Monthly Archives: May 2013

Arrested Development Season 4 mini-review

It drags until episode 7, “Colony Collapse.”  After that, it’s one big swirling call-back and layer upon layer of nested stories until you finally figure out in the 15th episode everything that’s been going on since the first.  It’s a risky structure, especially since the first half of the season feels so random and scattered, but by the end it’s as fantastic as always.

Two points:  I wish the first six catch-up episodes of the season weren’t quite so long and expository, though I know that had to be done.  Also, I don’t think the flashback sequences of George and Lucille worked well except as a ‘look who we cast!’ gimmick (that said, Wiig did a much better Lucille than Rogen channeled George).

It’s a dark, dark season.  Too much Ron Howard, too little Maeby, just enough of everyone else.  I was giddy every time Argyle Austero (Tommy Tune) made an appearance.  And of course, the show’s mythology remains gleefully intact.  No other show can make me burst into laughter just at a small (or very large), “Her?”

Fast and the Furious 6 mini-review

Great action sequences, great fights, ridiculous dialogue, other-world physics, the Rock, Vin Diesel.  No connection to reality, but characters who have managed to become lovable plush versions of their criminal selves.  I’m looking forward to part 7 about as much as I’m dreading them using a director besides Justin Lin. 

I give it three stars – three stars that meet in mid-air, collide, get run over by a tank, fall off a bridge, land in jail, escape from jail, and then hang out in the backyard and say grace.

Enthusiasm

“Enthusiasm, like the breath of God, transforms everything.”

– Gail Sher, in One Continuous Mistake:  Four Noble Truths for Writers