To Binge Or Not To Binge? All 15 Episodes Of Season 4 Netflix Arrested Development In One Day Is Too High A Dose; Creator Urges to "Watch Moderately"[VIDEO]
Arrested Development aired season 4, with 15 new episodes in one day on Netflix. Fans can not resist watching all 15 Arrested Developments at once, but show creator urges all to have willpower and not binge on episodes. The Netflix Arrested Development shows are better to absorbed one at a time, but it is hard to resist an "AD" binge.
To binge or not to binge? After a seven-year wait, the fanatics ('fans' doesn't quite cover it) who have campaigned for the return of their favorite TV sitcom, Arrested Development, were about to get their wish. Fifteen brand new episodes, potentially full of hundreds of new jokes to dissect, all available to watch at exactly the same time on the streaming service Netflix. How to resist watching the whole seven-and-a-half hours at once?
Arrested Development creator, Mitch Hurwitz, perhaps spooked by the mania by now routinely attached to his name, advised against binge-viewing. "You'll get tired and become numb to the jokes," he explained.
But this is too hard to do with temptation just a click away right inside my living room. Many people wish that Netflix released just two or three episodes at a time, to avoid giving in to the viewing craving. I was too enticed to resist and wish I hadn't as I could feel myself getting bored.
Other disagree and think "AD" is the perfect show for a binge. What does make Arrested Development great for Netflix binging is the detail-obsessed recurring jokes that have always been this show's calling card. 'Steve Holt!' 'motherboy' and 'Her?' are some of the inside jokes that only true fans feel comfortable around. Even producer Ron Howard's opening narration 'this is the story of a family whose future was abruptly cancelled' - is an inside-joke that only "AD" fanatics can only comprehend.
Guest stars on the 15 episodes include Kristen Wiig and Seth Rogen as younger versions of George and Lucille, as well as Christine Taylor, Liza Minnelli, Amanda de Cadenet, John Krasinski, James Lipton, Andy Richter, Isla Fisher, Ed Helms, Bernie Kopell, Max Winkler playing a young version of his dad Henry's role as Barry Zuckerhorn, Scott Baio as Bob Loblaw, John Slattery, Debra Mooney, Conan O'Brien, Brian Grazer, John Beard, Ron Howard (in addition to narrating) and the three guys from Comedy Central's "Workaholics," Adam DeVine, Blake Anderson and Anders Holm, as three extremely passive-aggressive airline ticket agents.
Though there were new guest roles, the core characters remained the same and didn't develop much from 7 years ago, which personally I enjoyed.
Here are two conflicting reviews:
1)I watched all 15 episodes yesterday, and I thought it was brilliantly done. It was like being with people I used to know, and loved, and hadn't seen for far too long. What I had wondered before yesterday was whether season 4 would fall into the trap of so many other reunion shows, in which characters become caricatures of their previous selves. Not for a second did this happen. There were moments I had to pause my laptop - just to laugh and laugh and laugh. Thank you to everyone involved in this project.
2)Arrested Development's humor was light, fun and sophisticated. It touched on darker issues but in a facetious way. Now this old style seems to have been tainted in Season 4 with a need to be 'darker', to be 'edgier' that may work very well in sitcoms like Curb Your Enthusiasm but which are not just alien but alienating when it comes to Arrested Development. Syphilis? Child-sex? Methadone addiction? The grinding and progressively unfunnier rufie routine? Again, new voices in the Writer's Room seem to have been trying to establish their presence by the forced insertion not just of transgressive subjects (which AD has dealt with before but on the periphery of the show) but in a confrontationally transgressive way by bringing them to the fore and making them the plot point.
Whichever side you're on, if you're a true Arrested Development fan, you know you are going to watch all 15 episodes. By try to keep your compulsions in check and force your eyes to only watch a pinch of episodes at a time. The huge dose all at once of "AD" will make you sick.