Arrested Development Review

Arrested Development truly is one of the best shows, new or otherwise, of the year: a laugh-out-loud, deeply quirky, and audacious series that has its own wacky agenda and dares to be delightfully different. There are few shows on network television right now that come close to matching Arrested's absurdist satire or twisted view of family crises. That the show mines its laughs by taking potshots at the filthy rich makes it so much more delicious.

Created and written by TV vet Mitchell Hurwitz (The Golden Girls, The Ellen Show) and executive-produced by Ron Howard and Brian Glazer (Howard's soothing voice-over narration gives this acid-laced comedy a folksy center), Arrested Development introduces us to the Bluth family, the type of upper crust, ultra-privileged family with flaws of Shakespearean proportions. Perhaps unfairly compared to Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums, whose children were failed prodigies seething with bitterness and disappointment, the Bluths share none of the Tenenbaums' pretensions. There are no deep psychological motivations at work. With the exception of son Michael (Jason Bateman), the Bluth offspring are lazy freeloaders who literally have not worked a day in their lives and who use the family's company credit card to finance their extravagant habits.