The SmarK DVD Rant for Arrested Development: Season 3

Sadly, this season was cut down by Fox even further, reduced to 13 episodes, but much like concentrating a good sauce for flavor, this may have distilled the show down to the essence of brilliance, forcing them to cut away any excess left. It’s presented on two sad little DVDs in a single case, instead of the box set format of the first two.

Disc One

– “The Cabin Show”. The Bluth stock is upgraded from “Sell” to “Don’t Buy”, and Michael sells the cabin property to keep the company afloat, but has to move the cabin. This triggers all sorts of family issues (“Taste the sad!”) as Gob is learning life lessons all over the place, according to the narrator. Speaking of family issues, Oscar is in prison in George’s place (sadly, imoscar.com is no longer with us). Everyone heads to Reno looking for George, where Gob finds Steve Holt and fatherhood. Michael & G-M finally get to the cabin and camp out in a callback to the pilot, and Henry Winkler ends his role as Barry Zuckercorn, as Michael fires him.

– “For British Eyes Only” And it’s the beginning of the greatest run of the show. George is now under house arrest and the credits are gone for this episode. George explains the difference between prison and house arrest — “There you shut your eyes and take it, but here you shut your eyes and give it” — and blames the British for his situation. So Michael heads to Wee Britain, a very specialized portion of the OC (“Don’t call it that”) and meets Rita Leeds. This earns some threats from a sinister Brit played by Dave Thomas, although his apparent motivations for doing so are much different than we later discover. Michael eats a “whole thing of candy beans” to cope with rejections. It blows my mind how well-written this was, and how you totally buy into the spy storyline and take it all at face value until the pull the rug out from under you. By the way, no one was making fun of Andy Griffith, I can’t emphasize that enough.

– “Forget-Me-Now” So we meet the new Bluth lawyer, Scott Baio playing Bob Loblaw. We also meet Larry the Surrogate, played by Bob “Super Dave” Einstein, as they compete to see who can be more deadpan in the face of great lines. Einstein always wins that one. We also learn that Tobias, who was buy-curious in the last episode, is also an analrapist. Michael tries to find ways to keep Rita from meeting his family. Bob Loblaw charging Lindsay for phone sex is great. Buster’s banner is recycled yet again into “You’re kidding me” And of course Rita ends up meeting the family,and gets assaulted and left on a bus bench, which covers up key letters in “Wee Britain,” giving us another clue as to her real character.

– “Notapusy” Michael and Rita have a misunderstanding over the word “pussy”, while an inner beauty pagaent sees Tobias coaching Ann (“Who?”), which gives Maeby the perfect chance to resurrect Shirley. Tobias: “You have to ask yourself if you want a man or a boy. I know how I’d answer!” Uncle Mike acts as surrogate dad for Steve Holt (“Uncle Mike!”) although the “oxy-incontinent” makes it tougher than usual to run a triathalon. More clues about Rita here. And Ann’s camel-tow? Awesome.

– “Mr. F.” Oh my, all roads lead to this one. Michael finds a mole problem on the property, but Bob Loblaw suspects a figurative mole, who may be Rita. All they know is that the name is Mr. F. George orders a jetpack, which ends up in the hands of G-M, while Gob & Buster build a trainset town to fool Japanese investors. And of course it all leads to Tobias in a mole costume taking on George Michael in a jetpack as they fight over Tiny Town. Sheer brilliance. And then, as Michael proposes to Rita, we learn that Mr. F stands for something else entirely, and suddenly the whole British story arc makes a lot more sense. Possibly the best episode of the whole SERIES.

– “The Ocean Walker” This may be the second-best. Michael announces his engagement to Rita, which gives us lots of jokes about how dumb she really is. Plus a reference to Tony Hale’s VW commercial to boot. Maeby green-lights a script called “The Ocean Walker,” which pays off later. Gob’s fireball running joke continues (“But where did the lighter fluid come from?”) and another great moment has the narrator interjecting his opinion of the weirdness of the Michael-Rita relationship and hotel phone prices. That’s how they get you, you know. Double callback to Buster’s wire-slide from Motherboy XXX and Michael’s problems with Mary Poppins here. Michael finally learns what’s going on with Rita, but the Bluths learn that she’s rich and set about getting them married ASAP. The candy beans return as well. Rita walks on water to pay off the Ocean Walker bit, and then THAT is further paid off in the “On the next…” bit. And that’s how you do a running joke.

– “Prison Break-in” I think the reference material should be obvious from the title. Michael is so desperate for comforting after his breakup with Rita that he actually goes to his mother. After two years of raising money for “TBA”, the Bluths use Tobias and his hair plug issues to actually have a benefit for a real disease. Sort of. The gala is at the prison, so we get more of aspiring screenwriter Warden Gentles. The interludes with the elementary school production of “New Warden” help a lot with the narrative flow. The narrator’s non-stop stream of pot jokes is also awesome (leading up to “Although it was not the first time that he had been knocked out by a powerful lid”) This one also packs the Prison Break references in tight, with tattooed maps and Tobias calling himself “T-Bag” in between jokes about giving other people chlamydia.

Disc Two

– “Making a Stand” Michael is frustrated with Gob’s stupid business ideas (and those of his lackey-in-training Steve Holt) but realizes that his dad is just trying to play them off each other, like in the Boyfights videos they starred in as children. So in order to be less competitive, Michael gives God & Steve their own banana stand, which they proceed to set up, like, 20 feet from the original. Gob mentions a new Christian girlfriend, which pays off later in the series. And when the Bluth boys realize that George is playing them, they reintroduce us to one-armed lesson teacher J. Walter Weatherman. However, in typical fashion for the show, Michael’s master plan gets twisted in on itself. And the Funke’s divorce gets ugly, as we learn about Bob Loblaw’s Law Blog. And everyone learns lots of lessons about learning lessons.

– “SOBs” The Bluths are desperate, as Bob Loblaw lobs a law bomb and they need a new lawyer. And it means guest stars, a live ending, and someone will DIE. G-M seems to be developing OC disorder (but don’t call it that). And sadly, the HBO doesn’t want them, so it’s Showtime. The Andy Richter Quintuplets rule the school here. Lots of metatextual stuff like Michael pleading with the family to be more likeable and the narrator explaining the difference between a complex situation with no easy solution and a clear-cut situation with potential for comedy. Michael’s speech at the end is pretty much the show’s good-bye to fans, as the end was clearly in sight.

– “Fakin’ It” The witness list is released and a mysterious N. Bluth is on it. Plus Franklin, now sporting a “George Bush doesn’t care about black puppets” shirt, returns. Of course, the whole trial is set to be broadcast on a new reality show, “Judge Reinhold” (“My name is Judge!”) Buster fakes a coma to avoid testifying, so Lindsay begins protesting to have him killed. It’s a Life Mill at that hospital, you know. The mock trial of course proves to be a mockery, complete with William Hung and his Hung Jury, which is about as good a use of him as I’ve seen. And then through a weird series of coincidences, Maeby marries George-Michael.

– “Family Ties” The mysterious N. Bluth may be an older sister named Nellie, but his dad’s mass-erasure of the company computers makes it tough to investigate. Sadly, Nellie (played by Justine Bateman in some truly inspired casting) turns out to be a hooker rather than his sister. As usual Michael misses all the clues, and hires her as a consultant. And she blows everyone at the company…away. They keep forgetting to say that “away” part. And apparently God is a pimp on the side, but he’s still waiting for that BIG sign from God that he should change.

– “Exit Strategy” The prosecution tries to get Tobias to flip, but he interprets it as a CBS procedural show. Buster’s fake coma is broken by love, and we get a great joke with Wayne Jarvis turning on the TV to show a plot point, but having to sit through commercials first. Tobias getting tricked into a sting operation via a scrapbooking class run by Det. Munch is brilliant. Michael & Buster go to Iraq to save Gob, as everythign is now yellow-tinged to simulate being in Iraq while still using the same set. And once there, they discover a house full of Saddam lookalikes, which reveals that George was building houses for the CIA and really was a patsy all along. Gary Cole as the CIA taxi driver and the Soup Nazi as a lookalike are great casting.

– “Development Arrested” And finally, the end. Things are looking good with all the charges dropped, so they decide to stage a party on the same boat as we started on. We learn that Lucille was the queen-pin all along, and she had a Korean man deported years earlier. And Lindsay is three years older than she previously thought. G-M finally confesses his feelings about Maeby to Michael, and he recommends Ann instead. This leads to us learning that she’s Gob’s new girlfriend. Lindsay is actually adopted and not Michael’s twin as previously thought (although all the flashbacks where she’s a foot taller might have been a giveaway before) and she immediately decides to marry Michael and leave Tobias. Michael is less thrilled about that idea. Michael finally pays off all the robot jokes and cries at the party, and then flees with George-Michael, the yacht, and $500,000 to finally escape the family once and for all, leaving them to get raided by the SEC. We learn that Annyong tipped them off to avenge his grandfather, who was the one deported by Lucille years ago.

It was Arrested Development. Nuff said.

The Video

As Fox switched to high-definition full-time, this show went with it, and is featured in breathtaking 1.77:1 widescreen here with the absolute best transfer of a TV show I’ve ever seen. EVER. It’s far better than even the pristine initial airings of the show on regular broadcast cable looked, and the level of detail and color in the high-def masters is amazing. This is truly reference-quality stuff.

The Audio

Well, it’s standard Dolby Surround, which is too bad because gags mixed into the rear speakers would be exactly the kind of thing that this show would excel at. Still, it sounds note perfect for a dialogue-centered show, and that’s the important thing.

The Extras

Surprisingly light on both sets, as there’s a few commentary tracks from the entire cast and crew which set the standard for totally ignoring the show and concentrate on calling Jeffrey Tambor’s cell phone instead. Plus a bevy of deleted scenes on each disk, and a few quickie featurettes. I guess it’s par for the course given FOX’s treatment of the show.

The Ratings

The Show: *****

The Video: *****

The Audio: **1/2

The Extras: **1/2

The Bottom Line: Hands down the smartest sitcom ever, and that’s including Frasier, it was truly a show that came around at the wrong time on the wrong channel. On the bright side, FOX gave it three wonderful seasons before pulling the plug on it, and now we can all enjoy it forever on DVD.