“Arrested Development”: Why I’m Happy It’s Back
by Maureen Ryan
When a great TV show goes away, we don’t just miss the characters and the world they lived in — we miss the particular combination of things that program did. We look in vain for its DNA, often to find only little pieces of it scattered here and there, all of which lengthens the grieving process (presuming the show hasn’t overstayed its welcome).
Few shows in the last decade had more distinctive recipes and more vociferous mourners than “Arrested Development,” which ran from 2003-2006 on Fox and returns in the spring on Netflix.
It resembled “Lost” in the intricacy of its structure and “Breaking Bad” in the relentlessly unsympathetic nature of most of its key characters, and its comic influences ranged from Preston Sturges to Monty Python to ’80s sitcoms. Like every show people daydream about reviving, it had a strange alchemy all its own, but a recent rewatch of “Arrested Development” confirmed that the core elements that made the show work are timeless, and that’s what makes me so excited about its return.
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