Arrested Development

Arrested Development

The Bluth clan lives a life of excess, funded by the family credit card and paid for by the fortune patriarch George Bluth (Jeffrey Tambor) made in the tract home development business. Oldest son George Oscar Bluth II, nicknamed Gob, is an 'illusionist' of minor importance who has anger management issues, while the youngest son Buster whiles away his days taking obscure graduate school courses. Daughter Lindsay (Portia de Rossi) is a vain socialite who throws parties with her sexually ambiguous husband (David Cross, MR. SHOW). The only sane member of the family is Linsay's twin brother Michael (Jason Bateman), a widower who stands to inherit the reins to the family corporation when his father retires. However, at the retirement party some unexpected obstacles are thrown into the mix: Michael, having informed the family that his first task as head of the company will be to confiscate everyone's credit cards, is passed over in favour of his snobby alcoholic mother, Lucille (Jessica Walter). Just when Michael decides to wash his hands of the family and move to Arizona with his 13-year-old son George Michael, George is arrested on fraud charges and the family's assets are frozen. Michael is forced to step up and aid his family in adjusting to their new lives. Shot with a shaky camera and a documentary air that creates a feeling of intimacy with the characters, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT is reminiscent of Wes Anderson's THE ROYAL TENNENBAUMS and Christopher Guest's mockumentaries. Truly unique in the realm of TV sitcoms, it employs a cinematic humour that often exhibits a dark side. While targeting the filthy rich and the squeaky clean families of prime time, it also displays a certain tragedy in the characters' eccentricities and helplessness. During its two seasons on Fox Network it garnered massive critical acclaim, and was nominated for 7 Emmys, a Golden Globe, and won the TV Land 'Future Classic' award.