‘Arrested Development’ May Finally, Mercifully, Be Done
If you were to sum up the entire Arrested Development revival on Netflix with the sentence “I’ve made a huge mistake,” it would be difficult to argue.
The first season of Arrested Development on Netflix was a mess; hampered in part by the cast’s complicated schedules, which resulted in a series of episodes focused on individual characters rather than the standard format of a family of nuts all messing with each other. Then Netflix recut the season to make its structure more traditional, and that pissed the cast off because they felt they weren’t properly paid for the new episodes. Then the disappointing fifth season came and went with very little fanfare five months and about 700 Netflix originals ago. (The fanfare that did occur was all of the negative kind, including the reverberations of allegations against cast member Jeffrey Tambor, and a disastrous New York Times cast interview where Jessica Walter said Tambor had verbally abused her as well.)
There are still eight more episodes from Season 5 yet to debut on Netflix. But series co-star David Cross told the Late Night With Seth Meyers Podcast (via Indiewire) he thinks that will be that for the Bluth family. “I’ve learned to say ‘never say never,’ but I can’t see it happening again, I think for a number of reasons,” he explained.
Personally, I think it’s for the best. I adored the original run of Arrested Development, but none of the Netflix episodes have made me happy. (I couldn’t even get through the most current season.) Like so many beloved series revivals, Arrested Development couldn’t quite recapture what made the old show special, even with its original cast and creators. Better not to sully the memory any further.
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