"Mom volunteered me just because the fat man dared her to." - Buster (Tony Hale) to his brother Michael (Jason Bateman) when their mother enlists Buster in the Army after being berated by filmmaker Michael Moore
Arrested Development: Season Two DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
It looks as if Arrested Development's development has finally been arrested after two and a half years. Despite multiple Emmy nominations and wins, rapturous reviews from critics and fans, and a change of airdate, audiences continued to stay away. The network seemed to blame the producers for making the series too smart, while the producers implied that it was our fault the show was failing. I'll throw the blame directly at Fox. In Fall 2004, the company released the show's first season on DVD in an attempt to drum up interest in season two. I immediately became hooked, watched the set practically in one sitting, and vowed to watch season two when it was broadcast on Fox. This became easier said than done. Because of the vagaries of Sunday afternoon football schedules, Arrested Development never ran at its regularly scheduled time. It was impossible to even tape the show. I gave up, deciding to again wait for a DVD release. Now I've finished watching the brilliant Arrested Development: Season Two just in time for the series' cancellation.
For those of you unfamiliar with the series - which, judging from the ratings is everyone but three of you - Arrested Development focuses on the Bluths, a family of California eccentrics (to put it kindly) who have amassed a fortune in frozen bananas and real estate development. In season one, family patriarch George Sr. (The Larry Sanders Show's Jeffrey Tambor) was thrown in prison for using the businesses' funds as his own personal bank till. His wife, Lucille (Jessica Walter), doesn't much care, as long as her line of credit at the liquor store is still good. Eldest son George "Gob" Bluth Jr. (Will Arnett) is a failed Segway-riding magician who more often kills his animal assistants than makes them disappear. College educated Michael (Little House on the Prairie's Jason Bateman) is seemingly the most normal of the Bluths, but the fact that he wants to run the family company throws his sanity into question. Michael's twin sister Lindsay (Ally McBeal's Portia de Rossi), is a self-styled social activist whose latest cause is having an open marriage. Youngest son Buster (Tony Hale) is so emotionally and mentally stunted that he brings new meaning to the phrase "mama's boy."
The rest of the family includes Tobias Fünke (David Cross), Lindsay's possibly gay husband; Maeby (Alia Shawkat), their low-achieving teenage daughter, and Michael's fourteen year-old son George-Michael (Michael Cera) who, in season one, harbored a deep attraction for his cousin.
At the end of season one, Michael became fed up with his ungrateful family. It didn't help that his father escaped from jail, adding to his headaches. Michael decides to gather up George-Michael and head out of town, but is horrified to learn that his father signed a deal to build a subdivision in Iraq for Saddam Hussein. The scandal would, of course, ruin the family. And as president of the company, Michael would be held responsible. Will he stick around and help his family out of its latest mess?
Arrested Development does not have the look or feel of a traditional sitcom. Its rhythms are closer to those of animated shows like The Simpsons and "mockumentaries" like The Office. The actors and writers can take the wildest material imaginable and make it seem perfectly reasonable. Tobias sees an audition flyer for Blue Man Group and attends, thinking it's a support group for depressed men. He gets hired to become an understudy - or at least he thinks he does since no one involved in the troupe actually gives him the job. He walks around for the rest of the season covered in blue body paint, leaving blue blotches on every surface he comes near. (As he tells Michael, "I blue myself!")
And that's not even the weirdest stuff that goes on. Lucille enlists Buster in the Army after being confronted by filmmaker Michael Moore. Buster swims in the ocean for the first time, is attacked by a bowtie-wearing seal, and loses his hand in the process. He spends the rest of the season alternating between menacing his family with a hook and a wax hand. In true Arrested Development fashion, Gob was actually responsible for dumping the carnivorous seal in the ocean. One of his tricks went bad, a feral cat jumped into the seal's trunk, and now the creature has a taste for blood for animals larger than fish. Buster runs into his ex-girlfriend, Lucille 2 (Liza Minnelli) at a drag club called The Queen Mary. Lucille fires her maid and "hires" a Roomba to take her place.
Season two is also fixated on Peanuts. In "Good Grief," a depressed George-Michael shuffles down the street to the tune of "Christmas Time Is Near," walking past a giant red doghouse with a beagle sleeping atop it. And Buster, for some unknowable reason, refers to his genitalia as his Linus and Charlie Browns. An odd tribute, perhaps, but funny nevertheless.
The season isn't quite perfect. Sometimes it tries too hard. Martin Short's appearance as Uncle Jack in "Ready, Aim, Marry Me!" reeks of unfunny desperation. Ben Stiller as a pretentious magician in "The Sword of Destiny" is also a bit tiresome. These appearances detract from the show and its regular characters. Admittedly, the producers obviously did this to help goose ratings. It didn't work, though, so hopefully it isn't employed too often in their abbreviated season three.
Other guests in the second season include Henry Winkler (Happy Days), Thomas Jane, Martin Mull, Malik Yoba, Ed Begley Jr. (St.. Elsewhere), Andy Richter, Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm), J.K. Simmons (Oz), Christine Taylor, Julia-Louis Dreyfus (Seinfeld), Amy Poehler (SNL), Carl Weathers, Dave Attell (Insomniac), Dan Castellanta (The Simpsons), Ione Skye, Alan Tudyk, Mario Joyner, Dick Van Patten, Zach Braff (Scrubs), and producer Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives).
Be sure to watch the "Next time." bits at the end of each episode. They have nothing whatsoever to do with the episode that follows. Instead, they feature funny gags that continue that episode's storylines.
The eighteen episodes that make up season two are divided onto three discs. The discs are housed in slim, clear keepcases. The front covers are predominantly prison jumpsuit orange. The back covers feature episode titles, airdates, writing and directing credits, and brief synopses. Also included are a few stills from the series and a listing of the extras found on the discs. The interiors are simply white. The three keepcases slide into a cardboard sleeve, each side decorated with group photos of the cast. The cardboard case cleverly slides into a plastic outer sleeve. As with the first season, the overall design is simple and appealing.
The DVD menus are also chic and stylish, mimicking the series' opening credits. Clips from the series play in windows on the main menu. From this menu, viewers can choose to play all episodes, access the extras and languages menus, or access the episode selection menu. The episodes are divided into chapters, but there are no scene selection menus.
