[6.1/10] Ahhhh, this one is so hard to grade. On the merits, it’s one of the funnier episodes of season 4. Jessica Walter remains a national treasure, and her acid-tongued, manipulative Lucille Bluth remains one of T.V.’s most memorable characters. Just watching her trade barbs with Lucille 2, or go back and forth with Tobias, or nearly have a breakdown and epiphany due to be cast as the villain in both real life an the Fantastic 4 musical is a delight.
But holy hell, why in god’s name did Mitch Hurwitz and company include all the racist bullshit with “Jade Dragon Triad”. The voices, the stereotypes, the fucking making a shiv out of ramen noodles. Are you kidding me? It’s the kind of thing I would expect from an alt-right internet “comedy” channel on YouTube. The whole thing is a massive stain not just on the season, but on the show, and it’s really hard to just compartmentalize that from the other good work that Walter and company do here.
If you’re able to (and I wouldn’t blame if you don’t), there’s some good humor in the passive aggressive war of words between Lucille Bluth and Lucille 2 (and Liza Minelli is one of the few consistent bright spots and workhorses in this up and down season). The gags about “Club Fed” and the instances of Lucille finding people having tagged her stuff are a laugh with just that tinge of political and social commentary that made the original run of Arrested Development sing. And her involvement in Tobias’s show, coupled with the way it actually gives her some true realizations about herself, is both amusing and clever.
Most of these episodes either work or they don’t. Sometimes the show is on its game, sometimes it’s totally off, and sometimes it’s a mixed bag that leans one direction or another. But this is a different sort of thing entirely -- an episode that largely works (albeit while being hindered by the same disjointed storytelling that’s afflicted the whole season), except for one glaring, almost unforgivable bit of racist crap that threatens to sink it entirely. I don’t know what to do with this one folks, except to lament that Jessica Walter’s feature episode had to be saddled with this.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-06-04T01:11:01Z
[6.1/10] Ahhhh, this one is so hard to grade. On the merits, it’s one of the funnier episodes of season 4. Jessica Walter remains a national treasure, and her acid-tongued, manipulative Lucille Bluth remains one of T.V.’s most memorable characters. Just watching her trade barbs with Lucille 2, or go back and forth with Tobias, or nearly have a breakdown and epiphany due to be cast as the villain in both real life an the Fantastic 4 musical is a delight.
But holy hell, why in god’s name did Mitch Hurwitz and company include all the racist bullshit with “Jade Dragon Triad”. The voices, the stereotypes, the fucking making a shiv out of ramen noodles. Are you kidding me? It’s the kind of thing I would expect from an alt-right internet “comedy” channel on YouTube. The whole thing is a massive stain not just on the season, but on the show, and it’s really hard to just compartmentalize that from the other good work that Walter and company do here.
If you’re able to (and I wouldn’t blame if you don’t), there’s some good humor in the passive aggressive war of words between Lucille Bluth and Lucille 2 (and Liza Minelli is one of the few consistent bright spots and workhorses in this up and down season). The gags about “Club Fed” and the instances of Lucille finding people having tagged her stuff are a laugh with just that tinge of political and social commentary that made the original run of Arrested Development sing. And her involvement in Tobias’s show, coupled with the way it actually gives her some true realizations about herself, is both amusing and clever.
Most of these episodes either work or they don’t. Sometimes the show is on its game, sometimes it’s totally off, and sometimes it’s a mixed bag that leans one direction or another. But this is a different sort of thing entirely -- an episode that largely works (albeit while being hindered by the same disjointed storytelling that’s afflicted the whole season), except for one glaring, almost unforgivable bit of racist crap that threatens to sink it entirely. I don’t know what to do with this one folks, except to lament that Jessica Walter’s feature episode had to be saddled with this.