Break out that chicken dance and get your frozen bananas ready: Netflix has announced the premiere date for Arrested Development Season 4.

Michael, Gob and company will return to our lives on May 26, when all 15 new episodes of this beloved sitcom hit the video streaming service at 12:01 a.m. PST.

Ron Howard recently spilled that the fresh installment will focus on a Bluth family movie, with the director and producer Brian Grazer making appearances as themselves and hoping to turn these misfits into the next big screen hit.

Guest stars who will stop by the series this spring include John Slattery, Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig and Seth Rogen.

Visit our Arrested Development quotes section now to catch up and start those stair car engines. The Bluths are coming back!

Hide your doves, people of America.

Throw on your jean shorts.

And grand a carton of grape juice.

Arrested Development Season 4 hits Netflix on May 23!

In anticipation of the wildly anticipated return of this absurdly hilarious sitcom, the company has unveiled a series of new posters, paying homage to everything from Tobias penchant for non-nudity to Gob's magic tricks illusions. Click through them now:

Remember to visit our Arrested Development quotes section to relive the best lines of the series... so far!

Arrested Development made a name for itself not only for its smart humor, but also its ability to work in callbacks both blatant and with a bit more subtlety.

GOB’s Arrested Development, "Colony Collapse," was an exercise in both, as well as a healthy dose of running gags. We run it down below in our continuing 15 Days of Arrested Development Season 4 on TV Fanatic...

As with almost every other show, especially comedies, to truly appreciate certain aspects one must be familiar with the people behind the camera. Right off the bat with this episode we meet the baby-faced popstar Mark Cherry who would be a little shoutout to Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry who has worked together with Mitch Hurwitz on various projects through the years. That reference, and the mention of Modern Family, alludes to Hurwitz once saying that he feels Modern Family is a broad reaching, more commercially successful version of Arrested Development.

Now that we've discussed what happens behind the camera, let's talk about what happened on screen.

I daresay there isn’t running gag funnier than everyone not noticing Ann Veal. That and constantly calling her something else. Everything from egg to hair and even mouth.

One of the main storylines for GOB was Ann Veal and the marriage that GOB inadvertently fell into thanks to Maebe’s “marry me” line. Of course he would find a way to turn a normal evangelical wedding at a church called HER? into a spectacle because that is what George Oscar Bluth II specializes in.

I happen to be a huge fan of anything sacrilegious and GOB rolling into the church on a cross is second only to Becky Ann Leeman in Drop Dead Gorgeous when it comes to people rolling onto a stage on a cross. And who couldn’t be excited when the strains of "The Final Countdown" filled the air? Made me all a’tingle with anticipation.

What would GOB do? More importantly, how would GOB screw it up? Because we all know, he will screw it up.

Speaking of screwing things up, how does one screw up being a part of a pop star’s entourage? About the same way you don’t even notice when said pop star writes a song about how much he wants you to leave. And the same way you talk to your son for an hour and a half before realizing it is your son. All with a soundtrack of "The Sound of Silence."

"Colony Collapse" marked a turn-around in the season for me. The first few episodes were all about adjusting to a new storytelling engine, followed by a few hit and miss episodes. By the time we get to GOB losing everything, events start to fall in place.

Now we know how Mark Cherry ended up in rehab and how things were set into motion at the Opie Awards. This is more like the Arrested Development we know and love. It’s a pretty good sign that things are just weird enough when any Clint Howard character seems completely normal.

We're past the halfway point in our 15 Days of Arrested Development series here at TV Fanatic. While the season started off a little off-kilter, it seems on track to right itself in the back half.  

"Red Hairing" focused on the ginger sister of the Bluth family. This is the story Lindsay's arrested development.

I’ll admit that when it was announced that Arrested Development season 4 would be comprised of episodes focusing on individual members of the Bluth family, I was nervous about those that had Lindsay Bluth as the main character. While she is a great character, most of her depth and humor comes from her reaction to those around her, mainly Lucille and Tobias. I’d say Maeby as well but we all know she’s forgotten her child existed more times than not.

Thankfully in Lindsay’s arrested development, there were plenty of other characters for her to play off of, including members of her own family.

I love Marky Bark. There, I said it. He’s just so adorable and gives Lindsay the perfect opportunity to be the activist she’s always pretended to be. Of course, however, she ends up realizing that living with an ostrich and a man whom she has to constantly remind who she is isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be which drives her into the arms of Herbert Love.

I imagine it wasn’t the first time Lindsay was mistaken for a hooker, nor will it likely be the last.

While Marky Bark and Herbert Love and their relationships with Lindsay were entertaining, I really enjoyed seeing Lucille 2 and Lindsay together. It wasn’t something that I had expected but it was nice having Lucille 2 be that mother figure that Lindsay so was not getting from her “real” mother. 

Just as with episode 7, things are really starting to come together at this point which makes the investment of the first half of the season finally pay off. Now we know what the $50K check was for (Maeby’s royalty check) and we know why Lindsey is at the fundraiser with Herbert Love in the first place.

We find out how on earth Marky Bark ended up blueing himself (why was it necessary to spend three days in the podium one has to wonder) and how Lindsay turned out to be the biggest supporter of “the wall." We also discovered that George Sr. didn’t actually hallucinate the bird-man.

While "Red Hairing" wasn’t the best of the episodes, it did do a lot to propel the story forward. It also had a scene that was most like something that would have occurred in Arrested Development of years past.

Michael and Lindsay both show up at the Balboa Club hoping to impress their respective dates and instead spend an awkward few minutes hugging and talking “in private” only to finally announce that they just met.

The dinner scene is rivaled only by Lindsay going to visit her mother in prison. Even though it was short, it was everything we know and love about Lucille and Lindsay’s relationship. 

I think we can all also agree that this episode’s “on the next Arrested Development” was the best of the entire season. Poor Annyong, all he wanted was some tomato juice. Good bye Annyong. 

If you’ve ever read any of my previous blatherings about television, you’d know that one of my favorite things is when a comedy has an emotional element that draws you in.

Whether it be through the actual storyline or through the growth and advancement of the character alone, if you make me emotionally invested, I will likely remain watching and tell everyone I know all about it. Such was the case with this episode of Arrested Development.

"Smashed" provided a great example of this as Tobias Funke becomes less of a caricature and more of a character. This is Tobias’ arrested development.

When we last saw Tobias he’d run into a bit of trouble with the law thanks to one John Beard and his show To Catch a Local Predator. Thanks to a brief prison stay he takes Lucille 2 up on her offer to be a therapist at her rehab clinic and right off the bat we see a change in Tobias. He is no longer an “analrapist” but has instead moved on to calling himself a “theralyst."

Wise move, Tobias, wise move.

Another change in Tobias comes about in his relationship with DeBrie Bardeaux. Maria Bamford does an exceptional job playing this washed up, two-strikes already can’t get a third, former “actress,” addict. She provides the perfect canvas upon which Tobias can paint his delusions of grandeur. 

DeBrie only found a smidge more success in acting than Tobias yet he sees her as the perfect movie star. As the episode progresses and he realizes that keeping “The Fantastic Four: The Musical” going is the only way he’d be able to stay close to her, thanks to therapists being unable to have personal relationships with their patients, he builds her up even further despite her hesitations.

It’s no surprise that she ends up cracking under the pressure. She is not a well woman, and it's even less of a surprise that she stumbles upon Dr. Norman’s discarded illegal medical supplies. When Tobias finds DeBrie in a pile of debris he is finally faced with the results of his own actions and to his credit, he realizes it. The writers could have easily gone for the cheap laugh at that point but allowing a character to have those self-realizing moments is what makes viewers really fall in love with them. 

Of course, mention of DeBrie leads us to the other secondary cast members that have done so much to build up this fourth season in which the main cast was pieced together like the Thanksgiving turkey Rosario eats on Will and Grace.

Tommy Tune is fantastic as the musical theatre loving director of his sister’s rehab clinic. I daresay there aren’t many that can be so threatening while wearing tap shoes. Even Andy Richter as his various quintuplet brothers brings an unexpected humor to the series.

He hasn’t shown up yet, but we’ve seen Martin Mull alluded to often already with the snack the Bluth’s enjoy of parmesan cheese and mustard - of course referring to Mull being both Gene Parmesan on Arrested Development and Colonel Mustard in the great Clue.

Overall, this was a fantastic episode. Even though there were a few times where it had that “okay I’m tired of seeing this scene yet again,” for the most part it felt like fresh material. I know I can’t be the only one who hopes to someday have the chance to purchase the soundtrack for “The Fantastic Four: The Musical.”

What about you, TV Fanatics? What did you think of "Smashed?" Was it a smashing success?

Amanda Denton is a guest contributor for TV Fanatic. She'll Tumblr for you, or you can find her talking television at Grizzly Bomb.

Is there any greater Arrested Development character than Lucille Bluth? Jessica Walter does an incredible job portraying the scheming, booze addled, snarky, hasn’t-cried-in-60 years, loving mother.

As the driving force behind the wall, Lucille’s arrested development - "Queen B." - goes far in pulling together many loose strings. 

The episode picks up with Lucille commandeering the Queen Mary and the immediate aftermath. Of course Buster would be her alibi. Was there ever any doubt?

Tony Hale specializes in playing the co-dependent spineless man. Whether it be as Buster Bluth or Gary Walsh on Veep, he seems right at home yelling about a woman’s lipstick. It’s a gift, really. However, even the most weak-willed person will reach his breaking point and apparently it’s around the seventh cigarette in a half hour point.

At first the cigarette thing was mildly amusing, but it certainly did not have legs enough to make the jump from Buster to the Jade Triad Gang. Do they not notice there is still a lot of smoke in the air? I don’t know why but this really got under my skin.

The Jade Triad Gang in and of themselves though were quite entertaining. The entire noodle shank part was the definite highlight of the episode, especially with Lucille tearing open the spice packet and using it to blind her attacker. Perfect.

I’ve found that the further in the season we get, the less I care about the wall. Given that it is the main storyline, connecting the entire family, this is not a good thing.

We were back to George and Oscar talking about the wall, talking to Lucille, getting yelled at by Lucille, kissing Lucille, more wall talk, and seriously can Tobias just jump in here and save us from all this wall talk? Yes, he can!

As much as I lauded Tobias for growing as a person and somehow gaining the ability to step outside of himself and look at the big picture, he wasn’t quite there when he had Lucille in therapy. There she was, almost becoming human, and what does he do?

Well he Funke-s it up. So close, yet so far away. 

As much as I loved the back and forth between the two Lucilles at Lucille 1’s trial, it was really difficult to get completely invested in the scene due to the extremely distracting green screen work. I understand that they had schedules to work around but surely there could have been another way to make it work. Every single time they cut back to Lucille 2 sitting behind the oyster bar I just cringed and it wasn’t due to her meticulously delivered barbs regarding being drunk at breakfast. 

Of course, without a doubt, the best part of "Queen B." was the appearance of Gene Parmesan. How is it that a single reaction to a man in a fake mustache can be the funniest thing in an entire half hour episode? Yet it most certainly is. Lucille’s scream is just so ridiculous and so hysterical at the same time that you can’t help but laugh. 

I’ll admit that I wasn’t laughing with her last interactions with George and Oscar. As conniving and at times cruel as Lucille can be, you have to feel badly for her being literally played by her husband and his twin brother. I don’t blame her for asking for a “real” divorce but I certainly did side-eye her running to Oscar instead. Well until she discovered that he’d been schtupping Lucille 2 of course. 

Overall, this episode was a bit blah. Once again it seemed like its only purpose was to piece things together and tell as much of the story as possible in those 30 minutes. Even for a show that is very fast paced, it felt like "Queen B." was moving along at a breakneck speed.

What did you think of "Queen B."? Are you also tired of the wall? What are your thoughts about Arrested Development season 4 so far?

Amanda Denton is a guest contributor for TV Fanatic. She'll Tumblr for you, or you can find her talking television at Grizzly Bomb.

Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz chatted up reporters on a conference call this week, touching on a number of subjects, from the criticism leveled at Season 4... to a possible Season 5... to a near cameo by George Clooney.

Here's a rundown of the more relevant talking points:

On Clooney's proposed storyline: "George Sr. has this land in Mexico and they was going to be constantly spooked and chased off the land by these really handsome men. We were going to get people like George Clooney. And they'd be like, ‘Who are these guys? Who are these Mexicans that are trying to get us off their property?' And at one point [the handsome men] were going to say, ‘We are the Mexican Romneys!'"

On Season 4 reviews: "I try to have a pretty open attitude about it. Everybody wants to be loved all the time; it's not realistic. It's certainly not realistic if you're going to be ambitious in terms of changing the form. There are risks either way. Had I done the exact same show I did last time, there'd be blowback to that."

On the new format: "I think it's inevitable if you do that people are not going to be on board at first, or maybe ever. But that's a risk I willingly took."

On the show's future: "I don't have a timeline yet. If there's more, I promise you we will put a date out there."

Do you want to see Arrested Development return to Netflix for Season 5?

Though I know the character-focused episodes of Arrested Development Season 4 are primarily a product of how impossible it was to get all the actors in the same room at the same time, I’ve loved them.

At their best, they let the season feel like an in-depth family saga, something of a comedic Godfather II (but with waaaay more sex offender jokes).

And of these new, character-oriented episodes, I loved "A New Attitude" the best. It delivered as many laughs and as many excellent Arrested Development quotes as any classic episode... but this time, those laughs came from examining the inner darkness of hollow Hollywood values, repressed sexuality, desperation, revenge - rather than the quips from the show’s first incarnation, which focused more on the darkness that can engulf essentially well-meaning people who are pursuing money and power.

I’m not making it sound very funny, am I? Well, it was also the funniest episode of the new season - from Michael and Gob’s ball-pit “Boyfight," to a joke about the pronunciation of "Gothic Castle" that I'd only be ruining if I tried to transcribe it here.

Not to mention that that the rubber-masked rendez-vous harkened back to Tony Wonder’s Arrested Development Season 2 exclamation (from “Sword of Destiny): “Wait. Are you telling me that you have a multi-stage trick with hidden identities?”

Oh, Tony, you do not even know the half of it.  This episode was an expertly oiled comedy machine.


Gob's intricate plan to destroy Wonder, his erstwhile rival, was a particularly pitch-black gag in a season already soaking in dark humor - most of all because every single element of it (nephew-kissing included) seemed to take revenge upon and hurt Gob most of all.

Ben Stiller's Wonder - who was a relatively lightweight character on O.G. Arrested Development - flourishes, bouncing around with an energy I never knew the character possessed. During the show’s first run, Wonder worked as a joke about showboat magicians more than an actual character, but I was in love with Stiller’s performance here.



While Season 4 has made Michael less sympathetic, it has made Gob far more so. Oddly enough, for a sitcom that was so much sunnier and lighter in tone than this one (even when characters were losing limbs), the original Arrested Development had much less sympathy for the majority of its characters. Gob, Tobias, and Buster (for the most part) existed only as punch-lines, while the bulk of our empathy was supposed to reside with likeable audience-surrogate characters, like Michael and George-Michael.

But in devoting this season to closely examining the entire cast - with the side-effect of no character serving as an audience surrogate - we are now allowed to sympathize with characters who weren't permitted any depth in the original series run.

I winced as much as I laughed through Tobias's Season 4 episodes, and found myself, for the first time, empathizing with Gob's self-loathing-cloaked-as-attitude schtick.

Maybe it was watching him survive in a storage locker while eating only candy vines, but he came out of this season as my new favorite character, and the moment when he and Tony confessed their "feelings" for each other (with both men confused by feeling any positive emotions towards another human being) was sad, hilarious and just a little touching.



In the new Arrested Development, there are no heroes or villains, and everyone's old values and identities are turned upside down, making the holiday they're celebrating seem a little closer to Purim than Cinco de Cuatro.

The new show is a harder, darker, crueler animal (and Michael has kind of turned into a pretty serious d*ck), but I don’t think that’s a failing of the writers. Arrested Development’s first round reflected the era those episodes were produced in - the George W. Bush presidency, the housing boom - and this new series reflects a resolutely different era that is, if not bleaker, certainly different.

It’s easy for a beloved cult show to come back and just coast, giving fans exactly what they want after a long absence. But it takes talent and cojones of steel to show up after close to a decade away, give fans the exact opposite of what they asked for, and have the end product be phenomenal, anyway. I’ll toast some mustard and Parmesan to that!



We're in the home stretch of our 15 Days of Arrested Development and this time we're catching up with Maeby. "Señoritis" shows us that the more things changed - like years - the more they've stayed the same for the younger, possibly related--but maybe not--member of the Bluth-Funke clan.

This is Maeby’s Arrested Development.

Maeby is in high school, which seems...weird? Since she was in high school during the last season and that was several years ago. She also looks waaaaay too old for high school, and also maybe a little bit like she’s not that into this season of the show. I do love the pregnant teenage girl in her class being followed around by a camera crew though. Maybe she was in a Girls With Low Self Esteem video.

In the aftermath of the Queen Mary Incident, Maeby is still trying to get her parent’s attention. George Michael suggests she graduate high school, so she intentionally fails high school, only to discover Lindsay and Tobias haven’t noticed that either. Since she’s still working at the movie studio she runs off to India to film a movie only to run right into everyone else’s plot lines. It turns out SHE was the shaman who Lindsay spoke to, which explains the crazy make-up.

Once the timeline jumps ahead, we learn that Maeby has enrolled in a new high school. Ok, so she’s 18 or 19 now. I can see this working.

Five years later? Maybe, Maeby, but probably not.

The family spends Thanksgiving trying to watch Babies Having Babies on TV, which why that camera crew was doing in the opening scenes, but then Lindsay runs off with Marky, Tobias runs off with DeBrie, and Maeby gets fired from the studio.

Suddenly high school doesn’t look so bad, even at 23.

Now that we’re 12 episodes into the season, the most interesting part of each one is seeing the puzzle pieces fall into place. For example, the check Lindsay stole that says “From Gangie 4: Facelift” was a royalty check from Maeby’s movie and not actually from Gangie for plastic surgery. I admire these details, even as I wish the family would spend some time together.

Maeby is feeling pretty badly about her Groundhog Day senior year, so when George Michael mentions his privacy software she jumps on the chance to go into business with him. She makes sure to burn as many bridges as possible along the way, as well as accidentally becoming her mother’s pimp. I appreciate her entrepreneurial spirit. 

The best moment of the whole episode is when Maeby mentions Lucille 2 to George Michael and he doesn’t know who she is. I have to do a full rundown of every episode ever in my brain to believe it, but it makes a great trivia fact. 

The worse moment might be sad, fat Steve Holt. Poor Steve Holt.

George Michael seems a little overwhelmed by all this Fakeblock nonsense Maeby has put together. I suspect he might by fudging the truth a little bit about his super cool anti-social network software. Once he fires Maeby, I’m pretty sure I’m right.

Unfortunately for Maeby, her mom stops sleeping with that politician and she loses another income stream. Damn, it’s hard out out here for a pimp.

It’s also hard when she realizes her “undercover cop” boyfriend is really 17, so her plan to entrap him with sex has just made her a felon. Bad day for Maeby.

On the next Arrested Development, Lucille 2 is missing (oh no! I hope Liza’s OK!) and Maeby gets arrested for that underage sex thing. Oops?

What did you think of "Senoritis?" Are you ready to pony up for Maeby's therapy? Be sure to check out our Arrested Development quotes page for more Bluth-y goodness and tune in over the weekend as we wind down the rest of Arrested Development season 4.

Suzanne Davis is a guest contributor for TV Fanatic. When she's not commanding her ginger army at Bebehblog, you can find her on Twitter.

It seems "It Gets Better" could well be the theme of Arrested Development season 4 as each episode has gotten better than the one preceding it (mostly, with a couple of outliers) and filled in the gaps between the close of Arrested Development season 3 and now. With talks already happening about Arrested Development season 5, seeing the same story from the perspective of each character makes more and more sense and works in a way that felt sort of odd in the beginning of this season.

Carrying on the trend of focusing on the story of one character at a time and pulling together all of the pieces of this puzzle, this is George Michael’s arrested development. And it's so, so accurate.

George Michael is the even more awkward Mark Zuckerberg of fake internet start-ups, playing in bounce houses and being aw-shucks about everyone fawning over him. He’s also dating Rebel Alley now, although she says “We need to talk,” so you know it’s not going well.

A few months earlier George Michael is making a demo tape to apply to Julliard. If you didn’t know he was musical, it’s because he’s not - he plays woodblock.

Man, couldn’t it have at least been cowbell? 

Apparently George Michael is a human metronome, thanks to BABYTOCK!, the failed reinvention of the Cornballer by George Sr. "It’s a poor carpenter that blames his shoddy tools for the... Ow! Piece of bleep Cornballer!."

I don’t even care that it makes no sense. The Cornballer is one of my favorite AD references. 

In the recap of George Michael’s college experience so far, we learn he’s awkward, more awkward, even more awkward and a terrible kisser. Thanks to a year abroad in Spain - Dear God, the mustache!! - he learns important lessons, like how to speak Spanish, make love and wear his shirts unbuttoned too far. But then his dad moves into the dorm room and whomp-whomp, sexy George Michael is put on hold. 

Then we finally get the real explanation for George Michael’s “privacy software." It’s as ridiculous as his mustache.

FakeBlock is actually a woodblock app for your smartphone. Three of these already exist in Arrested Development world.

Tip: Go search for FakeBlock in the iTunes store. The reviews are priceless.

To make money for this brilliant start-up George Michael starts tutoring high school kids, which loops back to Maeby’s story. The highlight of the episode is when George Michael says “Yeah, well, you know. I wouldn’t put all my Annes in that basket.” Egg? Her?

Seriously, someone watching this season who hadn’t seen the first three several times would understand practically nothing. I wonder if that person exists?

Anyways, the seduction of his cousin doesn’t work. His dad interrupts. He lies about FakeBlock being privacy software. And then his life spirals out of control.

A great piece of the back story puzzle is that it was George Michael’s idea to do the roommate vote to get his dad out of the room. The "like father, like son" parallel is clever and funny. 

Poor George Michael is too dumb to notice Rebel is hitting on him at the Opie Awards. Marky Bark’s blue explosion is somehow tied to George Michael as a brilliant act of cyber sabotage to promote FakeBlock. While he’s trying to smooth things out with Michael, he gets a second chance with Rebel, who I’m pretty sure is imagining herself as Mrs. FakeBlock right now. I mean, she’s clearly not after him for his looks, you know?

As much as I like the interconnecting story lines, I feel like each episode gets shorter and shorter now that we’ve already seen so much of it from other angles. I’m just a tiny bit glad this season is almost over. 

On the next Arrested Development: George Michael gets sued by P-Hound over the ownership of FakeBlock (which...is still just a woodblock app?) and Barry is a terrible lawyer. Take to the sea!

What did you think of "It Gets Better"? Have you enjoyed the format of seeing parts of the same story multiple times but from different perspectives?

Suzanne Davis is a guest contributor for TV Fanatic. When she's not commanding her ginger army at Bebehblog, you can find her on Twitter.

While his parents and siblings might be the main focus of the story, it’s Buster Bluth that provides so many of the memorable moments in both the Arrested Development of the past and this new season, most especially in "Off the Hook." 

In an episode that relied heavily on callbacks and tropes, we are reminded how much better the Bluths are when they are working together. At the same time. On the same screen.

It would be very easy to fall into a roofie circle when it comes to a character like Buster Bluth, repeating the same jokes ad naseum, because he doesn’t have much depth to him so it’s impressive that the writers were able to take this Motherboy and have 35 minutes revolve solely around him. I don’t know that is was a complete success because so much of what makes Buster, Buster, is his relationships. He is a motherboy after all.

"Off The Hook" picks up where so many other episodes have with the commandeering of the Queen Mary by Lucille 1. Because it’s Buster’s story we get to see him fall overboard and in the span of ten seconds put forth two of the best jokes of the entire episode.

While showing flashback footage of Buster floating in the ocean we can see the watermark “Show Stealer Pro -- Trial Version” only to have that change a couple seconds later to “trial version has expired - click here to purchase full version.” These are the kinds of things that have endeared Mitch Hurwitz’s show to so many as there’s a little bit of something for everyone. At the same time the watermark was making people laugh, one of my favorite wordplay moments was occurring because “his biggest fear wasn’t confronting a wet loose seal, it was losing one.”

How perfect is that? 

I was a little surprised how little interaction there was between Lucille 1 and Buster but I didn’t miss it that much. It was probably due to the fact that the “Vince Vaughn movie, Psycho”-esque scene was so entertaining and creepy at the same time. By the time Lucille came home after two days away and spent a couple hours playing “guess my fur,” I was ready for her to leave again.

As much as the mamma’s boy trope is overplayed with Buster, I was so glad to see him find a new story to grasp onto. That of course was his big hand. 

Even though he was wearing his seatbelt, Buster suffered a horrific drone pilot accident there in the strip mall and the Literal Doctor is able to give him a big hand. Blind Side Monster should not have been as funny as it was, for as long as it was. It’s a big hand and it can hurt people/animals. That on its own is amusing but not necessarily funny. Add in some good writing and Tony Hale and that joke becomes more than it is on paper.

Who would have ever thought that a man who has a juice addiction would end up threatening National Honor Society students with a hand he calls thunder that doesn't allow him to use a remote?

In the end, the most interesting part of the monstrosity ended up being the question of the hand's involvement in Lucille 2’s murder. Or is it murder? Did she fall? Is she really dead? How long can George Michael keep letting people believe he has a program called FakeBlock and why doesn’t Buster have a career as a male dancer since he’s amazing with a woodblock track. 

While I really enjoyed this episode on its own, it made me wish they’d been able to get the cast together for a more traditional setup. As much as we love Buster, he really is a B-story kind of character. Much like absence makes the heart grow fonder, less Buster makes him that much more funny. This combined with the obvious editing issues with standins and what-not makes ‘Off The Hook’ my favorite and least favorite episode of them all.

It doesn’t seem like that’d be possible, but apparently it is.

What did you think of "Off The Hook"? Best and worst? Best? Worst? Sound off in the comments and come back tomorrow for the final installment of our 15 Days of Arrested Development series!

Amanda Denton is a guest contributor for TV Fanatic. She'll Tumblr for you, or you can find her talking television at Grizzly Bomb.

So we’ve finally made it to the end of this much anticipated fourth season of Arrested Development and it only makes sense that it would focus on George Michael and his father.

I went into "Blockheads" with high hopes and sadly was let down with an episode that was full of story but not much of the humor and wit that has been a trademark of the series.

With the beginning of this episode we are back to Michael and George Michael on the phone. I’m a little amazed as to how much screentime this one conversation has garnered and even more so that someone thought it was a good idea.

It was perhaps funny the first time, but by the time we get to "Blockheads," I’ve reached the point that I never want to see either actor on the phone again.

Yes they added more to the conversation, but much like everything else that’s been done from various viewpoints there hasn’t been enough information added that makes it seem like we just HAD to see it from so and so’s perspective.  

After the fallout over Fakeblock, a la The Social Network, P-Hound tries to mend fences with George Michael who isn’t having any of it thanks to one of the best laughs of the episode.

Apparently P-Hound took a picture of Maeby brushing her teeth. We all know how sexy and alluring that daily task can be so of course George Michael would be upset that P-Hound is infringing upon his cousin’s privacy like that. 

The whole situation with Rebel Alley seemed to be, at this point, nothing more than a means to an end. A very popular comedy tool is giving the audience a certain “in the know” perspective. The audience knows that father and son are dating the same woman and they also know that up until a certain point in "Blockheads" they aren’t aware of each other. That is why things like the photobooth and the constant discussions of “the other man” are funny.

It might have been better if they’d started that later in the season because like many of the long drawn out jokes, it was a little old by the time we got to the end. However, it did allow for a lot of plot to be filled in including how George Michael ends up buying a house, how the sex offenders end up moving out of Sudden Valley, and, in part, how Maeby ended up being fired from Fakeblock.

Was it any surprise that Gob’s actions are what prompted the rioting at Cinco? Or that he hired a Mongol horde to build a wall?

So Mongols hired to build fake wall end up rioting after being mistaken for another ethnicity and then incite a separate riot leading towards the call for a real wall to be built.

All in a day’s work for Arrested Development season 4.

Overall this episode was okay. It wasn’t spectacular yet it wasn’t awful. I do think it was the worst victim to the new storytelling engine because they didn’t have the fluid character interaction to propel the action forward instead leaning a lot on the narrator. It might have been the same amount of narration as the rest of the series but it seemed like we heard a lot more of Ron Howard in #15 than any other time.

"Blockheads" seemed to be filling two purposes: one, wrap up loose ends as much as they wanted to and two, move the story in such a way that another season and/or movie is inevitable.

I can’t imagine leaving the show hanging as it did. Michael and George Michael’s relationship is obviously unresolved. Will the wall be built? Who killed Lucille 2, and what will come of Fakeblock?

Hopefully we won’t have to wait another 8 years to find out.

What did you think of "Blockheads?" Were you underwhelmed with the episode? With season 4? Check out our Arrested Development quotes page and come back later this week for our very first Arrested Development Report Card!

Amanda Denton is a guest contributor for TV Fanatic. She'll Tumblr for you, or you can catch her talking television at Grizzly Bomb.

Now that the much anticipated Arrested Development season 4 has been released and digested in varied paces by the viewing public, it’s time to look at the 15 episodes as a whole.

While Netflix doesn’t release numbers, one has to imagine quite a few people tuned into their computers and TVs, all waiting to see what the return of the Bluth family would bring. Were they happy? Or disappointed? Probably a little bit of both.

Let’s go ahead and look at what the high, and inevitable low, points of this fourth season were... Report Card style!

Best Episode: To pick one episode is difficult because of the way the season was engineered, but if I absolutely had to, I’d go with Buster’s episode, "Off The Hook." It was the perfect blend of old school Arrested Development ridiculousness and the new storytelling they had to go with to accommodate everyone’s schedules. Watching Buster attempt to move on from being a Motherboy, including a juice binge and a John Jr. outfit, was a delight. Even though I wasn’t a fan of the Herbert Love character, I most certainly enjoyed him a lot more when the "Blind Side Monster" was involved. It was actually the Blind Side Monster that made this episode the best of the season. Like I said in the episode review, that should not have been as funny as it was and it succeeded because of good writing and Tony Hale’s exceptional performance as Buster Bluth, Manboy Extraordinaire.

Worst Episode: Without a doubt, the worst episode of the season was the finale, "Blockheads." At first I thought it would have been one of the first few episodes that started off so slow and were mainly all expository work, but then the finale came around and not even sex offenders in ice cream trucks could save it. I appreciate that Hurwitz and the rest of the writers had to wrap things up and at the same time not wrap things up to leave the possibility of either another season or a movie, but the episode as a whole was pretty much Ron Howard telling a rather boring end to a story. It was equally disappointing because things had gotten so much better since those first few episodes and it would have been nice for season four to end on a high note but it so did not.,

Best Storyline: This isn’t even up for debate; Tobias Funke had the best storyline. It might be just because his was more contained and easily followed and it might be because David Cross as Tobias is so much fun to watch. There was so much of the Funke story that was entertaining: his insistence that the methadone clinic was actually an acting class called "Method One," his involvement with DeBrie that brought forth a different side of Tobias than we had ever seen before, and even the ridiculous "Fantastic Four: The Musical” was amusing. 

Worst Storyline: The wall. There’s not even much I can say about it because every time Lucille and George started talking about the wall, my eyes glazed over and when I came back to conscious awareness I thought “I hate the wall.” I’ve never had such strong feelings about an architectural element before this season of Arrested Development and I hope to never revisit those feelings again. 

Best Character: The easy choice would be GOB, Tobias, or Buster, but I’m going to have to say that the best characters of this season were the guest star secondary characters. Maria Bamford as DeBrie, Tommy Tune as Argyle Austero, Isla Fisher as Rebel Alley, Ben Stiller as Tony Wonder, and of course Terry Crews as Herbert Love. Even if I didn’t like the actual character they played (Herbert Love), these secondary characters pretty much saved this season. Had it just been the Bluth family I fear Arrested Development season 4 would have crashed and burned even more than some people felt it did. 

Worst Character: I feel like I’m committing some crime here but the worst character of the season was Ron Howard. To his credit though, it was mainly due to the new storytelling engine that, as opposed to the first three seasons when the narrator was more of a “heh heh, hey audience let’s laugh at these buffoons together,” he was relegated to just being a regular narrator with little to no editorial commentary. Where he was once witty and smart, he now was boring and trite.

Season Grade: C+

Now it's your turn, TV Fanatics! What grade would you give Arrested Development Season 4?

There may be more Arrested Development episodes on the way.

There may also be an Arrested Development movie.

But now the folks at Film Music Reporter have confirmed: There will definitely be an Arrested Development soundtrack! It will be released on November 19.

According to a press release, “Arrested Development’s composer David Schwartz selected his songs and score from all four seasons of the show, with a heavy dose of the original madcap songs and its signature ukulele tunes."

Schwartz - who has also scored Deadwood, Beverly Hills, 90210 - added on his website that “the playlist is based on all of the requests from we received during the AMA on reddit.com. Greatest fans ever!”

Look for the soundtrack to be comprised of 42 singles. They will be:

1. Arrested Development (Main Title) (0:18)
2. She’s Cute (1:25)
3. Get Away (Extended Version) (2:53)
4. Practice Kisses (1:51)
5. Sound of Silence / The Cockroach (Medley) (1:09)
6. Balls In The Air (Extended Version) (3:05)
7. Face Blindness (L&M) (1:33)
8. You’ll Never Hear From Me Again (3:35)
9. As It Is Such (Medley) (1:18)
10. Tobias Eat Pray Gay (Medley) (0:40)
11. Motherboy (1:19)
12. Franklin’s Brown Sugar (0:23)
13. It Ain’t Easy Being White (1:19)
14. Shot By Love (Extended Version) (3:04)
15. Mr.F (0:49)
16. The Yellow Boat (1:56)
17. All You Need Is Smiles (0:27)
18. Big Yellow Joint (0:27)
19. Big Rock’n Yellow Joint (0:09)
20. The Cute Test (2:05)
21. Aloha Lei To You (1:09)
22. Oh Phoenix (2:14)
23. Andele (0:28)
24. Bang Bang Bang Bang (Buster Dance) (2:14)
25. I’m Blue, Man (2:13)
26. Mock Trial (0:15)
27. Not Your Father, Mopy,
28. What Could Be Better (1:20)
29. She Winked (1:07)
30. Free At Last (1:18)
31. Oh My (Medley) (0:49)
32. Get Along, Little Sheep (0:29)
33. Big Ska (0:49)
34. Buster & Lucille & George & GOB (0:40)
35. Fantastic 4 (Medley) (0:54)
36. The Invisible Girl (0:58)
37. Rub It In (1:53)
38. The Chipper (1:39)
39. Teamocil (0:35)
40. You Here With Me (1:27)
41. Police Cruise (1:04)
42. Boomerang (3:37) Performed by Lucy Schwartz

Arrested Development is about to meet Community.

And the Internet may explode as a result.

Sources confirm that Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz will guest star on an episode of Community this winter, paying it forward after that sitcom's creator, Dan Harmon, made a cameo on Arrested Development Season 4 as a desert-dwelling yurt clerk.

Look for Hurwitz to stop by the NBC series as a Greendale student/party animal named Preston Koogler. And look for him to clash with anyone who tries to get in the way of him and a drunken good time.

Community finally returns from far too long of a hiatus with back-to-back episodes on Thursday, January 2.
 

Forgive us. We're 24 hours late for National Siblings Day.

Fortunately, though, we're not too late to honor the brothers and sisters across the television dial that keep us entertained on a weekly basis.

From those who fight over the same girl to those who re-enact the lift on Dirty Dancing, the following pairings and trios represent some of the best relationships on television.

Click through them now, sound off on your favorite and, of course, scream at us for whichever small screen siblings we may have missed:

17 Small Screen Siblings We Adore

1. Damon and Stefan Salvatore

The Vampire Diaries is a love story, it's true. But it's really a love story between Damon and Stefan Salvatore.

It might be Mother's Day, a time to celebrate the best in all parents out there... but these TV moms are THE WORST. No really. They are.

There will be no Mother of the Year trophies for moms like Victoria Grayson and Mags Bennett. No "#1 Mom" coffee mugs for Constance Langdon. And we won't even get started on Mama Pope's misadventures in motherhood.

From manipulation and intimidation to being straight up evil, here are the 11 worst TV moms. Now go hug YOUR mom and be thankful she never disciplined you with a ball peen hammer.

11 TV Moms Whose Kids Will Need Therapy

1. Maya Pope

Maya Pope, Olivia Pope's mom, is a terrorist, a murderer, and just plain evil.

And don't forget to check out the 13 Best TV Moms while you're here.

Memorial Day is an occasion for time at the beach, meals from the barbecue - and a few moments of silence for those who have given their lives in battle.

And while we'd never compare the fictional exploits of characters on television to the real world heroism of men and women in the military... the small screen is filled with a variety of veterans.

Many of these former armed service members use skills honed from years of training and fighting to apprehend bad guys in a different setting, from Los Angeles to Hawaii to D.C.

Some are vampires. Which would serve them well on the front lines, really.

So in honor of Memorial Day, we salute the following 17 TV characters, all of whom have proudly served their country. Click around and pay your respects now:

19 TV Characters Who Have Served Our Country

1. Leroy Jethro Gibbs

This NCIS team leader is a veteran of Desert Storm action in Iraq. He was a gunnery sergeant in the Marines. We thank him for his service.

Two of the best shows in the history of television come together in the following new video.

In a totally awesome promotion for Orange is the New Black Season 2, which drops in its entirety on Friday, the opening credits for this prison dramedy are swapped for those of Arrested Development.

Michael Bluth is replaced by Piper Chapman. The female inmates of Litchfield are used instead of Gob and company. And Ron Howard even narrates the impressive editing job.

Check it out now:

Orange is the New Black Makes Like Arrested Development

As for what fans of this Netflix series can expect from new episodes, we chatted up various cast members a few weeks ago:

Orange is the New Black Cast Interviews

1. Laverne Cox PaleyFest Interview

Laverne Cox has made an amazing impression on Orange is the New Black fans. Watch our interview at PaleyFest.

Enough time has passed for us all to admit that Arrested Development Season 4 was pretty much a failure, certainly when compared to the lofty standards set in the past by this uproarious sitcom.

But Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos says that isn’t stopping his company from moving ahead with a fifth season of the comedy.

It will happen, Sarandos told USA Today this week, "it's just a matter of when," citing the busy schedules of all involved.

The CCO also acknowledged that criticism over the amount of time (or lackthereof) the cast spent on screen together in last season was "fair.

What do you think, TV Fanatics?

Relive the best Arrested Development quotes now and sound off: Will you tune in for Season 5?