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Arrested Development officially renewed for season 5 on Netflix

Very happy about this, but wasn't there a story a few months ago about how season 5 was gonna be 18 episodes and half would be a prequel with a different cast playing younger versions of the characters? Really hope they've reconsidered.
 
Pretty ambivalent, season 4 wasn't good and I don't honestly think they could ever re-capture the magic of seasons 1 & 2. Happy to be proved wrong but I sorta feel like this show is going down the path of taking a great show and dragging it into the ground.
 

Hazmat

Member
If Hurwitz gets it right this time I will pack his sweet pink mouth with so much iced cream he'll be the envy of every Jane and Jerry on the block!
 
I finished it and it had funny stuff in it but it wasn't a holistic success like the show was previously. It didn't work for me and lots of others feel the same. Don't worry about it.

It really helps to watch through it more than once. I don't know if you have or not, and obviously if you just straight up don't like it you can't be expected to watch through it again, but even more so than the other seasons it really really benefits from multiple viewings.

I wonder if we'll ever see the recut :S
 
I'm excited, and I know it will be great if the whole cast is around for shooting.

I've watched S1-3 100 times, but only S4 once. I remember liking some parts, but not others.
 
I don't even think the cast being "apart" was the biggest problem with Season 4. I re-watched Seasons 1-3 just before 4 released and there were tons of scenes in S1-3 where not all of the cast members were present in the same room. But each episode still followed the cast members through their own plots, however minor they may have been. Season 4's stubbornness to make each episode revolve around only one character made the season essentially a string of bad pilots for Arrested Development spinoffs. Not all characters in the cast can lead their own show, and Season 4 made it painfully obvious.

By far the biggest problems with Season 4, in my opinion, were the glacial pace at which the episodes moved and the extra ~8 minutes per episode making for some bizarre pacing that made episodes both feel too long and feel like they ended abruptly at the end. There were also long stretches where they wouldn't try to make jokes, and the constant revisiting of the same scenes with some "slight" tweaks in perspective just made the whole thing a slog.

They also hitched their wagon to some really bad B-plots. I like Maria Bamford but the whole DeBrie thing, from character to plot to related jokes, was a complete flop through and through.
 

KodaRuss

Member
I watched the first two episodes of Season 4 and couldnt continue. Should I have kept going Gaf?

Anyway, this is a great time to rewatch the series I think.
 
I had assumed Season 4 was the death rattle. Depressingly unfunny coming from the absolute comedy gold that were the first three seasons.

Fun fact, I used to see George Sr. at the supermarket regularly and it was pretty glorious.
 
How can a person say this and also like AD? Lady Dynamite is it's spiritual successor as far as I am concerned.
I strongly agree; Lady Dynamite almost feels like a spinoff of AD. But I do admit Lady Dynamite is a much better showcase of Maria's brilliance than DeBrie was.
 

game-boi

Member
How can a person say this and also like AD? Lady Dynamite is it's spiritual successor as far as I am concerned.

Been obsessed with AD since the first season, but could not get into Lady Dynamite at all. Tried three episodes and had to quit. Felt like watching in on somebody else's roleplay therapy.
 
Please, no more Maria Bamford. She's the opposite of funny.

She's incredibly funny, but her character wasn't my favourite in the show. You should check out her stand-up, she is one of the funniest comics alive if you can relate to her mental health struggles.
 
Season 4 was brilliant but pretty much unenjoyable to watch, like a pretentious double LP that would have been a masterpiece if it was trimmed down to a single disc (does that even make sense?).

Still looking forward to this new season.
 
Official AD Twitter account seems to be implying that the cast won't be having their own episodes in the new season:

4wayQTCh.jpg

At least they know why season 4 sucked. Will watch S5 if this is the case, but no way I'm gonna try and go back to finish 4.
 

Ottaro

Member
I liked season 4 but it would have benefited from more drastic editing. Cutting the episodes down to 22~24 minutes would have really helped keep things moving along.
 

Tansut

Member
Season 4 starts out rough but by the end I loved it. The Gob/Tony Wonder episode is one of my favorites of the whole series.
 

tauroxd

Member
Neat.



I don't know how they're going to have the cast all together given their wildly different schedules. Tons of green screen again?

By the time this is out (2018), it will be 5 years from season 4 (2013). All that wait wasn't about the script not being ready or something like that, but waiting for the perfect time to shoot with all of them together.
 

SoulUnison

Banned
By the time this is out (2018), it will be 5 years from season 4 (2013). All that wait wasn't about the script not being ready or something like that, but waiting for the perfect time to shoot with all of them together.

I hope they've been using that time to polish the scripts up to a mirror sheen, rather than just shelving them until the right moment.
 
I just found out seasons one through three are leaving Netflix this month. What the...? Why announce season five and then dump the best episodes that might have helped build some hype?
 

SoulUnison

Banned
I just found out seasons one through three are leaving Netflix this month. What the...? Why announce season five and then dump the best episodes that might have helped build some hype?

I imagine they'll either stop them from being pulled or re-introduce them with notable fanfare in the lead up to season 5 releasing.
 

Bluth54

Member
I just found out seasons one through three are leaving Netflix this month. What the...? Why announce season five and then dump the best episodes that might have helped build some hype?

All Fox shows are being removed from Netflix.
 
I just found out seasons one through three are leaving Netflix this month. What the...? Why announce season five and then dump the best episodes that might have helped build some hype?
what....the fuck..

All Fox shows are being removed from Netflix.

WTF Fox and or Netflix. I guess that sorta explains American Dad leave. so i guess that means they'll be taking Family Guy off too. damn
 
Well that's good to hear. I'm sure Netflix wanted to keep AD on the service even if the other Fox shows left since people are much less likely to give AD a shot if the show starts at Season 4.
Yeah, I agree.

"Season 4 and 5 available, but no 1-3? Never watching this!" would be the common reaction for sure.
 

War Peaceman

You're a big guy.
The writing for season 4 was really sharp, the problem was that the characters were made to work as an ensemble. So when they were split up, some worked far better than others. Michael, for example, couldn't be the straight man without the weirdos so he had to change somewhat (although I thought it was very natural what they did). They were also more reliant on outside characters - Debris, Rebel, etc. because of the inability to get the cast together. I'd be very optimistic if they have scheduled everyone together.
 

Bluth54

Member
I might have to rewatch Arrested Development again once I finish my Always Sunny rewatch now that I know it's not being taken off Netflix soon. It's been a long time since I've watched the show.
 

jobrro

Member
I really enjoyed S4, watched it launch day and again earlier this year. It was different but I'd rather it in that format than not at all. Still I am very happy to see they are able to get them together more often in S5.
 
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