1x14 Shock and Aww

[9.5/10] Oh my god, I just laughed my ass off at this episode. It’s filled with so many hilarious little moments that accumulate into hilarious big moments and storylines that knot together the way only Arrested Development can.

Let’s start with the one part of the episode I wasn’t over the moon about -- George Sr. having Jane Lynch as a supposed acolyte who’s actually an SEC informant. The whole bra-tweaking bit is pretty lame, even if the guys in the surveillance van rushing out to wash a fake dog is an amusingly loony gag. I have to admit, I have fond memories of George Sr. as a character, but on rewatch, all his storylines thus far have been mildly amusing at best.

Thankfully, pretty much everything else in this episode was just glorious and uproariously funny. The inadvertent love triangle between Michael, his son, his brother, and his son’s ethics teacher is the comedic gift that keeps on giving. For one thing, the awkward banter between Michael and Ms. Barely is just delightful. The way that the two of them try to laugh in order to be flirty an agreeable, when it actuality discussing people having strokes, dying, etc. is both naturalistic and blackly funny. And the irony of Michael lying to cover up his relationship with George Michael’s ethics teacher is a solid gag in and of itself.

But what I really love about that part of the episode is how many individual, hilarious connections and mix-ups there are. I really enjoyed how GOB’s attempt to get back at Michael for Marta results in him trying to sleep with anyone Michael show’s the least bit of attraction to (and the line about GOB confusing basic human decency for attraction is a winner), no matter how unattractive they are, only to be comically confused when they call him back. I liked the little reveal that Maeby was the one who inadvertently gave the prior ethics teacher the stroke.

And I like the further confusion that Lindsay thinks George Michael wants Mrs. Barely as a mom rather than a crush, leading to a delightfully awkward conversation between the two of them (George Michael’s “yikes” is a great reaction). This is the show at its most transgressive and it wrings the humor from all of this weirdness perfectly.

Then you have Lucille adopting Anyong just to get to Buster, which is such an absurd, Lucille thing to do, and Buster’s jealousy routine is a comic delight. Plus, George Michael’s “great, another uncle to compete with” is a hilarious line.

And that’s not even counting all the little, mostly-standalone gags. Ms. Barely’s fascination with Sadam Hussein is another weird, dark, but very funny gag, as is George Michael defacing a rare book to get a picture of the dictator in a speedo. George Michael talking about his plan to dance with Ms. Barely at the dance, only for another student to pull it off, with George Michael remarking “that would have worked!” in disbelief cracked me up. (It was a good episode for George Michael.) Every piece of this just brought the laughs.

Overall, one of the show’s very best episodes on a laugh-for-laugh basis, with the only knock being a middling-at-best George Sr. episode that doesn't otherwise detract from the comic brilliance on display.