Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Arrested Development (season two)

Have been watching this at intervals over the past few weeks at David's place; finished today. Still likin' it heaps. It's not really the sort of show that particularly lends itself to parsing into individual episodes, but one near the end of this season, involving the throwing of a wedding anniversary party for Lucille and George Snr, the meeting of Ann's parents, and George-Michael and Ann's pre-engagement plans, stood out, in part because it was so full, with all of the characters being brought into play, but also of course because it was particularly funny. The way in which the series develops encourages identification with the characters - in the episode where Michael and Maeby, probably the two most obviously likeable characters in the show, were bonding, I found myself feeling happy about the pairing - and the initially extremely unlikeable ones (especially Lucille and Gob) become far more sympathetic as things unfurl, while still remaining just as obnoxious as they ever were (at this stage, Gob is probably my favourite character). The pace of events definitely picks up over the last few episodes of the season, too. Bring on the final season...

Season one thoughts here.