This Week: Tom Welling is Blessed with a God-Given Jawline

What are you all watching this week?

Moonlighting update: I can report that Bruce Willis' David Addison is much less of a jerk after the pilot episode, and I'm enjoying my rewatch – although I'm doing it slowly. I just finished season one and had forgotten the wonderful pie fight and the banter about the man with the mole on his nose.

Arrested Development: Smashed

"FANTASTIC FOUR
IN 15 MINUTES
NO KIDS"

This episode alone was so funny that it made the whole season worth it. The plot is much more visibly coming together, too. Unlike this off, way off-Broadway production.

Arrested Development: Red Hairing

"I'm surrounded by squalor and death, and I still can't be happy."

"You're with a guy that pretty much represents everything you pretend to hate."

For an episode that had so much happening, it left me feeling a little empty after watching it. Every character had a second episode funnier than their first (those who had two, anyway), except Lindsay. It left me wondering if we really needed a second Lindsay episode.

Arrested Development: Colony Collapse

"You know, your whole life is an escape act, and this girl seems like she really likes you. Why don't you just try to work it out and just stop running... Yeah, I know you're in the boulder."
"But how'd I get in the boulder?"

Boy, was this episode packed! we started with the Entourage parody and got flashbacked to even before the last season ended. It included a near wedding, several near death experiences, and a family reunion. It's all fitting to Gob's personality, exemplified in the quote above.

Arrested Development: Double Crossers

"Well, this is America. If they don't want us to burn signs, they shouldn't write them in Spanish."

Poor George Senior. He's lost his money, his company, the respect of his family, his plan to make money over a ridiculous wall, and the friends he worked so hard to get. And worse: though it was his episode, a large portion of it was devoted to Gob and Michael.

Arrested Development: A New Start

"Oh, I don't think there was any implying going on at all."

"All you need to do is tell people what a terrific actor I am, 'cause I can't do it believably."

Tobias was supposed to be on the show only for a few episodes in the beginning and then leave, no more than a husband for Lindsay to dump and start as a character. The producers, however, saw the potential Tobias had and decided to keep him. This episode shows exactly why this was a wise decision.

Arrested Development: The B. Team

"I think it's a lot more fun if we see her die."

This episode features a lot more pay off than the previous ones. It was also the most self-referential in terms of how the show business works and how Arrested Development went through all of it. We saw some old faces and the Narrator narrated himself. It's all getting better.

Arrested Development: Indian Takers

"I mean, is any of this real? How do I know what's real?"

"Cooooiiincideeeence."

If Papa B.'s episode was too much of a "part 1", Lindsay's, much more than the previous episodes, felt like only a fragment of the story. There was so much which was obviously intersecting with episodes to come that it got distracting.

Arrested Development: Borderline Personalities

"You're welcome to my friends, brother."
"I don't want these."

Arrested Development is, in many ways, a soap opera parody. Think about the wealthy family, the rivalry between siblings, the secret adoptions, the love between cousins, etc. But it's never more so than when Oscar is featured.

Arrested Development: Flight of the Phoenix

"Da Michael."

Arrested Development was canceled seven years ago and I still can't quite believe it's been revived. I feared it would turn out to be a zombie embarrassment, what with all these years since anything was written and the actors played their characters. I was doubly happy, then, when I watched the fourth season premiere and saw that the crew was as risky as ever in their humor. And, yes, it's still funny, especially for an episode centered on Michael.

Arrested Development

Season 4 | Cast

[Programming note: Our coverage of Arrested Development is unfortunately brief: half the fourth season.]

Arrested Development (2003-2006, 2013-2019) is a comedy about a family that used to be rich, though most of them still live like before they lost it all, and the one son who tries to save them from ruin. Critically acclaimed since it started in 2001, it was never a ratings champion and it was canceled after its third season. But a devoted fanbase, which grew larger over the years with Netflix, managed to bring the show back seven years later. Now we can follow the Bluths and their wackiness again.

Season Four

4.1 Flight of the Phoenix
4.2 Borderline Personalities
4.3 Indian Takers
4.4 The B. Team
4.5 A New Start
4.6 Double Crossers
4.7 Colony Collapse
4.8 Red Hairing
4.9 Smashed
4.10 Queen B.
4.11 A New Attitude
4.12 Señoritis
4.13 It Gets Better
4.14 Off the Hook
4.15 Blockheads

Cast

Jason Bateman (Michael Bluth)
Will Arnett (Gob Bluth)
Portia de Rossi (Lindsay Bluth Fünke)
Michael Cera (George-Michael Bluth)
David Cross (Tobias Fünke)
Jessica Walter (Lucille Bluth)
Alia Shawkat (Maeby Fünke)
Jeffrey Tambor (George Bluth Sr./Oscar Bluth)
Tony Hale (Buster Bluth)
Ron Howard (Narrator)

Let Us Give Thanks…

Lots of great news in TV Land this week! It’s almost enough to make us feel better about Community’s mid-season hiatus. (Well, not really.) Click your way through to find a list of the Top Five things we here at billiedoux.com are thankful for. Minor casting spoilers ahoy!

5. Jason Dohring will guest star on Supernatural in mid-January. (The link reveals his role.)

4. Amy Acker will guest star on Grimm in early 2012. (Same deal with the link.)

3. Sherlock is coming back! Stateside, May 6th.

2. Downton Abbey is coming back! Stateside, January 8th.

1. Arrested Development is coming back on Netflix!