Arrested Revisited

So I've been pretty busy over the past week and it doesn't seem to be letting up until Saturday or so as far as watching a movie, so I'm expanding making a comment into a post. Objections? I hope not. So this is in response to your previous posting on some exciting comedy opportunities.

I think you summed up quite well the virtues of AD so I don't need to say much more, except to add that part of what made the show so special was the casting. I don't just mean the main characters, who are all pretty close to perfect. They would bring in the most random people (Carl Weathers! Liza Minelli! Henry Winkler!) and use them in ways that you would never expect to amplify the comedic effect. Conveniently enough for that point, when I first heard about Sit Down, Shut Up, it was while listening to an interview on Fresh Air with Kristin Chenoweth, who voices Miracle Groh. Her story is less known than the Fonz, but she is famous for being a strong Christian in Hollywood/Broadway and took a lot of heat a number of years back, especially among the Broadway crowd if you know what I mean, for appearing on the 700 Club (I will not link to them). If you ever happened to have watched Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip -- which I did for love of The West Wing -- the character of Harriet was loosely based on her (she dated Aaron Sorkin). I knew only a little bit of that story as I'm only vaguely familiar with Chenoweth, but when my introduction to the show was hearing that a woman known for being a Christian is playing a character mocking Christian conservatives, I was excited for some of that old AD magic.

So what did I think? Well, I have hope. I thought it had some laugh lines and I like some of the ideas of the running jokes. Although it is usually not my thing, I thought the few times when they referenced the flashbacks were pretty especially well done and I would like to seem them be more self aware and meta. It's a bit different from the way AD made plenty of references to it's own existence, but I think think the use of the cartoons over live backgrounds makes it fit that the show would be slightly surreal and self-conscious -- also, I just realize, like high school itself. Mostly, though, it just feels good to have the old gang back. There are definitely some through lines with Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Henry Winkler on both shows and paired with the familiar (although thankfully not imitative) style, you are right to say that it feeds an empty hole the Mitch Hurwitz left. I will have to be honest, however, and say that it does not quite reach the same level to me, which is why I said I had hope. I laughed a few times but it was not like the first tie I watched AD and I could not stop laughing at the ridiculousness of it. I don't think it will ever live up to its predecessor and, frankly, that would be an unfair expectation. If it does not get cancelled, however, I do think it could be a good comedic addition to television.

Which brings me to one more thing you mentioned: the movie. We have discussed this before and I would to reiterate that I am the one who is wholly excited for the opportunity to take a trip back to Newport Beach and revisit the Bluths. I will let you make your own argument (to which I admit there is some validity) and just say my piece which is that the creators of the television show did things with the medium that few have tried before (I really think I gotta Netflix some Larry Sanders Show) by making a show that was truly absurd. I think there is enough creativity there to continue the story in a movie and watching the episode of this TV show just made me want that all the more. I just wish someone would Save Our Bluths.