Arrested Development is Dead

Watching the final three episodes tonight, I realized that I lost. The fight is over. No army of letters can save the dead once she has been seduced by death’s cold scythe. There is no more Arrested Development. Yes, plot holes are open for a continuation on Showtime, but the story arc I knew and loved resolved itself tonight. In a frenzy of self-reference, everything came full-circle the way it had to in an idyllic intersection of inevitability and surprise... just 3 years earlier than I would have liked. All that’s possible now is a Siddharthan river-crossing into the mother-world with repetition and variation guiding her re-debute (the good captains of Ground Hog’s Day).

Success is a two-edged sword. The same prowess that gave Arrested Development her power, stole it in the night. She was bold, smart, creative and empowering… With a watchful smile and slanted eyebrow, she let you laugh when you wanted to, but forced you to justify your outburst since there were no pre-canned laugh tracks to guide you to safe waters.

Americans don’t want to be tricked by their art. We shuffle uncomfortably past Soup Cans in museums (and flip over Arrested Development) because we’re not sure if it’s a trick or genuine art. Is it a documentary? reality tv? comedy? When do you laugh? Is incest funny? Do housekeepers live in buses? Why is there a little bit of me in every disturbing character?

Worse than any cancellation, however, is my loss of hope. For years, I have dreamed of a woman as smart, witty, sublime, complex, brash, creative, absurd and challenging as Arrested Development. Tonight I realized that the harshly practical and pedantic cultura americana leaves little room for any such flowers to bloom.

Posted by steveh at February 14, 2006 09:58 PM | TrackBack