Why Arrested Development Is the Greatest Series of All Time

I know, terrible title. Arrested development is an American television sitcom which aired in 2003 originally on the FOX network, and subsequently on Netflix. The series was created by Mitchell Hurwitz and produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard who also stars as the shows uncredited narrator. The show is a comedy series which incorporates handheld camera footage, faux archive footage and photographs. The series revolves around Michael Bluth, vice president of the Bluth company owned by his father, and his dysfunctional family.

Jason Bateman stars as Michael Bluth, and Will Arnett, Tony Hale and Portia DeRossi as his siblings. The series aired three seasons on Fox from 2003 to 2006 before the season was abruptly cancelled due to low viewership despite large cult following and critical acclaim. In 2012 Netflix announced plans to resurrect the series on its online distribution service. The new episodes were released all on the same day in late spring 2013. The series will apparently be continued with a movie, and then another series on Netflix.

The series used many running gags, such as the chicken dance throughout its run. Many characters referenced the fact that Tobias is clearly a homosexual, JOB often rode around on a Segway (those things are seriously pointless) and attempted many magic tricks, most of which were failures. The Bluth family matriarch often winked awkwardly and Buster often seemed to be unhealthily attached to his mother. Buster also looses a hand which makes massaging people awkwardy almost deadly, and of course the chicken dance. This use of inside jokes contributed to the shows following, but may have 'turned off' potential viewers.

The fourth season uses an interesting structure, each episode follows a different character, and the whole season follows the same time period, characters may be seen in each episode for only an instant, in moments which will later be viewed from the other characters point of view, in different episodes. This season also used birds as a running gag; many characters are attacked by ostriches and the Funke's put a live turkey in the oven for thanksgiving. Overall the reason Arrested Development is so good, if because it is hilarious. Plain and simple.

Tobias Fünke: Okay, Lindsay, are you forgetting that I was a professional twice over - an analyst and a therapist. The world's first analrapist.