
   Rating: 5 / 5
2. 

   A Fan
   March 12th, 2010 - 23:45

   I arrived late to this dance. I don’t really have any structure to my TV viewing, other than Sunday nights on HBO. Despite reading positive reviews and hearing accolades for this show I missed the entire broadcast season. What that means to me is that I’ve just immersed myself in probably the funniest 22 episodes of broadcast comedy ever (that includes Seinfeld and the old Dick Van Dyke show). This first season is chock full of running gags, absurd situations and some of the funniest deadpan dialog deliveries ever recorded on video. It’s impossible to single out a cast member because they all make important contributions, even the guys who walk on for a line or two. Watching them in sequence does maintain some continuity of narrative but you’ll find yourself returning to some special favorites. The bring your daughter to work episode brings out the absurdity of the whole practice while delivering some of the best laughs of the whole series. BUY THIS!!!
   Rating: 5 / 5
3. 

   Kathleen M. O'Neill
   March 12th, 2010 - 23:47

   I’m not usually one for superlatives or hyperbole, but this truly is the best TV show I know of. It’s clever, it’s hilarious, it’s self-referential, it’s perfectly written and flawlessly acted, it dragged me along from episode to episode like some kind of addict. And when it was over — I mean, really really over — I felt a bittersweet mixture of the loss of future possible episodes and a total satisfaction in having been well and thoroughly entertained.

   As for the DVD set, in my mind, the only reason to own a TV series on DVD is if I feel I’ll watch the shows again and again. And with these, there is no question in my mind. There’s more to them than you can usually get in one viewing, and they just get better each time. The only concern for me is whether I should buy an extra set in case my primary set gets damaged. It’s THAT good.
   Rating: 5 / 5
4. 

   Burnsy
   March 13th, 2010 - 02:28

   Simply put: The best new sitcom to hit the small screen since Curb Your Enthusiasm. This is clearly the best that network television has to offer, a refreshing change from the cookie-cutter “dysfunctional family” or “oversexed pals” sitcoms that have been shoved down our throats for the last decade.

   AD features what is, far and away, the most original and imaginiative group of characters in TV history. While credit goes to the creators for that, it is the actors that truly make these characters work. The show is perfectly casted, with Will Arnett (GOB) and David Cross (Tobias) particularly shining. Jason Bateman has revived his career as Michael, best described as the least crazy one.

   The poster who compared AD to Malcom in the Middle is off his/her rocker, and those who compare this show to Scrubs do it a great disservice. Scrubs, which I love, doesn’t have the same creativity behind its plots; it’s also much more jokey. AD is much more subtle and creative – and, in the ultimate compliment to a sitcom – even has shades of Seinfeld, where several plot lines will tie in at the end. Still, the show maintains its own identity, mixing original characters, witty dialogue and sometimes outrageous stories to perfection.

   Through only one season, AD has quickly become one of my three favorite shows ever. The DVD is a no-brainer, day-of-release purchase that may even force me to use a vacation day…
   Rating: 5 / 5
5. 

   Michael Roffman
   March 13th, 2010 - 03:17

   FOX really hit a wall by cancelling one of TV’s most promising shows. It’s always depressing watching a good thing go up in flames and well, viewers can thank Rupert Murdoch and his excellent team at FOX for this. Then again, if they brought back the horrendously repetitive Family Guy, it shouldn’t be a problem bringing back something of this caliber, which by the way is absolute excellence.

   What else is there to say?

   With some of the best writing in television since the early days of Seinfeld, Mitchell Hurwitz is an absolute genius making Arrested Development one of the best shows to hit television airwaves. Narrator Ron Howard fittingly tells the story of each episode with humor and a colliding sense of foreshadowing that has expectations running high for hilarious disasters to ensue.

   Jason Bateman plays Michael Bluth, a family man and widower of his late wife, who comes into the business after his father, George Sr.(Jeffrey Tambor) is incarcerated for an Enron-esque scandal. The surrounding family, whose cast includes the equally exhilerating David Cross alongside newer faces Will Arnett and Michael Cera, adds ridiculous subplots that blend a healthy mixture of realism and surrealism.

   Each episode somehow tops the predessesor and it’s impossible to try to understand how a show of this magnitude and comedic epic was able to be taken away. Perhaps buying this DVD will help bring it back and as sorry as I am to say that the DVD enticed me into the television show, hopefully the same can be said of you reading this now.

   More buyers means more viewers…

   Come one, come all!
   Rating: 5 / 5

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