Latest Articles by Sarah Canice Funke
I am about 2/3s of the way through the 2nd Season of Arrested Development (my coveted snatches of diversion from graduate studies/work). I am still a fan, but feeling increasingly more guilty about this fact. One minute I am dying of laughter and the next, I am asking myself "Why did I laugh at that?" I think I am drawn to ArrDev in part because of the random, absurd, bizarre humor. But I think what sets ArrDev apart from the mere bizarre is that they take rather mundane situations and make them bizarre. Normal neighbor disputes and rivalries turn into impossible renovation schemes involving moved walls and disappearing shelf space within the world of ArrDev. And then there is the build-up of the Comedy of Errors: so much word-play and mistaken meaning, I'm surprised Derrida didn't write the screenplay. But there is so much innuendo that I would never feel justified in recommending it to anyone (at least, not without a caveat) and so I remain more of a closet fan. (Well, not anymore, at any rate.)
And I suppose I should just admit my greatest sense of growing disappointment: I really just want Michael to [finally] end up with a nice girl. Ah! Such a hopeless romantic.
********************
Michael (trying to get his son's take on various names the family has suggested for the new Bluth Company housing development. He's obviously angling for his own idea to win George-Michael's approval): What do you think of when you hear Sudden Valley?
George-Michael: Salad Dressing. And not a very good one, either.
Michael: Yeah....well, what about Paradise Garden?
George-Michael: Well, I'd definitely considering marinading a chicken with that one, but hey.....
I feel the same way. There is so much innuendo, and I think about half of it I don't even catch so there's even more than I think. But because of the sheer amount it is sort of like Seinfeld - it makes them all look ridiculous and shallow. So I end up laughing at a lot of it. Plus the cleverness of the show makes up for the guilt I might feel watching it. Also, the fact that the show was under Fox censorship made it even funnier, since we never really SEE anything, we only hear about it. As for Michael, one element of the dark humor of the show is that nobody ever comes through, and nothing ever seems to turn out right. I like the Derrida reference, BTW.
Posted by: heidi at 14.10.06 18:08