Take 4 TV: Family Dysfuctions

Arrested Development: Season One (2003)

What's Going on Here: The head of the Bluth family is incarcerated for using his housing development company as his own personal piggy bank, leaving his son Michael responsible for keeping the company on its feet, despite the interference of his extremely dysfuctional family.

Disc Space: Three DVDs of televisions shows, containing 22 episodes...each just under half an hour long.

Special Features to Consider: Well, first off, don't watch the pilot episode on Disc One. Instead, make sure you watch the extended pilot found in the special features section. The cast/crew commentaries aren't anything to write home about, so you can skip those...unless you enjoy the banter of comedic actors. Do watch the deleted and extended scenes on each DVD. Finally, the behind-the-scenes featurette on Disc One is kind of interesting, and the "Arrested Development: The Making of a Future Classic" featurette on Disc Three is fun stuff.

Random Trivia: Ron Howard is the voice of the narrator. However, this was never the actual plan. He was merely filling in on the pilot and his voice just "worked".

In So Many Words: Lucille Bluth: "You tricked me." Michael Bluth: "I deceived you, mother. 'Tricked' makes it sound like we have a playful relationship." Lucille: "Touché."

And What Did We Learn Today, Class?: 1) Carl Weathers makes a poor acting coach. 2) Although you say you're in Newport Beach, people from the South Bay will be able to tell you're shooting in Marina del Rey. 3) Girls With Low Self-Esteem is probably immeasurably more entertaining than Girls Gone Wild.

Curt's Take: "Must See" - Great cast of comedic actors and innovative camera work (for a sitcom). You can just tell these folks are having a blast. Also, great writing and improvisation...the quote above is one of my favorites from the season, but there are many more that could have gone in there, too. It's not as story-based as 24 is, but there is some continuity from episode to episode, so it's not completely episodic, either. So, just a warning...if you try to watch all the episodes straight through in a short period of time (as I do with these reviews), you may get tired of the series fast. Looking forward to renting Season Two of Arrested Development.

On Our Next Episode...: Watch as Curt cringes his way through episode after episode of drama and plastic surgery