After about six and a half years of waiting, the Bluths could have had us thinking they’d never come back for us— but that’s why you always leave a note. Thankfully, they left us a few.
Here are the ones we’ve gathered at Vinyl Mag:
1. From the trailer, it looks like… Michael is moving, George Michael and Maeby are dorm-mates, Buster’s hook is bedazzled, and the series didn’t say goodbye to these Kitty.
2. Each episode will revolve around a different character
Luckily we won’t just see a single plot from fifteen different angles, though we will get to see the characters’ paths intersect. As Jason Bateman explained to GQ, “…the action across the episodes is happening simultaneously. If I’m driving down the street in my episode, and Gob’s going down the sidewalk on his Segway, you could stop my episode, go into his episode, and follow him and see where he’s going.” Which means…
3. You don’t really have watch the first episode first or the last episode last…
While creator Mitchell Hurwitz says the episodes are placed in their order for a reason, Portia de Rossi says the episodes can be watched in any order because they are filmed as stand-alones. Which for most other shows would mean not getting so hooked that you watch the entire season in one sitting… But it’s Arrested Development… stopping the season midway would be like going to jail without eating ice-cream sandwiches. But that’s okay, because we’ll be able to watch them all in one sitting since…
4. All the episodes will be released at once on Netflix
And Netflix has apparently been super awesome about letting Arrested Development stay Arrested Development. According to Hurwitz, they wanted to make sure everything was as he wanted it rather than making demands. Also…
5. The length of episodes, budget, and bleeping are pretty much the same
The closer to the Arrested Development nature the better, I say. Unfortunately, on the other hand…
6. Julia Louis-Dreyfus won’t be in this season
’Cause HBO has Selina Meyer too busy trying to to clean up after the “50 Ways to Win in Denver” fiasco. However…
7. New characters will include Blake Anderson, Seth Rogen, Ed Helms, Isla Fisher and John Krasinski
We may not know their roles yet, but we do know Rogen filmed his scenes with…
8. Kristen Wiig, who is cast as a young Lucille
Which has led to speculation that Rogen could be cast as a young George Sr. (he may not look as much like George as the pope does, but I could still see it). Also…
9. Conan O’Brien will be a guest star
Cast as himself, and…
10. Ron Howard (producer and narrator) and Brian Grazer (producer) will also be on-screen playing themselves
Supposedly the plot will include Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s production company, Imagine Entertainment, working on a movie about the Bluths. Also both acting and producing…
11. Michael Cera helped write the season
Apparently Hurwitz invited him to the writer’s room for what Cera thought was a one-time thing, but he ended up staying for the whole season and gained a producer title on the credits. Meanwhile…
12. Buster and Lucille’s relationship looks as near-incestuous as ever,
13. And Maeby is still the forgotten child
14. Somebody, at some point, is gonna be naked
The cat— or dead dove (do not eat)— isn’t totally out of the bag… but if anybody wants to place a bet, I’ve got mine right here:
15. …Also Ann is apparently still in the picture
In other news, there’s this…
Amy Anderson is a Magazine Journalism major at University of Georgia. She enjoys reviewing music and film of all kinds, and hopes to add more to the experience of listening or watching by adding critical perspective and showing various sides to works that audiences love (or hate, or feel indifferent towards). As well, when writing features, she strives to offer a glimpse into the artist’s creative process or ideology through engaging stories or thoughts. Her goal is to offer audiences unseen insight on creative works while opening eyes to worthwhile music and art. Amy's current five favorite musicians— though it’s always in rotation— are Andrew Bird, Beirut, Björk, John Maus, and Milosh. Her "guilty" pleasure is Robyn— if you don’t like her, you’re probably just pretending.