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Critic Reviews
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But trying to recreate the past is almost always impossible, as every TV revival other than Twin Peaks: The Return has been forced to grapple with. And that leaves Arrested season five feeling half finished. It’s fun in places and labored in others, sometimes in the same scene.
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You feel, in the end, like the concept-album strangeness of season 4 has been replaced by an attempt toward facsimile: The old show, recreated. Fun enough, I guess, if you forget that a central part of the thrill with Arrested Development was how completely it could reset the boundaries of TV comedy every week. There will always be money in this banana stand--but there used to be so much more.
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In lieu of an actual story, we’re treated to a constant stream of wink-wink references to jokes from past seasons. ... We do get more Bluth family interaction this season, but the cast members mostly look older and worn down... and not in a funny way.
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The only innovation in these new Arrested Development episodes is how the story processes tensions between Michael and George Michael, who remain in love with the same woman (Isla Fischer), leading to one confrontation that is, I’ll admit, fairly amazing. Otherwise what Netflix has shown reviewers of this fifth season (seven of the eight to be released on May 29 were made available to critics, with eight more coming later) doesn’t justify the continued revisitations to the Bluths.
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While the family is usually better together, they’re mostly scattered again (with a few strange pairings that don’t really work, like Lucille and Tobias), and the narrative focus is completely on Michael. No one else has much of an individual story yet, and that’s a shame, because the strongest comedy so far comes from the plots that are the most removed from Michael.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 33 out of 61
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Mixed: 24 out of 61
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Negative: 4 out of 61
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May 30, 2018
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Jun 28, 2018
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Jun 12, 2018