Arrested Development Season 1

Year: 2003

Grade: B+

Country: USA

Director: Hurwitz

Review

starts off solid and doesn’t take too much time to find its voice and point of view. there’s maybe a little too much recap stuff from the narrator (ron howard) in this season, but that makes sense because they were trying to establish the story with a new audience.

it’s pretty edgy stuff overall with the implied incest some of the other innuendo and subject matter. in this way it fits into the fox model which has consistently been about pushing boundaries with simpsons, married with children, and family guy.

the writing is very good and smart. self-referential, pop culture aware and edgy. but its greatest success is probably in the characters which are well cast and well drawn. they are very clear cut individuals, there’s never any mystery about these characters. another strength is that there are several characters who are funny in their own way – gob, tobias, lindsay, george michael…all are clueless or entitled or utterly lost in their own way and uniquely funny as a result.

Watched on TV