Arrested Development - Pantheon series
A function of dysfunction

// The skinny: When the patriarch of the Bluth housing empire is sent to jail on criminal charges, it's up to Michael to keep the business afloat and the family together.

// Review: With war and death a constant reality around the world, as devastated as I could be about a show being cancelled I was when news first broke that Season 3's episodes were cut in half. It was the death knell for a show that had garnered Emmys for Best Show, Best Director, Best Writer, Best Supporting Actors, and a Best Leading Actor nod for Jason Bateman in its first 2 seasons. I was like many of the Johnny-come-lately's who completely ignored the show in its first season. But after stumbling upon it one night, it instantly became my favorite and probably my favorite of all time.

/If you haven't seen it before it's difficult to compare it to other comedy shows, because frankly there hasn't been anything like it on tv. Sure other shows have gone without laugh tracks and don't employ fixed cameras to give it a documentary feel, but those are just technical similarities. There really is no main character. All of them are bizarre and hilarious in their own ways and there are never episodes that primarily focus on one person. Michael appears to be the most prominent character, but only because he seems the most normal and serves as the nexus for the rest of the family. Really though, Ron Howard's perfectly deadpan and sarcastic narrator ties this circus together.

/ The jokes comes fast and are often extremely subtle. When I first starting watching I had to keep rewinding my Tivo before I got used to the humor. The dialogue is full of back handed insults, puns, homo-erotic innuendo, double entendres, and sarcasm. It also uses pop culture references and props to great effect. Like Seinfeld, the situational comedy throughout an episode would lead to a big pay off joke at the end. But unlike Seinfeld, the episodes have a continuity to them and often a joke is set up several episodes and even a season early.

/ The guest stars were fantastically casted and written. From Henry Winkler as their sex addicted lawyer, Julie Louis Dreyfuss as a fake blind fake pregnant lawyer, Zack Braff as a Girls Gone Wild host, Charlize Theron as a mentally retarded Brit, Ben Stiller as magician Tony Wonder, to Martin Short as a parapalegic Jack Palance-type, every character is well performed and memorable; completely unlike Will & Grace.

/ Even in its final season when it knew the end was near, it would poke fun of the shows own short comings, its desperation to stay on the air, and mockingly used cheap gimmicks that more popular shows employ during Sweeps Week. Some of my favorite episodes were Pier Pressure, Motherboy XXX, Ready Aim Marry Me and Mr. F.

// Wrap up: Horrible shame that this show never caught on, but I can see why since its off the wall humor and quick sometimes esoteric jokes cater to a very small demographic. The hope is that its cult following will vault DVD sales enough to pull a Family Guy. Unfortunately with creator Mitchell Hurwitz leaving, it appears unlikely.

Entertainment rating: 5