David's been talking this show up for ages, and recently decided to lend me the dvd set for season 1, in the hope that I would watch the first couple and then get hooked. One might well think that this was an unlikely hope given my own apathy towards basically all television, but to think that would be to reckon without: (a) the strange torpor-inducing power of summer (especially when full-time work awaits at its end); (b) the far better experience provided by being able to watch numerous episodes on end, without the curse of ad breaks, and without needing to remember to be home at, or to set the vcr for, the relevant times (I've always found life too short and too full, even over the summer holidays, to be organised around tv); and (c) the quality of Arrested Development itself. So, with all of those things aligned, I got quite into the show and ended up going through that first season pretty quickly.
The main thing about it, of course, is that it's funny, but it's also very fast-moving, and I like the way that there are some continuing narratives which run through all the episodes (most obviously to do with George Sr's incarceration and upcoming trial, and Michael's efforts to take over the running of the business) - there's a sense of plot (and, to some extent, character) development which is satisfying and makes me want to find out what happens in the next episode, and then the next, and so on. The wit seems a bit sharper than that to be found in most sitcoms (not that I'd really know), and the writers are willing to tread out on thin ice on occasion, plus the slapstick is funny in context - and, thank goodness, there's no laugh track. I don't really have favourite characters, but they're all well-realised despite their (dominating) comical aspects, and in the end the show is too warm-hearted not to be basically merciful in its presentation of them, for all of their (very pronounced) flaws and foibles.
Also, the show has taught me something that it had never even crossed my mind that I might learn - that Portia de Rossi is very attractive. Also-also, the number of Buster lookalikes - albeit generally marginally better dressed - roaming the cbd is quite remarkable (but perhaps that oughtn't to've been a surprise).
(I'd thought that, when I came to write this up, I might also do a 'Howard and television' summation, but really, who can be bothered?)
