Category Archives: Pop Culture

Arrested Development Season 4 review

June 13, 2013 12:56 AM , Leave a Comment ,

Again, this is a review of Season 4 of Arrested Development and will feature several spoilers.  If you don’t want to know what happens, stay out.

 

 

You have been warned.

 

 

 

I just finished watching all 15 episodes of Season 4.  I paced myself and took it one show per night determined to enjoy it slowly and take in every double and triple entendre and catch every reference that they offered up.  The first run of Arrested Development was such a delight to watch.  A carefully crafted comedy gem.

How disappointed was I with this new season.

Maybe it’s because the first iteration of the show was so good that nothing that comes later will ever be able to match it.  Maybe it’s because after such a long hiatus it’s difficult to pick up the reins and start off where you left before.  Maybe I have to admit it’s just not as good.

Season 4 basically takes on a series of events happening in the present and views them from the perspective of a different family member each episode.

After the end of the last show of Season 3, Lucille, the mother, is arrested.  The three fugitives headed to Mexico (Michael, his son, and his dad) decide to return to save the family.  Michael falls apart and makes a series of business mistakes which eventually force him to try to sell the movie rights to his family’s story to Ron Howard.  He spends the episodes running into family members trying to get them to sign away their rights.  He also falls in love with Ron Howard’s illegitimate daughter called Rebel, who he thinks is Ron Howard’s girlfriend.

Lindsey splits from Tobias and goes to India where she is told to become more giving.  She returns and falls in love with an environmentalist and through a series of mishaps becomes the mistress to a right-wing politician and eventually succeeds him as the candidate for his office.

Tobias takes up with a drug addict and is mistakenly arrested as a sex offender.  He winds up at Lucille Austero’s rehab clinic as a therapist and tries to get the inmates to put on a play at a local event where the entire family is gathered.

Gob has continued to fail at everything.  He resumes his relationship with George Micheal’s ex girlfriend, Ann.  After embarrassing her on TV, they break off their engagement.  He sees a chance to embarrass his nemesis, tony wonder, but instead starts falling in love with him.  Unable to handle this he takes his forget me now pills.

George Bluth has started a men’s retreat in the desert with his brother Oscar.  They charge obscene amounts of money to wealthy executives to feel good about themselves.  After they both ingest massive amounts of maca root they undergo personality reversals and Oscar becomes aggressive and George becomes meek and passive.  George hatches a plot with Lucille to exploit the government and build a wall on the border with Mexico thinking that the retreat is on the border.  It is not, it is actually in Mexico.   They go from wanting the wall to trying to stop it but still getting paid.  Oscar learns of this and tries to thwart their plans.

Lucille is in a country club prison.  She is filmed for a reality show about country club prisons but makes enemies of a gang of oriental ladies.  She gets out on a work release program by agreeing to help Tobias out a Lucille Austero’s clinic to make a play.

Maeby got fired from her job and without income decided to stay in high school by pretending to be 17 for the next 5 years.  She tries several money-making ventures including accidentally prostituting her mother but she settles on exploiting George Michael for an internet app as the best idea.

Left without his mother Buster degenerates to making a life-size doll of his mother to relate to.  After his mother returns he tries to break free of her by taking up with Lucille Austero but again he seeks a mother figure.  He tries to re-enlist in the army but is kicked out.  He moves in with a right-wing politician trying to help veterans and has a short affair with his wife before being kicked out.  He is last seen being arrested for Lucille Austero’s alleged murder.

In many ways the season is about Michael and his relationship with George Michael.  After season 3 he goes to college.  In school he tries to be cool and just when he almost has it his father comes to live with him in his dorm room.  Maeby shows up and in an effort to look smart and rekindle his romance with his cousin he claims to have come up with an internet app to make people anonymous online called “Fake Block”.  It is actually an app for playing wood blocks.

Maeby hypes this up and lines up investors.  By coincidence, George Michael runs into Rebel and they start falling in love.  In the last episode both Bluth men realize what has happened and George Michael punches Michael.

Other side characters make appearances.  Lucille Austero is now the CEO of the bluth company and a candidate for congress.  Kitty Sanchez is ron howard’s assistant and gets Maeby fired.  Steve Holt reappears as a bug exterminator.

The new format is confusing.  Maybe if I watch it enough times I will get it.  But honestly the writing isn’t there.  In the first run, the storyline flowed.  The story went from one scene to another without pause.  In this season the story jerks and twitches.  It spasms from one scene to another.  The continuity is there but you really have to look to find it.

Moreover I get this sense of tiredness from some of the actors.  Michael Cera just does not seem like he wants to be there.  He was very hesitant to do another season and it shows in his acting.  Will Arnett resumes the role of Gob with less gusto than expected.  Alia Shawkat, who plays Maeby is also less than effective.

Like I said maybe it’s the fact that the first 3 seasons were so good and my expectations are just too high.  Something I fear will happen to Aggie football fans this year with last year’s success.  Then again maybe this season was just not that good.

Posted in: pop culture, television

Original ideas

June 11, 2013 8:19 PM , Leave a Comment ,

Some spoilers about the latest Star Trek movie.  You have been warned.

 

 

A few weeks ago I was at the latest Star Trek movie.  This new movie takes an alternate Universe view of the original Star Trek series and creates its own timeline.  Captain Kirk’s main nemesis, Khan, returns and almost destroys him.  In what seems to me to be the ultimate lazy movie writing move, they take a classic scene from “Star Trek 2: The wrath of khan” and reverse it.  Making Captain Kirk to be the one sacrificing his life while Spock looks on helplessly.

Hollywood and the entertainment industry is rife with “re-imaginings”, “re-launches”, and homages.  Battlestar Galactica came back a few years ago in some ways improved but mostly it was not as good as the original.  Doctor Who was relaunched and although it has held up well, I don’t like the fact that they seem to be focusing less on the writing and more on the likeability of the actors.  In music a few years ago, Kid Rock took the classic Lynyrd Skynyrd ballad “sweet home Alabama” and incorporated it into his own song.  This year the rapper Pitbull and Christina Aguilera did the same with elements from the 80’s hit “Take on me” by A Ha

Are there no original ideas left?

Well yes, plenty actually.  But you won’t find them in the mainstream conventional media or big websites.  You have to go out along the edges to find them.  Eventually if enough people listen then the media bigwigs will try to exploit and market these ideas but it takes a lot to make them move.

Comics, once the purview of nerds, made a huge splash back the 1990’s.  This opened up a wealth of new materials to share with the general public.  But even here we see a dearth of originality.  Both Superman and Spiderman have each been “relaunched” at least 3 times in the last thirty years.  The special effects of course are better each time but does that alone justify these relaunches?

In some ways these relaunches make things worse.  Negotiations allow the studios to alter the intellectual property to suit their needs.  Director Michael Bay has been widely criticized for his Transformers series.  Some say all he added were more explosions.  Last year he was named Director for a relaunch of the “Teenage mutant ninja turtles” (TMNT) movie.  A small insurrection broke out among fans when it was learned that he planned to change the origins of TMNT and make them into space aliens.  Production on the movie shut down almost immediately.  A contrite Bay spoke out and assured everyone that this was not going to happen.

My belief is that we constantly need to hear new ideas, concepts, stories, and songs.  New ideas make the mind stretch, grow, and evolve in ways that we can’t predict.  This should be something shared by all people.  I don’t dispute that some things are classics and are worth revisiting.  But we need to go out and find new things for our minds to ponder.

Posted in: ideas, pop culture

Apocalypse lost

April 28, 2013 3:37 AM , 2 Comments ,

Throughout history humans have had a fascination with the end of days.  Like all good myths this originated from the time before the written word existed.  This seems to be a polygenetic invention without regard to religion, language, or geography.

Some psychologists opine that this obsession indicates a deep-seated disaffection with the status quo and a desire to begin anew.  Others feel that it is a way of exposing particular dissatisfaction with certain aspects of life and the need to reform those aspects lest they lead to disaster.

American culture is no different from any other about this fascination but we may have cornered the market on this peculiar pass time.  The Millerites of the 1840s was one of the first of these movements in America to predict the end of times and the first to fail (The event was aptly named the Great disappointment).

And it’s not just devout christians.  In my lifetime we have had three great non religious predicted end times come and go.  As I grew up in the 1980s everyone around me knew that World War III was a certainty.  It was only a matter of time.  We were all suddenly taken aback in 1989 when 40 years of cold war just crumbled away with a wall.

Y2K was the next secular doomsday.  The prediction that faulty computer coding along with the change of the millennium would lead us to a stone age existence as all computerized machines suddenly failed.  This turned out to be nothing but a sales bonanza for bottled water companies and freeze-dried food makers.

2012 was the latest and greatest of the doomsdays.  At least two cable TV networks spent the last five years basing the majority of their programming around a vaguely defined end date of December 21, 2012.  Survivalists cropped up again, buying up land in far off places and stocking up on supplies.  The local museum even had a special exhibit on the Mayan 2012 predictions that extended its tour long past the alleged doomsday and just recently closed.  The date came and went without a hiccup.

My question is what now?  We have seemingly run out of these expiration dates.  Some dates still exist out there to be sure, but none are as powerful or in the near future.  The world situation is arguably less volatile than the worst days of the cold war.  Global warming seems to be a somewhat ill-defined and unsatisfactory bogey man.  Will we create another date just because there is an unconscious need for doomsday?  Can’t we instead just begin to work on living and making the world a better place?

Posted in: myths, pop culture

Developing that which has been arrested

April 18, 2013 4:37 PM , 1 Comment ,

The legendary comedy series “Arrested Development” is returning after a 7 year hiatus to the internet.  For those that don’t know, this series follows the mishaps of a rich California family and how they deal with losing their wealth.  The story will pick up years later with what happened to the characters after the last episode in 2006.

This set me to wondering about the original situation that started the series.  How would someone else have handled the situation?  In the original series George Bluth Sr, the CEO and patriarch of the family, is arrested for embezzling, fraud, and ‘light’ treason.  The series continues as Michael, the middle son, tries to clear his father’s name and revive the family fortunes.

The government has frozen most of the family assets, and the family and business reputation are now somewhat worthless.  They need to move the spotlight off them and get a new business leader that can take the reins and move them back to prosperity.  In the series they pick Michael, but let’s say they go another route and trust an outsider to help them out.

First thing is to list the remaining assets and list all the liabilities:

Assets:

  • A business.  Somewhat inefficient, partly paralyzed due to the frozen bank accounts, and full of George Bluth cronies but still viable.
  • A model home.  Lacking plumbing, but structurally sound
  • A frozen banana stand.  Located in Newport Beach (although unknown to you, there is always money in the banana stand)

Liabilities:

  • The family.  Unbelievably corrupt, self centered.  They are their own worst enemies.  As board members and majority stockholders they are also your bosses.  Keeping them happy is your biggest challenge.

We obviously need working capital.  Your options are somewhat limited as you don’t have much to sell and your employees won’t work without paychecks.  As a CEO not related to the family your reputation should help secure working capital in the form of a bank loan.  Use the banana stand and/or the model home as collateral.

The business is your lifeblood.  You need to get started building and selling homes.  Luckily the real estate bubble is still underway (this was set in 2003) and prices keep going up.  You have a piece of land that the Bluths planned to turn into a luxury neighborhood (Sudden Valley).  Start by repurposing this into a starter home neighborhood and selling cheap tract housing.

Damage control.  The Bluth name is worthless.  The company needs a new name and identity.  Renaming the company from The “Bluth Company” to the “Blue Company” will help disassociate from that tarnished reputation.  In addition you can leverage the blue man group popularity to kick off the opening of a new neighborhood.  Jessie the publicist can be used for this.

You need to sort out some of the financial mess that George Sr. made.  Hire an outside group of forensic accountants to go through all the various transactions.  George Sr. hid money in various international and domestic accounts and you desperately need that money.  They will eventually find all the embezzling that the company accountant, Ira Gilligan, was involved in.

Get rid of Kitty Sanchez.  Not only is she George Sr’s chief confederate and lover but she is mentally unstable and pretty useless as an assistant anyways.

The legal mess will also have to be addressed.  Barry Zuckerkorn obviously has to go.  Wayne Jarvis is the most professional and least corrupt of all the attorneys that the Bluths know.  He can work on settling the blame for most of the embezzling on Gilligan and forcing the government to make its case for ‘light treason’ or withdrawing the charges.  However you don’t want George Sr. out too soon.  He will try to take control back again.  Keep him in jail but make sure the press knows he is fighting the charges.  Jessie again.

You will need more land to keep building homes.  Uncle Oscar’s lemon grove would be ideal except for tanks rolling through it all the time.  Some discussions with the local army base commander and with your local government representatives may get this problem resolved.  This acquisition would attract interest from more potential investors to expand construction.

The family.  Your biggest headache.  They could quickly vote you out on a whim.  Keep them happy.  As they were already skimming funds from the company, put them on the payroll.  Their social security numbers should be on file.  Issue them all W-2’s and claim them as employees.  With a steady source of income coming from you for doing nothing they will be less inclined to revolt.

But can they be useful?  Let’s briefly take a look at them.

Michael.  Already on the payroll.  Very competent and well educated.  He is a solid asset except when he gets entangled with family matters.

Lindsay.  A self proclaimed liberal, she likes holding charity drives to boost her image in the eyes of her peers.  Fairly useless, though she could be realtor if properly motivated.

Gob.  Extremely lazy.  He can run meetings and make presentations provided that the presentation is written out for him.  Fairly easy to manipulate.

Buster.  Not moronic as is widely assumed.  He has finished college and has done some graduate level work (although this may be due to the largess of the family).  He is very easy to manipulate and responds well to kindness

Tobias.  Not an actual Bluth but still a stockholder.  I suppose as a doctor (analrapist) that he is intelligent but he is pursuing an unrealistic dream of being an actor

The kids.  Maeby and George Michael.  Little to no value as far as the company is concerned.  Let them be kids.

Lucille.  The most dangerous one of all.  She could fire you in an instant or just as well try and manipulate the company away from you.  An alcoholic.  Keep her happy and buzzed as much as possible.  Above all stay away from her as much as you can.

George Sr.  As discussed he would try to regain control of the company.  If you can build a trust with him by making him think you are trying to get him out of jail he may reveal some things that you need to know about the secret bank accounts.

Uncle Oscar.  Useful only for his lemon grove.

Once you have passed the initial emergency and the SEC has lifted some sanctions against the company you can begin trading shares in the company again.  Line up some outside investors.  Lucille Austero or Uncle Jack for example.  With some manipulation you can get minor shareholders like Buster, Lindsay, Tobias, and Gob to sell their shares.

Once you have a solid majority in the boardroom you can engineer the ouster of Lucille as Chairwoman.  Once that is achieved you can push forward a merger with Sitwell Enterprises and receive a golden parachute as you see the real estate crash coming and don’t want to get caught in that mess.

 

 

 

 

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