Afternoon Baseball

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Season/Episode: Season 1, Episode 1 (with uncut DVD version w/commentary)
Airdate: 11/02/03
Writer: Mitchell Hurwitz
Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Famous guest starts/recurring characters: Stacey Grenrock-Woods, John Beard
Awards: Won, Outstanding Writing (Comedy), Outstanding Directing (Comedy, Outstanding Single-Camera Editing (Comedy), 2004 Emmy Awards; Nominated, Outstanding Art Direction (Comedy), 2004 Emmy Awards
Quotes: "Illusion, Michael. A trick is something a whore does for money. (Notices children) Or cocaine."

"Arrested Development" starts off with perhaps the best single episode on television during the 2003-04 year. Why? Well, it won Emmys for best direction, single-picture camera editing and writing. It was also one of the submitted episodes that garnered the Emmy for Best Comedy Series and undoubtedly played a part in the best casting honor. The pilot was also nominated for best art direction in a comedy.

Given all that, it's also an episode that is glaringly different from future ones. Gob's hair is different (and longer), the houses are not at all similar (the model home, the commentary reveals, was actually a real home), among other things.
However, the music, the key ingredient of Michael and Lindsay's distant-yet-close relationship, the Enron angle (and in part, the Haliburton/Iraq angle) and the camera direction are already fully established.

Watching the pilot -- and indeed, much of the series -- you're watching something that still may be ahead of its time: a wicked satire of the excesses, arrogance and ignorance of both sides in the post-9/11 world, but done in such a dark, yet hilarious, almost slapstick way that there's no sign of a political, polarizing rant. It's also a comedy that emphasizes the importance of family more so than any show of its time, yet that stress on family is pathological and results in family being treated worse than everyone else.

What else stands out in the pilot?

First would have to be the sheer number of characters and the layers developed in the first episode. Eight characters get full-fledged intros and at least two major traits that carry through the series. The pseudo-incest angle, while hardly a ratings winner, is introduced immediately with the kissing cousins, Maebe and George Michael. A hint of sentimentality is seen when George Michael hugs his aunt, thinking her gone from his life after losing his mom, but is immediately erased by her not being able to fake-cry after her and Michael discuss the pathetic state of the family.
What should have been more of a winner in viewer palatability, and was for critics, at least, was the sense of family, however twisted the message was, that runs throughout the show. The sweetness, but most often, the overindulgence of "family first" is a constant. Michael tries to break away from that but can't. His spidery family traps him its web, so to speak.

Almost all the relationships are those where both need each other, but neither wants to admit it. They spend more time trying to pull away and end up failing miserably. This "Seinfeld"-esque trait is such that the rare relationships that don't exude this quality get excluded from the show. Michael and Maebe, for instance, have relatively few scenes involving them directly ("Take Your Daughter To Work Day" being a major exception) that don't relate to Michael's relationship with his son. Lindsay and Buster, whose worlds largely revolve in separate orbits, have but one scene alone in the entire 53-episode run (and it's late in Season 3, where they make "hot ham water" together).

This is what makes G.O.B. such a classic character, even in the pilot. He's so full of bravado yet so devoid of internal pride and confidence that his love/hate relationship with himself is magnified and shone, with hilarious results, onto others in almost every interaction. He's the jack of all trades, much like Phil Hartman was in his work, and that his mannerisms sometimes compare only tightens that connection. Despite obvious talents for both (Hartman's Bill McNeill's radio hosting, Will Arnett's G.O.B.'s con-man disguised as magic), they both are masters of self-promotion and sabotage -- two traits that even in bad actors/writing can get laughs.

As for the rest, Ron Howard's narration is as sparse and unforced as it'll get, and guides you rather than being part of the joke. Portia de Rossi's Lindsay gets more emotional range and depth, without being unintentionally melodramatic, than she ever got in years on "Ally McBeal," while David Cross and Jeffrey Tambor got themselves full-time gigs through stealing scenes (Tambor's cowboy phase, "having the time of my life" in prison; Cross's "how are you" lines and obliviousness to well, everything about himself). But neither actor takes all the credit -- each leaves plenty of material for the other actors to work with. The kids do a fine job, even if George Michael's shyness and Maebe's ill-conceived daring are a bit overblown.

Jason Bateman doesn't seem in over his head as the leading man, and had the FOX marketing people focused on him, they might have found success. Yes, Michael Bluth did bad things (more and more as the show went on), but he was sympathetic, usually came around to the right thing, and did truly believe in family, even if he succumbed frequently to selfish interests that went against the Bluths.

The one down note, surprisingly, is Tony Hale's Buster. Not the acting, but the writing. He comes across as mentally disabled, not simply emotionally stunted and naive. The show fixed this quickly and gave him room to grow (if only one step forward, two back), making him the most-underrated but most-creative character in seasons two and three. But in the pilot, you wonder if you're supposed to laugh or feel sorry for him. And there will be none of that, no matter how pathetic the characters' lives or actions become.

One down note, and a minor one at that. A show good enough to dominate the Emmys, yet one that arguably was one of the least-funny of the season, suggesting that the pilot's greatest achievement was in creating a prototype to enable future greatness.

Labels: Arrested-Development, classic-review