Seasons 1-3(Arrested Development 1.0) differ a little bit in how they
are set up in comparison to season 4 (Arrested Development
2.0). The first three seasons of Arrested Development were set up so a problem
would occur and all the main characters would play a role in the cause and
effect and then sort of half way settle the issue. The comedy lies in learning
something new and funny about each character as the conflicts occur so changing
the dynamic of the episode was a bold move by director, Mitchell Hurwitz. When
watching the fourth season, I had to adjust because it is set up more like a
movie broken up in segmented episodes. Each episode gives a small segment on a
bigger unwinding story line. At the end of season 4 it all makes sense but it
is a little more difficult to stick with it through all 15 episodes. The characters seem less intertwined with
each other in season 4 than in the other seasons because each episode focuses
on one person working through the large problem rather than featuring all the
characters working through a specific conflict and resolution each episode.
I think he should have stuck with the original set up of the
episodes. The show was discontinued because the humor was ahead of its time.
People did not think jokes that you had to think about were funny at the time.
They wanted jokes to be easily understood. Over time, the audience realized the
beauty of humor found in watching a character subtly develop throughout a story line. That is why Netflix
launched another season, and although I think season 4 is still good, we were
all expecting the original episode set up of Arrested Development that we learned
to love.
Great post, Katy. Very interesting to learn of the differences between AD 1.0 and AD 2.0. Definitely glad you spelled this out, because I still have yet to watch a single episode. So, as I start to watch the show, I'll have to keep these comparisons in mind.
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