Board 8 > Season 5 of Arrested Development is up.

(+) Yeah! (+)

i feel like Tobias has been the strong part of the season so far.
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The passage of time in this show is really weird. Specifically season 4 but in general too. Like it'll show a series of events and I'm over here thinking they took place within the course if a few weeks or months maybe. But then the show outright references how long ago an event happened and it's like 5 years. I'm like wtf??? Idk maybe it's just me.
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While I don't have strong memories of the first three seasons, I think this season may be the most I've liked Maeby.
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Maeby has been great since her film executive plotline, but she's the best part of this season for sure. She's great in S4 too if you can look past the writers literally making her a sex offender as a joke (though tbqh that's probably half the Bluth family at this point).
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Waluigi1 posted...

The passage of time in this show is really weird. Specifically season 4 but in general too. Like it'll show a series of events and I'm over here thinking they took place within the course if a few weeks or months maybe. But then the show outright references how long ago an event happened and it's like 5 years. I'm like wtf??? Idk maybe it's just me.

the timeline is a little bit confusing but basically season 4 is telling a story that takes place over a short period of time (the events leading up to cinco de quatro), while also telling the events that took place during the X years between season 3 and season 4. I had a pretty huge 'wait really???' reaction when they explicitly mention lucille was in prison for years. I thought it was a really short period of time.

anyway, season 5 is basically telling the story that takes place over a short period of time (the events leading up to the second of july), while also retelling the events that took place during the month between cinco de quatro and the beginning of july. so they are kinda doing the same thing again but with a shorter time window to cover with recaps and flashbacks.

probably why season 5 feels similar overall despite getting to the new material 'faster.'
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MariaTaylor posted...

the timeline is a little bit confusing but basically season 4 is telling a story that takes place over a short period of time (the events leading up to cinco de quatro), while also telling the events that took place during the X years between season 3 and season 4. I had a pretty huge 'wait really???' reaction when they explicitly mention lucille was in prison for years. I thought it was a really short period of time.

anyway, season 5 is basically telling the story that takes place over a short period of time (the events leading up to the second of july), while also retelling the events that took place during the month between cinco de quatro and the beginning of july. so they are kinda doing the same thing again but with a shorter time window to cover with recaps and flashbacks.

this is incredibly helpful, thanks. i think i intellectually know all of this, but it's always lost when i see the actual show and am unable to distinguish what happened when.
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I mentioned my criticisms but I'll also talk about what I thought was good. I agree with others who have said that Maeby is likely one of the best parts of the newer seasons. although she didn't get many scenes in season 4 to compensate for this, her story and character were handled in the ways I found the most interesting.

the plot where she has sex with a high school kid definitely is a bit uncomfortable and weird, but keep in mind that this puts her right in with the ranks of her uncle GOB and her own mother, lindsay, who all did similar things in the path. having seen Maeby's personality growing up, and seeing the environment she was raised in, is it really any surprise that she didn't turn out any different from the rest of the terrible Bluth family members? to me this is what makes her plot so interesting.

of course it would "feel nice" if they just made her grow up and be successful and have a nice life. instead they chose to explore her character in a way where lucille and george sr had their terrible influence affect not only their children, but propagate down to the next generation and negatively impact their grandchildren as well.

so while lindsay was screwed up because of the way she was raised, this caused her to also do a poor job of raising maeby. this leads to maeby being a screw up as well. her starting position at the end of season 4 is really, really sad and pathetic when you think about it. she's 20-something years old and still repeating high school for several consecutive years. kinda reminds me of... none other than steve holt. while that was a running joke for a more tertiary character in the past it definitely hits you a lot harder when it involves a more main character, and seeing that she hasn't done anything with her life (okay, except for her secret double life as a film executive, but that's difficult to factor in because of how unrealistic it is)

also thinking about this made me realize how george michael is really just a slightly more screwed up version of his father. he has all of michael's insecurities and flaws for the most part. the more flanderized michael in season 4 and 5 is an EXTREME narcissist who seems incapable of noticing anything going on around him, and george michael doesn't really have this quality... but to be fair neither did michael until just recently so that one is kinda a wash. maybe he'll magically develop it later in life, the same way his father did. anyway I was thinking they are more or less similar in a lot of ways except for the fact that michael is a functioning member of society who ran a successful company and seemed to be the only one of handling the family business with legitimate business means. I feel like, comparatively, george michael is more awkward, less capable of functioning like a normal social being, and hasn't really accomplished anything except making an app that emulates the sound of a wood block. what degree was he even studying? I honestly can't remember and don't think it was ever made relevant.
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"Here they call it (whispering) AIDS"
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Overall loved the new season but by the end of it I found Tobias more on the annoying side than funny. Need to give it a few more rewatches to see how it all settles in.

the plot where she has sex with a high school kid definitely is a bit uncomfortable and weird, but keep in mind that this puts her right in with the ranks of her uncle GOB and her own mother, lindsay, who all did similar things in the path. having seen Maeby's personality growing up, and seeing the environment she was raised in, is it really any surprise that she didn't turn out any different from the rest of the terrible Bluth family members? to me this is what makes her plot so interesting.

Viewing it that way just made me like that plotline a bit more, thanks!
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MariaTaylor posted...

also thinking about this made me realize how george michael is really just a slightly more screwed up version of his father. he has all of michael's insecurities and flaws for the most part. the more flanderized michael in season 4 and 5 is an EXTREME narcissist who seems incapable of noticing anything going on around him, and george michael doesn't really have this quality... but to be fair neither did michael until just recently so that one is kinda a wash.

I agree that Michael got flanderized but I don't think it came out of nowhere. We're talking about the guy who in the original run couldn't be assed to pay attention to his son even when trying to be a good father, and had constant "misunderstandings" in all his relationships because he was so self-absorbed. Michael in the first 3 seasons is a bad person who is primarily motivated to be a good person by the spite he has for his family. So in that sense I liked seeing him becoming selfish and unhinged in S4 when he doesn't have interaction with the family to force him to stay grounded. George Michael is similar in that he's learning to become a selfish Bluth. But they probably went too hard too quickly on both of them.

In S5 I think they've found a happy medium for the two. George Michael still lies constantly but it's to do good things for the family. Michael still acts selfish but it's mostly trying to do the right thing except for sending Buster to jail, then not realizing his mistake because he distrusts his family so much. I actually like the dichotomy of Michael's actions overall hurting the family as he tries to do good, whereas Lucile was responsible for bringing the family together early on by acting entirely selfishly.
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HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

So in that sense I liked seeing him becoming selfish and unhinged in S4 when he doesn't have interaction with the family to force him to stay grounded.

this is an explanation I do actually enjoy quite a bit. I highly doubt the writers put that much thought into it, but it does make the flanderization a bit easier to tolerate. good observation!
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Yeah, Michael is a Bluth through and through. He was always a pretty bad person, it just wasn't as obvious because the rest of the family was/is worse and he was trying to be nice to make them seem worse as well.

Also, good therapist Tobias is best Tobias.
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MariaTaylor posted...

this is an explanation I do actually enjoy quite a bit. I highly doubt the writers put that much thought into it, but it does make the flanderization a bit easier to tolerate. good observation!

"the writers didn't put that much thought into it" is a very common solution in tv shows, but AD (even S4) has never come off that way to me.
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MariaTaylor posted...

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

So in that sense I liked seeing him becoming selfish and unhinged in S4 when he doesn't have interaction with the family to force him to stay grounded.

this is an explanation I do actually enjoy quite a bit. I highly doubt the writers put that much thought into it, but it does make the flanderization a bit easier to tolerate. good observation!

I disagree. It appears that the moral of the story of the new episodes is that despite how much Michael thinks he needs to leave his family and that he's better off without them, he truly does need them especially since without them he loses his perspective and becomes more cruel. S4 was supposed to be the first part of a three-act story, so he becomes more villainous in that season but the episodes that follow it are supposed to be how he slowly redeems himself. I imagine.
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Has anyone else noticed the bad lip-syncing during short-reverse shot scenes? It's really weird.
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Grand Kirby posted...

I disagree. It appears that the moral of the story of the new episodes is that despite how much Michael thinks he needs to leave his family and that he's better off without them, he truly does need them especially since without them he loses his perspective and becomes more cruel. S4 was supposed to be the first part of a three-act story, so he becomes more villainous in that season but the episodes that follow it are supposed to be how he slowly redeems himself. I imagine.

I'm not sure what you mean by disagree. it sounds like you and Tiempo are saying basically the same thing. michael's negative qualities are enhanced when he is away from his family, and we saw this in season 4 because he was away from his family.
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So I did finish the first 8 episodes. Overall I am very lukewarm on it I think. There was some good stuff for sure, like most every involving Maeby, and George Micheal was also a standout I think. Buster was good but had nothing really to work with. I still like GOB, he was one of the best parts of Season 4 but here it felt like he was stuck in his season 4 plot treading water. A lot of this season, especially the first two episodes, felt like it was more concerned about season 4's plot than doing its own thing. Tobias and his son were bad, I didn't care about them at all. All the weird green screening. flat direction and audio syncing issues makes the whole thing feel amateur. Too much narration and Ron Howard/Vanity Fair Hollywood humor that I didn't really get.
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GANON1025 posted...

There was some good stuff for sure, like most every involving Maeby

Let's hope she doesn't drop AD like a buttered cane anytime soon.
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MariaTaylor posted...

Grand Kirby posted...

I disagree. It appears that the moral of the story of the new episodes is that despite how much Michael thinks he needs to leave his family and that he's better off without them, he truly does need them especially since without them he loses his perspective and becomes more cruel. S4 was supposed to be the first part of a three-act story, so he becomes more villainous in that season but the episodes that follow it are supposed to be how he slowly redeems himself. I imagine.

I'm not sure what you mean by disagree. it sounds like you and Tiempo are saying basically the same thing. michael's negative qualities are enhanced when he is away from his family, and we saw this in season 4 because he was away from his family.

I mean I disagree with the idea that the writers haven't thought about it like this. They seem to be playing a long game with the new seasons. Although let's remember there were plot threads introduced in the start that wouldn't pay off until the 3rd season finale (and if the show hadn't gotten canceled they probably would have held on to them longer than that.)
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I finished the 8 episodes. I'm still definitely enjoying the show. Although I do agree Tobias has been more annoying than funny so far this season.
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on episode 6. mostly liking it a lot except for basically every scene with the howard family and/or rebel
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Tobias was totally my highlight. Everyone else took at least one step down
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Reading through this thread is making me really anticipate the DVD release of this season. I suppose it'll be a year before I watch it.
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As someone who hasnt seen season 4 since 2013 and remembers absolutely nothing about it, I thought the first 2 episodes of season 5 were pretty funny.
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BrutonGaster posted...

Reading through this thread is making me really anticipate the DVD release of this season. I suppose it'll be a year before I watch it.

They release Netflix exclusive stuff on DVD?
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i liked season 5, but lucile seems to have lost a bit of her bite.
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Yes they do. I have season four on DVD. Just check on Amazon.
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I liked S5. It isnt what it used to be, but it was good enough. I have some complaints but i got a lot of stuff that I liked
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Weakupedia posted...

i liked season 5, but lucile seems to have lost a bit of her bite.

I can't tell if they're trying to intentionally make her more sympathetic or if they just forgot to give her a character to directly oppose.
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neonreaper posted...

I liked S5. It isnt what it used to be, but it was good enough. I have some complaints but i got a lot of stuff that I liked

I'm with you here. There were definite stretches where the show was making me laugh like the old AD, and some stretches/subplots that just disappointed me. The character who's suffered the most is almost certainly GOB, who was arguably the best character before and arguably the worst now.
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They just need to stop beating around the bush with GOB. If he's gay, then he's gay. Just do it already. If he's not gay, then just hurry up and put in a conclusion to the Tony Wonder thing and move on.
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They already do the gay thing with Tobias. And they dont do it well with GOB. Its not funny that he and George bail on the Mexican hotties. GOB is the cock of the world!
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I feel like those plots were a half-hearted, unfinished attempt at swapping Gob and Tobiass characters. Suddenly Gob is closeted gay and suddenly Tobias has a secret bastard kid. Neither of their arcs make any sense in relation to whats been established about them in earlier seasons. I feel like there was supposed to be a punchline that was never made with that.
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ScepterOfLove posted...

I feel like those plots were a half-hearted, unfinished attempt at swapping Gob and Tobiass characters. Suddenly Gob is closeted gay and suddenly Tobias has a secret bastard kid. Neither of their arcs make any sense in relation to whats been established about them in earlier seasons. I feel like there was supposed to be a punchline that was never made with that.

Or it's coming in the next half, which is almost as bad.
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mnkboy907 posted...

They just need to stop beating around the bush with GOB. If he's gay, then he's gay. Just do it already. If he's not gay, then just hurry up and put in a conclusion to the Tony Wonder thing and move on.

I think they cemented a resolution to Tony's story.
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Dohoho!
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scarletspeed7 posted...

mnkboy907 posted...

They just need to stop beating around the bush with GOB. If he's gay, then he's gay. Just do it already. If he's not gay, then just hurry up and put in a conclusion to the Tony Wonder thing and move on.

I think they cemented a resolution to Tony's story.

Hahaha I see what you did there!
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I think the Gob being gay subplot in S4 was by far the funniest part of the season. The problem is, you actually need Ben Stiller to appear onscreen regularly for it to be good.
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