User Reviews

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

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode, "Charity Drive." This episode is the sixth episode of the first season of Arrested Development, although it was meant to be the fifth episode. Both episodes have many similarities. The first similarity is that each episode focuses on rapid character development. We get to learn more about these characters and their past. For example, we learn here that Michael has an irrational fear of eating ice cream in his father's car because he spilled ice cream when he was younger. The second similarity is both episodes were directed by Greg Mottola. People may recognize the name because he would eventually go on to direct the super funny 2007 movie Superbad. Mottola definitely brought his own vision to these episodes. While Mottola exceled at character development, the plot in these episodes are a little scattered. That is to be expected with all of these subplots, but sometimes the plot/editing felt random. That said, there is a lot of funny things that occurred in this episode.

Michael has a meeting with his company's freeloaders and said that all of the work permits were correctly filed, but that actually proved false. In order to the move the file, Michael enlists GOB to break into the company's building. In return, GOB wants rights on his banana stand specialty, Mr. Bananagrabber. Instead of GOB doing the dirty work, he gets Maeby and George-Michael to break into the building. After his family accuses him of being uncharitable, Michael decides to offer who he thinks is his mother's housekeeper a ride home. Meanwhile, the rest of the episode focuses on a bachelorette auction designed to save the wetlands. The most "charitable" member of the Bluth family is Lindsay and she wants to use this opportunity to attract suitors. Lucille wants to use this auction to compete against her rival Lucille Austero (Liza Minnelli). Lucille uses Buster in her scheme against Lucille #2, but Buster just might choose the wrong Lucille.

As you can see, there is a lot to digest. My favorite subplot is the one where Michael attempts to help his mother's housekeeper, but the woman he is trying to help is just a random Latino woman. This subplot had me in stitches, and also I was yet again impressed how much detail is put into showing Michael up as a serial killer with the decor of George Sr's car. The nail polish spilt by Lindsay is the blood, the excavated bones left behind by Buster are the bones of a dead person, and of course the destination is the wetlands so perhaps Michael is a homicidal maniac? I think Michael needs to learn how to distinguish people!

Overall, this is another solid episode even if there is a lot to digest. The acting is great and every main character got a chance to shine. I liked how the episode ended with both Michael and George-Michael in the back of a police car. I really like the direction the season is heading in.

My Grade: A-