Arrested Development Season 4 Episodes 2-6 REVIEW

Episode 2 - Borderline Personalities - George, Sr.

This episode emphasized my fear about the new season.  New episodes about characters we don't care for as much will fall very flat.  I'm not all that interested in George Sr. and I really don't like Oscar. So an episode all about those two characters isn't particularly interesting to me.

Part of the problem with George Sr. is that since season 1, they've taken him in weird directions.  I don't want to watch him as a guru in a desert. It's just not interesting. Likewise, it added some weirdness that just didn't work.

RATING - 6 out of 10.

This show emphasizes the weakness of the new format.  But there's still some laughs to be found.

Episode 3 - Indian Takers - Lindsay

I enjoy Lindsay as a side character. Tobias always makes me laugh. So I had pretty high hopes for this episode. Unfortunately it left me pretty disappointed.  The jokes didn't work as well as I wanted.  The storyline was odd and moved too quickly.  But I still prefer these characters more than the others.

RATING - 6.5 out of 10

Episode 4 - The B. Team - Michael

Now that's more like it!

This is the show I fell in love with.  The jokes work. The meta-jokes finally feel natural, and there are some great cameos.  In particular I enjoyed Carl Weathers part.  There were lots of great little clever moments of the show commenting on it's self.

RATING - 8 out of 10

Episode 5 - A New Start - Tobias

I've always had a soft spot for Tobias.  He's just funny to me.  My wife doesn't enjoy him at all, but this is my review not hers.  What I loved about this episode is that it made Tobias more sympathetic.  Likewise, they built some great meta-humor which came naturally.

RATING - 7 out of 10

Episode 6 - Double Crossers - George Sr.

As I said earlier, George Sr. is not my favorite character. However, this episode seemed to deal with a George centered episode well.  In fact, it managed to be one of the stronger character specific episodes thus far by including more characters.  I didn't fee like I was watching a George episode. I felt like it was just an episode.

The advantage of this episode is that Gob and Michael were given a large amount of screen time. Seeing the ensemble makes it feel like how the used to feel.  Some of the other episodes have felt like spin-off TV shows about individual characters.    This episode features a good number of the characters from the show.

Likewise, this episode is starting to not just show story lines criss crossing but also starting to build the bigger story. We're starting to see how everything comes together, and the big call back jokes are starting to happen.

RATING - 7 out of 10