Like Arrested Development, Community improves as it goes along and as you get to know the characters. Jumping in with one of the weirder, experimental episodes means you won’t get that extra depth.
Start from the beginning of the series. If you’re not a fan by the time the paintball episode comes around, drop it. But you will be.
Oh, and two more funnier-than-Arrested-Development shows: Venture Bros and Archer.
Yeah. Anyone who grabbed a random Arrested Development episode from the middle of season 3 is just going to end up confused and will probably miss three quarters of the jokes.
I might also agree with you in this.
Community, Modern Family, and 30 Rock all owe AD a little something.
I had moderately high hopes for Running Wilde. It has its moments here and there, but it never has enough of them. It needs more balance and probably a broader cast (too bad David Cross is not a regular).
About as much as AD owes Soap.
Maybe less.
Archer (on FX) being most obvious recommendation here. Show’s creator has gone on record as being huge Arrested Development fan; has explained show as being “James Bond meets Arrested Development” as elevator pitch.
Show stars Jessica Walters (Lucille Bluth) and Judy Greer (Kitty Sanchez), along with guest appearances from Jeffrey Tambor (George Sr.). Walters’ character is arguably the same one she played in Arrested.
For those who have yet to experience Archer, 3 episodes can be viewed on FX site.
Yeah, I don’t see too much of a connection between AD and Community. If anything, Community reminds me the most of the classic years of The Simpsons, when they were able to cram each episode with great jokes and do character development and tell a story, all while creating a uniquely weird and hilarious universe.
Season 3 of 30 Rock was pretty blatant with the AD riffage.
Well, the great thing about AD was the running gags. The show really rewarded long time viewers by paying off jokes that were set in motion episodes or even seasons in advance. Community tends to be a lot more of a self contained episodic comedy, but what it is able to accomplish in the space of a half hour is brilliant.
If someone just wanted to watch an episode of either, I’d recommend Community every time. However, if someone wanted to know which DVD set to pick up because they were going to watch the entire series, AD is the way to go, hands down.
Of BahJustBah’s LawBlog? You, sir, are quite a mouthful.
We’re not here to talk nonsense to BahJustBahblaw.
Oh, yeah, I like Archer just as much, if not more. I’ve been Google/Netflix/following the actors, producers and directors from AD to see if anything was good (some are mentioned above which I will check out more) . . . but nothing quite as awesome. But I hear there is going to be a movie now! Maybe that will lead to more series! Or maybe that will lead to a Firefly like thing where they kill off two major characters.
Anyway, the one I am watching now contains one of the best jokes in the series. Season 1, Ep 10 Pier Pressure . . . the scene where GOB goes to a motel to strip dance in a little police outfit and brings his boombox and goes “Police! Open up!” at the door then ducks to adjust his boombox while a shotgun blows apart the door… man, that was an epic TV moment. What else is out there like that? The best back and forth on TV today seem to be between Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey.
I wouldn’t hold my breath for an Arrested Development movie. They’ve been talking about it for years, but it never seems to come together. Also, it’s not like AD was a popular show, so there’s like there’s some massive built-in audience for a movie in the first place.
Do not make the accident of thinking “The increasingly poor decisions of todd margaret” is anything like AD because it shares a few actors, it isn’t. It may be the worst thing I watched on TV this year and not in a fun way, just a dumb way.
You suck at making me not want to see things. Because now I gotta see this.
-Tom
It might not have been the worst thing I saw on TV (that honor goes to one of the many housewives shows on Bravo), but it was not good.
I liked it.
You sir a trolling.
Cross took the idea of an unlikeable character and married it with a mindless character. Characters in AD seized upon the opportunity to do something stupid but they thought they were acting in their best interests.
In Todd Margaret, Cross goes out of his way to volunteer to be an idiot at every opportunity for no apparent reason. It ends up not being funny and instead made us at least continuously say - that’s stupid.
To me pretty much every story line involving Cross’s character in AD was the only unfunny part of the show’s run, so this changes nothing.
You didn’t even think the bits after the credits were funny?
Unlike most of the people here, I thought David Cross was consistently the worst part of Arrested Development because he seemed like he was in a different show than the other characters. Arrested Development’s world was definitely heightened reality (see Little Britain), and that allowed someone like Gob to exist. Tobias, though, was so extreme as to almost be winking at the audience.
I disagree with you about his motivation. He’s an idiot who doesn’t realize how incompetent he is. He thinks he has a relationship with the one night stand who has been telling him to leave her alone just like he thinks that he can run the European branch of his company. He’s always doing his best to achieve his goals, he is just disastrously unsuccessful at it.
What can I say, though? If a comedy is adequately funny, I can forgive plot and motivation problems of pretty much any size. And I thought this had consistent laughs. Or at least consistent smiling groans. I will readily admit that it would be a really tough show to watch for someone who has to, you know, like the protagonist of their entertainment.
edit:
To me pretty much every story line involving Cross’s character in AD was the only unfunny part of the show’s run
Yeah. Despite how stupid he is, I think that Todd Margaret fits into the world of the show much better than Tobias did the world of AD.
In all fairness, how much of this was preconceived notion based on Cross’s previous work? Man made a name for himself as subversive comic who fearlessly tackles and ridicules controversial issues, so his previous work didn’t match well with show material, so some may not have enjoyed Tobias role because it was so out of sync with something like a Mr. Show.