[5.9/10] This one is certainly meta, so there’s that. You’d think that Arrested Development would be good at doing showbiz parodies, since obviously everyone involved knows what showbiz is like. But the inside baseball shtick about Imagine Entertainment vs. Jerry Bruckheimer’s outfit falls flat, and the various spoofs of movie-making with Michael working as a producer aren’t nearly as funny as the glimpses we got of Maeby’s secret career as a film executive in the original run.
This also seems to be the designated “Hey, remember them!” episode of the revival season. We not only get a return appearance from Kitty (who apparently knows where literal bodies are buried, I guess?), but from Carl Weathers, James Lipton as Warden Gentiles, and Andy Richter. The episodes doesn’t wring nearly the laughs out of any of them in their return engagements here as in their initial appearances. The efforts to combine them all into the same episode leaves the various cameos seeming shoehorned in and pointless outside of the “Look who it is!” factor.
I’m also pretty lukewarm on the romcom parody. The show basically already pulled a more brilliant romcom spoof off with the Rita arc, so joking about meetcutes and Michael’s obliviousness and even sliminess in certain situations just feels like a less funny, less clever version of the same idea. Isla Fisher is fine, but the setup of Michael trying to use his “hanging by a thread” producer role technicality to court a woman who reminds him of his wife doesn’t do much for me. The same goes for the “It’s Ron Howard’s daughter” reveal.
Oh yeah, speaking of the “Look who it is!” factor, Howard steps out from the narrator role and appears on screen in a major role for the first time (save for his cameo in the season 3 finale, which actually creates some decent continuity here!). Once more, the showbiz parody stuff (like big time Hollywood producers having advance knowledge of the financial crisis and lowering their floors to get higher ceilings) doesn’t feel particularly deep or funny as a satire of tinseltown bigwigs. You can feel the show getting ever-more self-referential, which is fun, but also often a dangerous sign for a comedy in particular.
The only strong part in this related to Michael’s relationship with his father. The “never sign anything” bit with young Barry Zuckercorn is amusing, and the exchanges between Michael and his dad over trying to impress a girl is the first time this season we’ve gotten something resembling real human emotion.
Overall, another underwhelming outing that doesn’t have a lot of zing in its Hollywood spoofs, its romcom takeoff, or its cavalcade of cameos.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-05-23T03:19:18Z
[5.9/10] This one is certainly meta, so there’s that. You’d think that Arrested Development would be good at doing showbiz parodies, since obviously everyone involved knows what showbiz is like. But the inside baseball shtick about Imagine Entertainment vs. Jerry Bruckheimer’s outfit falls flat, and the various spoofs of movie-making with Michael working as a producer aren’t nearly as funny as the glimpses we got of Maeby’s secret career as a film executive in the original run.
This also seems to be the designated “Hey, remember them!” episode of the revival season. We not only get a return appearance from Kitty (who apparently knows where literal bodies are buried, I guess?), but from Carl Weathers, James Lipton as Warden Gentiles, and Andy Richter. The episodes doesn’t wring nearly the laughs out of any of them in their return engagements here as in their initial appearances. The efforts to combine them all into the same episode leaves the various cameos seeming shoehorned in and pointless outside of the “Look who it is!” factor.
I’m also pretty lukewarm on the romcom parody. The show basically already pulled a more brilliant romcom spoof off with the Rita arc, so joking about meetcutes and Michael’s obliviousness and even sliminess in certain situations just feels like a less funny, less clever version of the same idea. Isla Fisher is fine, but the setup of Michael trying to use his “hanging by a thread” producer role technicality to court a woman who reminds him of his wife doesn’t do much for me. The same goes for the “It’s Ron Howard’s daughter” reveal.
Oh yeah, speaking of the “Look who it is!” factor, Howard steps out from the narrator role and appears on screen in a major role for the first time (save for his cameo in the season 3 finale, which actually creates some decent continuity here!). Once more, the showbiz parody stuff (like big time Hollywood producers having advance knowledge of the financial crisis and lowering their floors to get higher ceilings) doesn’t feel particularly deep or funny as a satire of tinseltown bigwigs. You can feel the show getting ever-more self-referential, which is fun, but also often a dangerous sign for a comedy in particular.
The only strong part in this related to Michael’s relationship with his father. The “never sign anything” bit with young Barry Zuckercorn is amusing, and the exchanges between Michael and his dad over trying to impress a girl is the first time this season we’ve gotten something resembling real human emotion.
Overall, another underwhelming outing that doesn’t have a lot of zing in its Hollywood spoofs, its romcom takeoff, or its cavalcade of cameos.