DATE: 04/0#/04 - VOLUME 1.1
ERIC CLAPTON SONG OF THE WEEK: CROSSROADS
The debut installment of a new column celebrating and pimping all forms of media and entertainment.
For my first columns, I'm going to focus on something most consider a lost cause: SCRIPTED COMEDIES, AS DELIVERED BY NETWORK TELEVISION.
Part One:
ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT
FOX Sundays at 9:30 PM
Arrested Development is the story of a wealthy family in California - but very disfunctional. Cliche, I know, but the way the scenarios and characters are handled has to be seen to be believed.
Summary from IMDB:
Quote:
Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman), a widower with a 13-year-old son, named George-Michael (Michael Cera), is forced to keep his large and dysfunctional family together after his father (Jeffery Tambor) is arrested for shifty accounting practices at the family-owned conglomerate and the Bluth family assets are frozen, making each member of the eccentric family panicing. Michael's snobbish mother, Lucille (Jessica Walter), finds herself living alone in a penthouse without the financial means to maintain it, while Michael's two brothers, GOB (Will Arnett) and Buster (Tony Hale), and his sister Lindsay (Portia DeRossi) with her husband Tobias (David Cross) and her daughter Mae (Alia Shawkat) also find themselves having to recreate their lifestyles to fit their new financial status.
Arrested Development first came out last September to wonderful critical acclaim - and has continued to receive it thus far the entire season. Entertainment Weekly calls it the greatest new show of this (albeit, relatively dismal) season. And yet, it only has around seven million viewers per episode - and has yet to be renewed for another season.
Unacceptable.
This is one of the greatest pieces of television comedy I have ever watched. When people complain about the current state of scripted comedy, I know they haven't watched this show.
But to be honest, I don't think the comedy itself is what keeps me coming back, week after week. It's the story. And in this year, this decade, this century, that's a very rare thing.
Arrested Development is the brainchild of Ron Howard, and it plays by different rules than other TV shows. The writers don't keep everything as self-contained, unrrelated episodes - they write arcs and have an ongoing story in every episode. However, the invididual episodes are still quite accessible and easy to get into. With this format, as Entertainment Weekly said, they aren't writing to end everything at the 22 minute mark - while some story points are wrapped up, others are left continuing to the next episode.
Like I said - I watch it for the story more than anything. But don't thik that means that the funnys aren't there, because they are. I laugh out loud on a regular basis with each episode. The witty scripts, intelligent plot points... not to mention the ingenius guest characters. Julia Louis-Dreyfuss as a blind lawyer who's not really blind? Liza Minelli as a crazy, drug-addicted socialite? James Lipton as a prison warden? Carl Weathers as... himself? All this and more is on the show.
So do yourself a favor... watch Arrested Development. Trust me on this one.
