I'm pretty confused with where this season is going. Is it ultimately about Don realizing he can't be happy, because that's what it's starting to feel like. I'm ok with it leading to that but where is that going? I'm starting to get a feeling that no one will be getting a happy ending when this show ends. Or, maybe this is just a dark time. Peggy stabs Abe on her way to a breakup so harsh that she felt like the victim EVEN THOUGH SHE STABBED A GUY. Don has Betty basically explain him in a few sentences. Roger find out that he can't be trusted with any children in his lineage. This is a very dark period for a lot of the characters. How many episodes are left? A handful or so, I think. I'm curious to see how this rounds out. So far, this has not been one of my favorite seasons.
Arrested Development Season 4
If there was ever a show to be binged it would be Arrested Development. Even in its first iteration there was a density to it that marathoning 10 episodes at a time made it easier to appreciate to story arcs and call-backs. Natuarally, this season 4 experiment is perhaps the most complex TV watching experience I've ever had. It is riddled with mysteries and tie-ins. So many, in fact, that it made it very easy to ignore the issues with the season.
Ok. Before I get too deep into this meandering mess of a review, I want to give some context to my thoughts. I really like Arrested Development. It is unquestionably one of the great sitcoms and deserves all the praise it gets. That said, it is not on my Mt. Rushmore. I do not compare other shows against AD. It simply isn't THAT show for me. It's still probably a top 10 comedy for me, but I don't have the same deep love of it that a lot of people do which runs the risk of turning in to impossible nostalgia. I say this because everything I've read the past couple days about season 4 is written by people who hold a torch for the original seasons and it seems unfair to this.
Season 4 is a different beast entirely from the original. There are a lot of restraints on it, particularly in the availability of the cast, so it cannot be the way it was. Sorry. That's how it is. I think that it largely succeeded in what it set out to do. When I originally heard that each episode would focus on a specific character I was very disappointed, convinced that all this would be is a "where are they now" retrospective. That did not excite me much. It turns out that each episode was part of a 15-episode collage, the complexity of which I'm floored by. Each character's story fit them and the focus allowed for some of the biggest laughs of the season (oh, Tobias...). The downside, of course to this singular focus in each episode is that the mileage may vary depending on how much you like each character. If you don't like George Sr., two episodes about him can be a little exhausting. That's the understood give and take of this. Personally, it didn't bother me all that much.
I think the main thing that bothered me while watching this is that it's a 16 episode season. I don't know if the 16th episode is a movie or another season, but I felt absolutely no sense of finality with this, and considering there are no hard plans for a continuation, that leaves me very nervous.
Overall, this was a strong season of a comedy series. Since it is so different in structure from previous AD seasons, I don't want to compare it to that. I laughed a lot while watching this and didn't find myself despising any episode. In my book, that's strong praise. I hope there will be some continuation of the series and whatever form it takes, hopefully they can get more of the cast together at the same time. I understand the limitations but that feels like the missing piece to it all.
The Point of the Purge
Past Purges:
5/1-5/7 5/8-5/14 5/15/-5/18 5/19-5/24
4/4-4/7 4/8-4/9 4/10-4/16 4/17-4/21 4/22-4/30
3/13-3/15 3/16-3/19 3/20-3/26 3/27-3/31 4/1-4/3
2/22-2/26 2/27 2/28-3/3 3/4-3/7 3/8-3/12
2/5-2/8 2/9-2/11 2/12-2/18 2/19-2/20 2/21
1/17-1/18 1/19-1/21 1/22-1/23 1/24-1/29 1/30-2/4
12/16 12/17-12/21 ...12/22-1/7 1/8-1/9 1/10-1/16
11/25-11/28 11/29-11/30 12/1-12/5 12/6-12/8 12/9-12/15
10/28-11/3 11/4-11/10 11/11-11/16 11/17-11/20 11/21-11/24
9/22-9/28 9/29-10/4 10/6-10/12 10/13-10/19 10/20-10/27
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