Arrested Development: The Greatest Episodes

Mitchell Hurwitz’s Arrested Development has always been a cult favourite, even if it has never quite cracked the mainstream in terms of ratings. Following the misadventures of the colourful Bluth family, it’s an eccentric, pioneering and intelligent sitcom that combined a sharp wit with unashamed silliness and which perfected the art of the running gag. The big comeback season released in 2013 wasn’t perhaps as brilliant as the previous three, but it remains a welcome addition for the show’s loyal fans. Across its entire span so far there have been moments of pure, laugh-out-loud comedy involving everything from racist puppets to the delightful Mrs Featherbottom. Narrowing them down to just a select few wasn’t easy, but here are just a small sample of the show’s very best episodes.

Top Banana : S1 E2 – An early episode here that really set the bar high for what was to follow. After the pilot episode presented us with the general premise, this was the episode where the cast really got to let loose on their characters. Tobias has his disastrous Fire Sale audition, a dead dove appeared in the family fridge with a note reading “Dead Dove : Do Not Eat” and George Michael gets confused over the job title “Mr Manager.” It sets the tone for the peculiar family weirdness that is to follow and contains countless great jokes, including the unforgettable sight of Gob trying and failing to launch a letter into the sea. It perfectly set up the character’s various arcs and sets in motion a lot of the recurring themes that would crop up across the show. All of this, plus the immortal piece of advice that there is always money in the banana stand.

Pier Pressure : S1 E10 – One of the show’s most instantly memorable episodes filled with a twisting and turning double crosses as the infamous J Walter Weatherman is utilized by both George Bluth Snr and Michael to varying degrees of success. While George historically used Weatherman to teach the Bluth kids lessons such as the perils of not leaving a note, Michael decides to use him to teach George Michael the danger of buying drugs. Naturally, this being Arrested Development, a chronic misunderstanding is never far away. The episode sees the family’s history coming back to haunt them once more and it all builds to a brilliantly insane crescendo involving a drug deal gone wrong, the Bluth brothers, the Hot Cops strippers and of course, J Walter Weatherman.

Good Grief : S2 E4 – This second season episode is built around the false announcement that George Snr has died in Mexico. Naturally the news brings out the worst in the Bluth family, with Gob in particular seeing it as an opportunity to get into top magic magazine “Poof” by performing a grand coffin-based illusion at the funeral. Inevitably of course it all goes terribly wrong at the episode’s climax. As the rest of the family frets about the demise of George Snr and hiding it from poor Buster, George Michael discovers that Pop-Pop is actually alive and well and helps him hide out in the attic. A faultless and incredibly funny episode from start to finish.

Afternoon Delight : S2 E6 – Will Arnett’s Gob is undoubtedly one of the show’s strongest characters. Along with David Cross’ Tobias, he gets some of the show’s best lines and his unrelentingly weird character only gets funnier and funnier as the show progresses. This episode in particular is peak Gob. This is the one where he proves just how terrible a boss he is by not only announcing the cost of his suit to all his employees but also by giving an anti-sexual harassment speech so blue the majority has to be bleeped out. There’s also some wonderful foreshadowing involving Buster getting “hooked” on playing a game that tries to nab a stuffed seal, and we also see Tobias blue himself in case the Blue Man Group needs him at the last moment. The episode’s title of course stems from the Starland Vocal Band’s ode to daytime love-making, a tune which is sung to incredibly awkward effect by Michael and niece Maeby as well as Lindsay and George Michael.

S.O. B. s : S3 E9 – Even by Arrested Development’s standards, this was an incredibly meta episode. “S.O.B. s” directly addresses the real life struggle of the show to stay on the air but does so under the guise of the family themselves facing financial troubles. Along the way they take pot-shots at gimmicky TV show tricks designed to lure viewers in, have a “savesourbluths.org” tagline flash up on screen, have a line announcing “HBO definitely isn’t going to want us” (HBO standing for the Home Builders Organization) and even have narrator Ron Howard flat out implore viewers to tell their friends to watch. It’s a typical witty and cutting episode that showcases how unique Arrested Development was.

(Image Credit: Netflix)