By now, news of Netflix’s decision to officially pick up a fifth season of the beloved comedy Arrested Development has spread across the internet. The new batch of episodes will once again bring the Bluth family back together for a series of misadventures, with all of the show’s principal actors reprising their roles.
Even though Arrested Development’s return has been hinted at for years now, the confirmation of its fifth season is still cause for celebration. At the same time, I can sympathize with any fans who will meet today’s announcement with trepidation. After all, let’s be honest: Season four was only OK, and if you look at the facts about season five, it’s easy to worry that series creator Mitch Hurwitz and his team will repeat the same missteps they made last time around.
For the purpose of this article, I’m going to focus on two main critiques of season four: The long runtimes of its episodes and the disjointed nature of its character interactions. The reviewers who espoused the former of those two opinions noted that, by freeing Arrested Development from the strict, 22-minute order of network television, Netflix negatively affected the show’s pacing.
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Those who offered the latter criticism particularly pointed to the role of Tony Hale, who could only give limited screen time to his role as man-child Buster Bluth. Hale has admitted there was some overlap between his Arrested Development season four schedule and his commitment to Veep, the HBO comedy on which he features prominently.
Based on interviews Hurwitz has given in the past, he is aware of the polarizing response season four’s structure has received, so there’s reason to have hope that season five will be a little tighter than its predecessor. But will its cast be able to bounce off each other the way they used to? Hale, for example, has confirmed that Buster Bluth will ride again, but he is still very much a part of Veep. Will Arrested Development be able to shine in spite of its cast members’ busy schedules?
We won’t be able to answer these questions until 2018, when the new episodes will arrive. Here’s to high hopes — but also measured expectations.
