Arrested Development: Encyclopedia II - Arrested Development - Themes and other characteristics

Arrested Development - Themes and other characteristics

The show focuses on the tension that developed between the members of the Bluth family, primarily from their diminished spending power. Each show pulls from a serpentine mix of sibling rivalries, unresolved oedipal conflicts, sexual incompatibilities, personal identity crises, adolescent trauma, aging, pride, miscommunication, lying, guilt, subterfuge, determination, manipulation, mutilation, social status anxiety, incest taboo and countless other themes.

Much like other dysfunctional-family comedies such as Malcolm in the Middle, The Simpsons, Roseanne, and Married... with Children, the family unit is depicted as necessary for the survival of the individual. Much of the comedy comes from the quirks of the characters and the patterns that developed within the family structure. The show is considered by some as a faster-paced variant of the series Soap.

Arrested Development - Unique presentation

Arrested Development uses several elements that are rare for American live-action sitcoms. Like a documentary, it often cuts away abruptly from scenes in order to supplement the narrative with false documents like security camera footage, Bluth family photos, website screenshots, and archive films. Flashbacks are also extensively used to show the Bluth family in various stages of their lives. The show does not employ a laugh track, allowing for uninterrupted back-and-forth dialogue and permitting more time for plot development and jokes. An omniscient third-person narrator (producer Ron Howard) ties together the multiple plot threads running through each episode, and provides tongue-in-cheek commentary. Wordplay is abundant, for humor and plot; a character may misinterpret an ambiguous phrase with embarrassing or disastrous results. Perhaps most startling for new viewers is the pace, which throws complex, often subtle humor and plot details at the viewer with little breathing room.

The show always ends with a segment called "On the next Arrested Development." Unlike most TV shows, however, the events in this segment usually are not part of the next episode; this segment mainly exists to wrap up certain parts of the episode to which it is attached.

Arrested Development - Intertextuality and reflexivity

The show is highly intertextual and reflexive, features commonly associated with postmodernism. For example, Arrested Development often alludes to the past work of its cast and crew through the restaging of familiar scenarios, such as Barry Zuckerkorn's jumping the shark from the Happy Days, and by casting former collaborators in small bit parts, including many cast members from Mr. Show with Bob and David. Guest stars frequently appear from other lauded television comedies such as Saturday Night Live, SCTV, The Daily Show, Seinfeld, Scrubs, Curb Your Enthusiasm, MadTV, the Upright Citizens Brigade and The Simpsons. Most of the show's intertextual flavor comes from television culture, but there are other examples, such as the famous falling wall stunt from Buster Keaton's silent feature Steamboat Bill Jr. reenacted by Buster Bluth in the episode "The One Where They Build a House".

The show's reflexiveness can be literal—with uncredited narrator Ron Howard acknowledging the fact that he is a narrator telling a story—or subtle. In the episode "The British Bombshell", Michael tells George Sr., who he believes is trying to convince him of a lie, "You're a regular Brad Garrett." This is in reference to the cast member behind George Sr., Jeffrey Tambor, who had lost the Emmy for "Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series" to Brad Garrett right before the episode aired. The series has acknowledged its competition (Desperate Housewives), commercial sponsor (Burger King), its struggle to go after an "idiot demographic", its use of dramatic moments as act breaks, and Fox's cutback of the second season to 18 episodes. The episode "S.O.B's" made numerous references to Arrested Development's attempts to remain on air by parodying typical television ratings ploys. In addition, Ron Howard has made several references to his experiences on the Andy Griffith Show.

Arrested Development - Topicality

Arrested Development plays with divisive, controversial social and political issues. Writers have turned references to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, the U.S. Army's recruiting crisis, the non-existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" photo-op into jokes. In that same vein, George Sr., perhaps to illustrate his villainy, has appeared as Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. It has also poked fun at the decadence of American white collar criminals, religious protest campaigns, controversy over public display of the Ten Commandments, and the restriction of protesters to "free speech zones". Less controversial references include "Girls with Low Self-Esteem" (a parody of Girls Gone Wild) and low-carb diets.

Arrested Development - Continuity

The plot regularly features callbacks to previous episodes (e.g., GOB's recurring use of the phrase "Come on!", repeated use of family members' "chicken dances", George Sr.'s Cornballer invention, repeated use of the phrase "I've made a huge mistake," the subtle repetition of "We need ice," and the interrogative, "Her?") and will often use what creator Mitch Hurwitz has termed "call-forwards", wherein plots or events will be foreshadowed in subtle ways. For example, many references are made to the loss of limbs, foreshadowing the loss of Buster's hand in the second season. First season episode "Pier Pressure" has several flashbacks to George Sr. hiring a man with a prosthetic arm to teach his children lessons by staging elaborate scenes in which the man has his arm cut off as a result of the children's improper actions. In the first episode of the second season, a news report of a seal attack is played in the background of a scene. Before losing his hand, Buster retrieves his hand-shaped chair, which his mother had secretly given to her maid. Upon retrieval, Buster states, "I never thought I'd miss a hand so much." Bus stop benches have also been utilized for this purpose. In one scene Buster is partly obscuring an Army bench so our view reveals "ARM OFF" and Rita, who we find out later is mentally handicapped, is sitting on a Wee Britain bench so our view reveals "WEE BRAIN".

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Themes and other characteristics", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki