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[Arrested Development][Season 4 - 05/26] I just blue myself

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    Dr_KeenbeanDr_Keenbean Dumb as a butt Planet Express ShipRegistered User regular
    My girlfriend and I watched the first 7 episodes together yesterday over the course of the day and neither of us are particularly impressed. It's pretty clear that they couldn't get more than 2 of the principal actors in the same room more any length of time, hence all of the atrocious green screen which defeats all of the charm of the cast being able to play off each other.

    We're considering not even finishing it. I'm sure we will eventually but it's actually fairly exhausting to watch.

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    AphostileAphostile San Francisco, CARegistered User regular
    Geez, what were your expectations like before this premiered?

    The only bad green screen I noticed was episode 2 and the sweat lodge.

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    TexiKenTexiKen Dammit! That fish really got me!Registered User regular
    There's a really bad one in episode 9 or 10
    Lucille is auditioning for the F4 musical and she's on the audition stage and it's really apparent, even more than Henry Winkler in his white suit in episode 2.

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    DomhnallDomhnall Minty D. Vision! ScotlandRegistered User regular
    I only noticed one green screen.
    Lucille 2 at Lucille 1's trial.

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    y2jake215y2jake215 certified Flat Birther theorist the Last Good Boy onlineRegistered User regular
    just watched the first episode - pretty light on laughs, but judging by the y'alls reactions it takes a little while to get going so I'm not too worried

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    maybe i'm streaming terrible dj right now if i am its here
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    Evil MultifariousEvil Multifarious Registered User regular
    By the end I was really enjoying it. A lot of the later episodes felt like the better ones in the original three seasons.

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    pirateluigipirateluigi Arr, it be me. Registered User regular
    y2jake215 wrote: »
    just watched the first episode - pretty light on laughs, but judging by the y'alls reactions it takes a little while to get going so I'm not too worried

    For me, it started ramping up at around episode 4 and got really good by episode 7.

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    JuliusJulius Captain of Serenity on my shipRegistered User regular
    My girlfriend and I watched the first 7 episodes together yesterday over the course of the day and neither of us are particularly impressed. It's pretty clear that they couldn't get more than 2 of the principal actors in the same room more any length of time, hence all of the atrocious green screen which defeats all of the charm of the cast being able to play off each other.

    We're considering not even finishing it. I'm sure we will eventually but it's actually fairly exhausting to watch.

    I didn't notice much green screen and I think the clever writing made up for the smaller interaction. I'm on episode 8 at the moment and I've been enjoying each episode more than the previous. I dunno, I'll wait till I've seen them all to really comment but I like it so far.

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    Dr_KeenbeanDr_Keenbean Dumb as a butt Planet Express ShipRegistered User regular
    Aphostile wrote: »
    Geez, what were your expectations like before this premiered?

    That the actors would largely be interacting with each other in the family setting, thus maintaining the charm of the first 3 seasons instead of being really disjointed and awkward. And that certain main characters would make more than token appearances.

    We just made it through the Gob episode and it felt a little better. I'm really hoping this is a 'What everyone's been up to for 10 years' season and we will get more family interaction in the future.

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    SenjutsuSenjutsu thot enthusiast Registered User regular
    man steve holt got fat

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    OptimusZedOptimusZed Registered User regular
    Finished this today. Watched in spurts, 3 episodes at a time for the most part.

    It really picks up about halfway through the season. I'm going to head back and start rewatching at my leisure to try and catch the crossover stuff I missed and
    reconstruct the timeline because it's apparently crazy jumbled.

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    SenjutsuSenjutsu thot enthusiast Registered User regular
    edited May 2013
    haha holy crap

    Lucile 2: I used to wear this wig and he would be The Captain and I was

    Lindsey: Tennille?

    Lucile 2: and not make eye contact!

    Senjutsu on
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    So It GoesSo It Goes We keep moving...Registered User regular
    edited May 2013
    okay so Lucille 1 has a Dr Doom outfit on at Cinco, right?

    (I'm on ep 8 right now)

    So It Goes on
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    So It GoesSo It Goes We keep moving...Registered User regular
    omg ep 11
    I would totally have gay sex...but I just drank a bunch of water.

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    Captain TragedyCaptain Tragedy Registered User regular
    Just finished it. Overall, I liked it quite a bit. Like people said, it started pretty slow and a bit light on laughs, but around episode 3 or 4, it really started clicking for me, and the way the episodes and characters criss-crossed as the episodes moved forward was great. I'm kinda surprised that Mitch recommended that people space the episodes out and not watch them over a short period, because I feel like I caught a lot more of the various characters' plot lines intersecting and call backs than I would have if I watch it over a longer period of time (plus it would have taken longer to get to the stronger episodes).

    I thought the George Sr. episodes were the weakest - too much convulsion about his various deals and keeping track of whether it was him or Oscar, and a bit too light on laughs.

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    OneAngryPossumOneAngryPossum Registered User regular
    Complaining about the green screening is kind of amusing, considering the series has always had pretty atrocious effects work. They go so far as to mock it a few times in the old seasons. It's part of the charm for me.

    Wife and I are ten episodes in, and I've come to love the format a lot more as it goes on. I was kind of worried after the first episode, but the show's always had a serious ramp up from the early episodes of a season, and this is proving no different so far.

    My only real complaint is Seth Rogen as young George Senior. Terrible. Probably should have hired an actor instead.

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    Xenogears of BoreXenogears of Bore Registered User regular
    Too much Ron Howard is my big beef.

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    LucascraftLucascraft Registered User regular
    This season seamed to be about what happens to the family when Michael finally stops acting like the odd one out and begins acting like a Bluth. Perhaps previously Michael was a good person, but he changed for the worse and by the end he had completely become his parent's son, willing to stab his own son in the back over a woman.
    GOB did not become gay. The voiceover explicitly told us that he confused friendship for gayness (because he never had a friend before). There was no sexual attraction between GOB and Tony, and we don't even know for sure what happened that night in the model home. All we saw was Michael's reaction to a pantsless Tony standing on the balcony.
    I kept waiting for some sort of payoff to the George Sr. plot, but it never came. He kept rubbing his nipples, and acting very emasculated, and I was waiting for some sort of joke or hijinx to occur because of that, but all we saw was him put on Lindsey's discarded wig, which I would hardly call a payoff since nothing happened because of it. Plus, that isn't even the first time George has worn a wig before.
    Where in the timeline does the Michael/Lucille2 conversation happen outside of her apartment door, where he makes her dizzy from trying to kiss her and she's moving her head around? That's after Cinco, right? I guess what I'm trying to ask is, have we already seen Lucille2 as being alive after her disappearance on the night of Cinco? Some of the timeline stuff is hard to piece together.
    My favorite storyline continues to be Maeby's. In the original series I loved how she conned her way into Hollywood and became a highly successful movie producer/executive. And in the new season I love how she is able to con investors into giving FaceBlock some startup revenue and she uses that to kickstart an entire corporation from nothing, and they didn't even have a product to sell.

    Maeby is the true magician in the family.

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    LucascraftLucascraft Registered User regular
    Oh, and another thought I forgot to post above:
    Did I miss the resolution of the Michael/GOB car parking incident? They caused a large grill or something to fall off the top of a van, and they showed that scene like 3 times, and each time they showed a bit more of the van and the grill in the road, but I don't remember them ever resolving that. What was the significance of that detail? In the final piece they showed us, didn't a 4th car end up swerving to avoid hitting the grill?

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    TubularLuggageTubularLuggage Registered User regular
    Lucascraft wrote: »
    Oh, and another thought I forgot to post above:
    Did I miss the resolution of the Michael/GOB car parking incident? They caused a large grill or something to fall off the top of a van, and they showed that scene like 3 times, and each time they showed a bit more of the van and the grill in the road, but I don't remember them ever resolving that. What was the significance of that detail? In the final piece they showed us, didn't a 4th car end up swerving to avoid hitting the grill?
    I'm pretty sure it was a fake bug from the top of Steve Holt's pest control business van.

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    DiannaoChongDiannaoChong Registered User regular
    edited May 2013
    GOB did not become gay. The voiceover explicitly told us that he confused friendship for gayness (because he never had a friend before). There was no sexual attraction between GOB and Tony, and we don't even know for sure what happened that night in the model home. All we saw was Michael's reaction to a pantsless Tony standing on the balcony.

    Something happened that made Tony want to forget, and GOB to not want to forget for once. And then explicitly tell his brother about what he was doing while misdirecting it through him.

    Also:
    they were wearing the masks of each other, as egg put it "to make it hotter, wouldnt you have sex with yourself" Tony may not know who he did it with, but wanted to forget because he sexed up ann.

    DiannaoChong on
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    LucascraftLucascraft Registered User regular
    GOB did not become gay. The voiceover explicitly told us that he confused friendship for gayness (because he never had a friend before). There was no sexual attraction between GOB and Tony, and we don't even know for sure what happened that night in the model home. All we saw was Michael's reaction to a pantsless Tony standing on the balcony.

    Something happened that made Tony want to forget, and GOB to not want to forget for once. And then explicitly tell his brother about what he was doing while misdirecting it through him.
    And again... GOB has never had a friend before. He found someone with common interests, common colloquialisms, and someone that he enjoyed spending time with. He assumed it was gay feelings he was having, but what he was actually experiencing was friendship for the first time. He didn't want to forget his friend (even if he thought it was something else).

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    VariableVariable Mouth Congress Stroke Me Lady FameRegistered User regular
    y2jake215 wrote: »
    just watched the first episode - pretty light on laughs, but judging by the y'alls reactions it takes a little while to get going so I'm not too worried

    For me, it started ramping up at around episode 4 and got really good by episode 7.

    I think I'd agree with this, while also adding the first ep is better now that I know wtf is going on and I'm gonna rewatch the rest of them.

    I'm incredibly satisfied with what we got.

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    VariableVariable Mouth Congress Stroke Me Lady FameRegistered User regular
    Lucascraft wrote: »
    This season seamed to be about what happens to the family when Michael finally stops acting like the odd one out and begins acting like a Bluth. Perhaps previously Michael was a good person, but he changed for the worse and by the end he had completely become his parent's son, willing to stab his own son in the back over a woman.
    GOB did not become gay. The voiceover explicitly told us that he confused friendship for gayness (because he never had a friend before). There was no sexual attraction between GOB and Tony, and we don't even know for sure what happened that night in the model home. All we saw was Michael's reaction to a pantsless Tony standing on the balcony.
    I kept waiting for some sort of payoff to the George Sr. plot, but it never came. He kept rubbing his nipples, and acting very emasculated, and I was waiting for some sort of joke or hijinx to occur because of that, but all we saw was him put on Lindsey's discarded wig, which I would hardly call a payoff since nothing happened because of it. Plus, that isn't even the first time George has worn a wig before.
    Where in the timeline does the Michael/Lucille2 conversation happen outside of her apartment door, where he makes her dizzy from trying to kiss her and she's moving her head around? That's after Cinco, right? I guess what I'm trying to ask is, have we already seen Lucille2 as being alive after her disappearance on the night of Cinco? Some of the timeline stuff is hard to piece together.
    My favorite storyline continues to be Maeby's. In the original series I loved how she conned her way into Hollywood and became a highly successful movie producer/executive. And in the new season I love how she is able to con investors into giving FaceBlock some startup revenue and she uses that to kickstart an entire corporation from nothing, and they didn't even have a product to sell.

    Maeby is the true magician in the family.

    on the 4th spoiler with some timeline discussion
    I thought the dizzy head is ON cinco. as far as I can tell, we don't see much at all that's after cinco.

    really trying to figure what's the actual last chronological thing that happens.

    I think michael is given a forget me now, and we know that buster is gonna get arrested, lindsay is gonna run for office, lucille says she is going to get sober, tobias is still a sex offender and he just blew himself, maeby is now a sex offender


    on the second spoiler
    gob isn't gay, he's tricked into it and tries to take a forget me now. When tony calls him because tony forgot, gob doesn't appear happy. at least I think so.

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    abotkinabotkin Registered User regular
    Me, my wife, and my brother all marathoned season four today. My wife and I had also rewatched the previous seasons over the last several days. We all enjoyed the new season, but none of us enjoyed it as much as the previous seasons. As others have said, it definitely ramped up as the season went on after a somewhat worrisome start. There were a number of flaws, but it wasn't enough to stop us from enjoying it as a whole though.

    Also, add me to the list of people that didn't even recognize Portia at first. I even had to ask the others if that was supposed to be a young Lindsey or something, because it was throwing me off so much.
    None of us enjoyed the drastic change to Michael's character. In the original seasons, he was quite competent and a mostly nice guy, but in the new season he just comes off as mostly incompetent and assholish.

    Thinking more on it, this new season almost comes off as Darkest Timeline material from Community. All of the characters in the show are either worse people than they were and/or the flaws they already had are enhanced to an absurd degree.

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    JibbaJibba Registered User regular
    I agree about the issues with pacing but it seemed like they were in a difficult situation, both in terms of expectations and the logistics of the story. Maybe they thought it was the quickest way to go through everyone's story and remind viewers what had happened before? The story arc was much shorter this time, but much wider. In the past, they'd have 2 or 3 stories going on at the same time, which would usually meet up in the end. In this case, they went through one story but every character's story was happening simultaneously.

    I guess the main problem was that they wanted to push the story further into the future, but doing so meant they'd need to recap what everyone had been up to and that would be extremely difficult using the old style. Since next season will be starting
    post-punch
    , I assume they'll be able to go back to the old style and won't have to cram so much in.

    I think George and Lindsey's parts were by far the weakest, but on the other hand Gob/Tobias/Buster and more had awesome parts. And I agree, it picks up at episode 4 and gets awesome by 7. Still could've used more Buster and better conclusions to some of the story line, but I still liked it.

    I actually enjoyed all the new characters quite a bit. I was worried at first that they were sticking too much to old jokes, but I really like the new people they added.

    And Michael was always kind of a self absorbed loser. He did a better job hiding it before while running the company and taking care of everyone, but I didn't think his character was that out of line from stuff he did before.
    Yeah, he took a shower with George Michael but he's always been extremely domineering with GM.

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    JibbaJibba Registered User regular
    I would like to understand the Ostrich theme a bit better.

    The Bluth's all bury their head in the sand
    except in this season, where they mostly stopped besides Michael.

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    AManFromEarthAManFromEarth Let's get to twerk! The King in the SwampRegistered User regular
    I do think the change ot Michael's character is the most drastic.
    Like, he was alway a jag eclipsed by his jag family, but he wasn't as bad as he suddenly was now.

    But it was funny as hell so whatevs.

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    P10P10 An Idiot With Low IQ Registered User regular
    edited May 2013
    Well, the years have been rough on him.
    He stops keeping the family business afloat and strikes out on his own and then flounders.

    P10 on
    Shameful pursuits and utterly stupid opinions
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    JibbaJibba Registered User regular
    I think the vast majority of his good behavior before was because, as Lindsay says, he got off on looking down on them, so it was more of a backlash to the bad things they were doing.

    With less and less contact with them, to deter him into being good, he sunk further into Bluthdom.

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    King RiptorKing Riptor Registered User regular
    Basically if he wasnt keeping his family together Micheal is the most Bluth of them all

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    DehumanizedDehumanized Registered User regular
    Basically if he wasnt keeping his family together Micheal is the most Bluth of them all
    Sort of how George Michael starts lying then discovers that he really enjoys it.

    I really liked the new season. I think it's overall a success, and probably better than a decent amount of Season 3 was. Not all the gags hit perfectly but the ones that did got me like classic AD, no question about it.

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    KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    edited May 2013
    Tobias was a little too stupid in his first episode. I found it grating. Also, the thing with the duck was really dumb. Did they honestly think that would work?
    I was a bit thrown by Portia's aging as well, but that is life. Considering she looked about the same in "Better off Ted", it was surprising.

    Krathoon on
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    rhylithrhylith Death Rabbits HoustonRegistered User regular
    Krathoon wrote: »
    Tobias was a little too stupid in his first episode. I found it grating. Also, the thing with the duck was really dumb. Did they honestly think that would work?
    I was a bit thrown by Portia's aging as well, but that is life. Considering she looked about the same in "Better off Ted", it was surprising.

    Remember Hot Ham Water?

    Lindsay does not understand food.

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    TomantaTomanta Registered User regular
    Krathoon wrote: »
    Tobias was a little too stupid in his first episode. I found it grating. Also, the thing with the duck was really dumb. Did they honestly think that would work?
    I was a bit thrown by Portia's aging as well, but that is life. Considering she looked about the same in "Better off Ted", it was surprising.

    You do realize that Lindsay's only cooking experience is sticking ham in water and calling it "hot ham water", right?

    I totally buy them thinking it would work.

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    Skull2185Skull2185 Registered User regular
    I've watched up to episode 10 so far. It isn't bad, but this doesn't feel like Arrested Development to me. I don't know, it's like everyone filmed their scenes when they could, and they could rarely get everyone together at the same time. There really isn't much interaction between the main characters, and the stuff in between feels like filler material.

    There's still some AD gold to be found here, though. Tobias finding that delightful method acting class, for instance :lol:

    Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
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    KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    Tomanta wrote: »
    Krathoon wrote: »
    Tobias was a little too stupid in his first episode. I found it grating. Also, the thing with the duck was really dumb. Did they honestly think that would work?
    I was a bit thrown by Portia's aging as well, but that is life. Considering she looked about the same in "Better off Ted", it was surprising.

    You do realize that Lindsay's only cooking experience is sticking ham in water and calling it "hot ham water", right?

    I totally buy them thinking it would work.
    Still, if you look at a cooked duck, it is plucked and gutted. It is like they have zero reasoning skills.

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    rhylithrhylith Death Rabbits HoustonRegistered User regular
    Krathoon wrote: »
    Tomanta wrote: »
    Krathoon wrote: »
    Tobias was a little too stupid in his first episode. I found it grating. Also, the thing with the duck was really dumb. Did they honestly think that would work?
    I was a bit thrown by Portia's aging as well, but that is life. Considering she looked about the same in "Better off Ted", it was surprising.

    You do realize that Lindsay's only cooking experience is sticking ham in water and calling it "hot ham water", right?

    I totally buy them thinking it would work.
    Still, if you look at a cooked duck, it is plucked and gutted. It is like they have zero reasoning skills.

    Yes exactly.

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    Evil MultifariousEvil Multifarious Registered User regular
    Krathoon wrote: »
    Tomanta wrote: »
    Krathoon wrote: »
    Tobias was a little too stupid in his first episode. I found it grating. Also, the thing with the duck was really dumb. Did they honestly think that would work?
    I was a bit thrown by Portia's aging as well, but that is life. Considering she looked about the same in "Better off Ted", it was surprising.

    You do realize that Lindsay's only cooking experience is sticking ham in water and calling it "hot ham water", right?

    I totally buy them thinking it would work.
    Still, if you look at a cooked duck, it is plucked and gutted. It is like they have zero reasoning skills.

    These characters have always been caricatures of real people. Tobias and Lindsay are implausible, silly characters who have moments of psychological realism for plot purposes (mostly Lindsay. Tobias is basically a cartoon). It's not inconsistent with the other seasons.

    It probably stands out a bit more here because they are sometimes the focus of an entire episode, instead of providing a bizarre comic interlude during a more grounded scene.

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    maximumzeromaximumzero I...wait, what? New Orleans, LARegistered User regular
    Man has Alia Shawkat filled out nicely up top.

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