Created individual threads for episode specific comments, but this thread is to talk about season four as a complete entity. What worked. What didn’t. What storylines you enjoyed. What twists and turns you enjoyed.
[b]DO NOT PROCEED UNLESS YOU HAVE WATCHED THE ENTIRE SEASON. HERE THERE BE SPOILERS.
[/b]Discuss.
Overall I enjoyed it. It had a bit of a shaky start but the plotting was very cleverly done. I did like all the the call backs to the original. They seem to have left things open for some more.
Also there’s a Fakeblock ap available (for android at least). It didn’t take long for that to pop up.
I really don’t understand why there was such a letdown out there. I totally agree it had a slow start with a pretty dark opener, but they committed to a pretty interesting premise that ultimately pays off: Tell a story from each character’s viewpoint that gives you small pieces of the complete narrative that when seen as a whole is incredibly interesting, hysterically funny and totally rewarding.
Making the choice to literally fill in the backstory of what has happened is a huge load to bear (#Tobiasphrasing). I am fairly sure that most critics of the show watched about three or four of the eps and then went online to start venting. That simply isn’t fair. The season was designed to be mass consumed. They know that many people would watch these back to back day after day, judging this by its pieces rather than by the whole is absurd and wrong.
That being said, the show hits its stride by about episode 8. Enough pipe has been laid (#Tobiasphrasing) to allow them to start breaking new ground and play with the plot that they have now established. It is kind of funny, beside Colony Collapse and the Buster episode I can’t really point to any singular episodes in my mind which again I think is the point. What they gave us is an eight hour movie. I say it ultimately works and past episode 8 really starts to feel like Arrested Development at its prime. They swung for the fences and ultimately hit it out of the park. They paid homage to their own past (look at the murals as Michael walks through the airport), brought back old favorites (STEVE HOLT), and found new stories (The Method One group? Sheer brilliance).
I say thank you. Great job. Will be interesting on my next rewatch to see this right after I finish season 3.
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OB
Too many great things in these shows.
I am half way through my Season 4 re-watch and am amazed at how well put together this stuff is … absolute writing genius.
Great analysis of not only season 4, but the critics out there
Thanks S,
a good read. I’ll set aside the “I’ve made huge mistake” meme that all the detractors are victims of.
This series ( and other Netflix offerings) did raise a question in my mind of the place for commentary and analysis for television. With the “release all episodes at midnight” method it really does erode the place of the TV critic. The old method allowed the critic ( and the vast legion of commentary folk) to play along as a season unfolded and make episode by episode anlysis, reflection and commentary ( good, bad or in between). With the new delivery method, the viewer is allow to snarf or savor at their whim. Also since it’s immediate, the critic is by and large left out in the cold as far as relevance. If this model of content generation and deployment persists, I see the life of a TV critic being greatly changed.
As a side note, GWC at its inception was of the same model. Episode by Episode release, absorb and comment. It fosters reflection on the content and interaction and creation of a persistent community.
As a mental exercise, imagine if this “shot gun” deployment method is extended to all our currently “semi auto” delivery shows.
Imagine seeing all of Season X for :
Game of Thrones
Homeland
Breaking Bad
Justified
Longmire
etc.
etc.
just suddenly showing up in your Netflix ( Amazon) list of “New Episodes” one Sunday morning.
I think it will be a … wait for it … < game changer > … await the fury of Chuck
Anyhoo … just my ramblings.
OB
I think it is a really important lesson learned from this distribution model. They are totally right that people now mass consume content, but what I think they missed is people mass consume content that is already out there and aged. I definitely missed being able to finish an episode and then talk about it with my peeps. Instead it was like a race to get to the end and the whole thing got blurred.
I would have enjoyed them releasing these once a week and letting people properly react to them. Arrested Development would still be in the headlines next to the Mad Men weekly episode analyses.
true, AD was long awaited by an established fan base. Something like Netflix’s “House of Cards” I stumbled upon by accident from recommendations of folks here at the GWC forum ( it is awesome by the by).
I’m sure Netflix and other providers have a formula as to how to generate the P&L for their content but with this new model for release I can’t easily see it. I would imagine “Netflix Original” content is a long term goal to have tent pole content that cannot be “taken away” from contract expiration.
The weirdest thing is to see “House of Cards” DVD Season #1 box set on sale for $29.99 on Amazon. Who would buy this? Someone without access to internet I suppose. I think the DVD/BD market is drying up, and with it a lot of the gravy train for TV ( and movies) that has sustained the market.
/shrug … hopefully more AD comes our way. The format and 30+ minute episodes is a telling sign for the future of streams I think.
OB
Behold the practice of “Binge Watching” … ( snarfing ).
====>>>> Linkage to Geek-O-System Article Regarding.
OB
I never watched AD when it was first on. It came on right as I started working nights a year or two before I got a DVR (back then we called it “A TiVo”) and by the time I got a DVR I wasn’t really watching TV any more. At some point, I saw about half of an episode and it really didn’t grab me, so I wrote the show off as “not my thing.”
Then I heard Season 4 was on Netflix and I thought to myself, “Why not watch the whole thing?” That was a month ago and now I have 
I loved Season 4. I think it was the best of the bunch. I didn’t notice it started slow; I saw the big picture forming in front of my eyes and got a big grin on my face. I couldn’t see the whole thing but I knew it was going to be great. And I was not wrong in the least.
