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Yesterday, the Chicago Tribune reported that “Arrested Development” is slated to return with 14 new episodes despite being canceled for just over six years. The comedy show, which follows the materialistic Bluth family as their fortune unravels, first aired on Fox in 2003, and ran for three seasons. The show received high praise from critics, but low ratings.
The upcoming episodes will be released exclusively on Netflix this May. Actor Jason Bateman, who played the show's central character Micheal Bluth, warns fans not to expect the same format. "You should not compare these episode to the series," he said. Bateman said the new episodes are not Season 4, but “just the first act of what we hope to continue and complete in a movie, which would be Act 2 and 3.”
Innovative creator Mitch Hurwitz has come up with a distinct style for the new episodes. “Arrested Development” was the first comedy to use a reality show inspired format, a style that has since been successfully copied by ABC's “Modern Family.” “We dedicated each episode to a different character's point of view," Hurwitz said. "It was a fun and engaging creative challenge.”
“The bigger story is the family has fallen apart at the start of our show,” he told USA Today. “They all went their own way, without Michael holding them together, so they’re left to their own devices, and they’re not the most successful devices. [...] Each individual (episode) kind of depicts what happens in 2006 as the Bluths fled from the law on the Queen Mary” and then leads to the present day. “There is absolutely an order we have put together to create the maximum number of surprises,” Hurwitz told Vulture. “That’s part of our storytelling. If you watch in the order we prescribe, you will get to episode 14 and go, That’s why he did that in episode one!”
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