After taking a long break, I recently went back to watching my favourite season of my favourite show, Arrested Development, season 1. This is my first review on a season 1 AD episode since January 2008. It was great to rediscover the genius of this show, and to remember how it's head and shoulders above everything else.
What's so great about Charity Drive, the sixth episode (though aired as the fifth)? As usual for this show, the characters. We have classic GOB, trying to impress a beautiful woman with inept magic. We learn a bit about GOB's function in the family- to carry out the Bluths' dirty work, with Michael being surprised that GOB's actually useful. Mostly, GOB is trying to impress George. We have classic Lindsay, involved in charity but ignorant as to her causes, primarily acting out of vanity (for example, posing for sexy pictures), unwilling to get on a bus she considers gross, out of place in an outdoor environment. We have classic Lucille, xenophobic and mean towards her new Hispanic housekeeper. We have classic Buster, who puts a hole in a skull at an archaeological dig, in one of my favourite cutaways in any show (beat that, Family Guy).
And this episode really achieves something when the characters interact. Maeby doesn't come into the story until 15 minutes into the episode, but when she does we see George Michael's incestuous crush on her motivating him to do something bad to impress her. This ties into a major storyline of the show as a whole, the George Michael-Maeby relationship. We have great portraits of these two characters, with George Michael panicked about being caught, and Maeby care-free about being caught, just wanting the attention. We get an insight into Michael and Lindsay's brother-sister relationship at the end of the episode.
But even beyond the characters, there are jokes that are outstanding by themselves- this is the episode with Mr. Bananagrabber, a banana who grabs other bananas, which Michael doesn't want to explain. (Are Mr. Bananagrabber's motives cannibalistic or sexual?) We have a case of mistaken identity leading to funny outcomes when Michael picks up a Hispsanic woman. At the end of the episode, both Michael and George Michael are arrested- another thing that makes the show's title, Arrested Development, fitting. This is a stand-out episode for many reasons. 9.3/10
What's so great about Charity Drive, the sixth episode (though aired as the fifth)? As usual for this show, the characters. We have classic GOB, trying to impress a beautiful woman with inept magic. We learn a bit about GOB's function in the family- to carry out the Bluths' dirty work, with Michael being surprised that GOB's actually useful. Mostly, GOB is trying to impress George. We have classic Lindsay, involved in charity but ignorant as to her causes, primarily acting out of vanity (for example, posing for sexy pictures), unwilling to get on a bus she considers gross, out of place in an outdoor environment. We have classic Lucille, xenophobic and mean towards her new Hispanic housekeeper. We have classic Buster, who puts a hole in a skull at an archaeological dig, in one of my favourite cutaways in any show (beat that, Family Guy).
And this episode really achieves something when the characters interact. Maeby doesn't come into the story until 15 minutes into the episode, but when she does we see George Michael's incestuous crush on her motivating him to do something bad to impress her. This ties into a major storyline of the show as a whole, the George Michael-Maeby relationship. We have great portraits of these two characters, with George Michael panicked about being caught, and Maeby care-free about being caught, just wanting the attention. We get an insight into Michael and Lindsay's brother-sister relationship at the end of the episode.
But even beyond the characters, there are jokes that are outstanding by themselves- this is the episode with Mr. Bananagrabber, a banana who grabs other bananas, which Michael doesn't want to explain. (Are Mr. Bananagrabber's motives cannibalistic or sexual?) We have a case of mistaken identity leading to funny outcomes when Michael picks up a Hispsanic woman. At the end of the episode, both Michael and George Michael are arrested- another thing that makes the show's title, Arrested Development, fitting. This is a stand-out episode for many reasons. 9.3/10