Here's Another TV Show I Finally Caught Up To

 

I guess I should watch these things when they first come on.   But me....thanks to streaming...a revisit to a classic show might take twenty plus years.   And, for the most part, I am glad I do.

Fresh on the heels of my Hulu rewatch of "Picket Fences" and and my first time gander at "Ally Mcbeal," friends suggested that I dive right into "Arrested Development." This way-beyond-its-time comedy originally aired on Fox from 2003 through 2006.   It then meandered its way to Netflix from Seasons 4 and 5 circa 2013-2019.

Given that original Fox episodes were 22 minutes, I was able to knock off two to three in an evening.   And boy oh boy, was that fun??   This sitcom had me howling out loud on multiple occasions.  Politically incorrect, sharply wicked, and supremely cast, the adventures of the Bluth family had me enraptured.  Indeed, Jason Bateman is playing the comedic version of his character in "Ozark"...years before he would be in the latter.   So amazingly clever and foretelling.

Why had I missed this the first time?

One of the unsung heroes of this comedy is the off-screen narration by one of the show's producers, Ron Howard.   His words devised to simply move the story along often feature just the right soupcon of snark.   And sometimes even a mention of "The Andy Griffith Show."   Sheer nirvana and brilliance.

And then...well, friends warned me.

Fox cancelled the show after three seasons in 2006.   Fans clamored for its return and Netflix did just that in 2013.   And people told me that, once I finished with the Fox episodes...well, prepare to be disappointed.

And I was and still am as I plod through the rest of this series.  The major problem is that Season 4 on Netflix in 2013 opens exactly where they left off in 2006.   A huge miscalculation by the writers.   Why?   Well, seven years had passed.   The 16-year-old characters are now played by 23-year-olds.   The character of Lindsay, as essayed by Ellen's main squeeze Portia DiRossi, obviously had plastic surgery or copious injections of Botox because her face and look changes completely.

And the structure of the show is different.   Season 4 features 15 episodes but, when viewers were confused by odd flashbacks and then time jumps, producers re-edited Season 4 into 22 episodes.   And it still doesn't work.

I continue on because even mediocre "Arrested Development" is light years ahead of anything else on TV.   But just be forewarned if you get sucked in like I did.

Eventually, there will be episodes that...well...suck.

Dinner last night:  Grilled bratwurst.