So, it looks like there won’t be an Arrested Development movie after all. Co-star David Cross said in an interview:
I think what I will tell you, it’s not going to happen. It’s not official, but I just don’t think it’s going to happen. Way too much time it’s been (since the show ended). I mean, there’s so many people involved. Everyone’s doing their own thing, you know. And everybody’s aged. It’s just not going to happen. I’m sure I speak for everybody when I say we’d love for it to happen, we’d love to work on it, but just I don’t think… not going to happen.
Now, here’s the thing: Did we ever really want an Arrested Development movie in the first place?
Yes, Arrested Development was the greatest situational comedy of all time. Yeah, I hear you out there in your Internets, thinking some other sitcom was way better, but you know that’s not true. Arrested Development was the greatest sitcom of. all. time. To quote KSK’s Tommy from Quinzee, “NO ONE DENIES THIS!”*
Two reasons for its greatness are also two reasons why you would never want it to either appear again, or especially in movie form. First, the series follows one three-seasons-long story arc. You get the story of the Bluth family falling to its knees, and Michael’s efforts to keep the family afloat. It ends with the family back on its feet. At this juncture, the plot of the movie, in a nicely-tidy 90 minutes, would need a new story, and would likely be some typical movie plot: The Bluths find a treasure map on the back of a diner menu and go searching for the treasure! The Bluths go to Vegas! George Michael accidentally gets a teenage some-kind-of-hipster-construct pregnant! (Oh, wait, that movie already did happen.) Aliens infiltrate the Bluth Company and brainwash the entire cast into obedience…until Maeby finds a pair of sunglasses that shows her the truth, forcing her to fight the aliens in an epic battle, replete with bad-ass catchprases! (Wait, that’s a movie I’d actually pay to see; so, never mind, this entire post is obsolete.)
Second, the show is riddled with self-references and inside jokes. These are fantastic devices that truly do reward viewers for watching multiple times. Now, how much of this do you think could carry over to the film medium? Are you just going to make a 90-minute montage of inside jokes, or kill them altogether so people who haven’t watched the entire series through 40 times actually pick up on what’s going on? I can’t imagine either of those, or any middle ground, would make for a rewarding, or even acceptable, movie-watching experience.
Finally, the practical aspect. This probably would be a moot point if the whole thing had happened years ago, but it didn’t. George Michael now wears big-boy jeans; how bearable would it be to see him play the earnest and naive good son? (Hell, how bearable has it been to watch him play that role in every single goddamn movie he’s been in for the past three years?) Maeby’s in a similar situation: now at 21, her character would have a hard time coming off as a precocious trickster.
The excellent Arrested Development finale did a spectacular job of ending the story and the series. That’ll be the last we see of them, and that’s just fine. Now, time to go watch some Better Off Ted reruns, another excellent show that was never given a chance, but one that ended far before its time.
* Finally, an excuse to link to KSK.
Recent Comments