Starring Jason Bateman, Jeffrey Tambor, Portia De Rossi, Will Arnett, David Cross, Jessica Walter, Michael Cera, Ron Howard (Narrator)
Written By: Brad Copeland, MItchell Hurwitz
Directed By: Joe Russo, Jay Chandrasekhar
Studio: Fox
Buy on Amazon.com link

Emmy Award winner for Best Comedy, fans can now enjoy the entire first season on DVD with also a sneak peak at the second season soon to premiere on Fox. Revolving around the Bluth family, Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) must try and salvage the business due to his father being imprisoned and also must deal with his outrageous family. Arrested Development was almost cancelled but due to high critical praise, and a recent emmy nod/ win, the show will stick around, hopefully for a while.

Starring Jason Bateman as Michael Bluth who is the calm and normal one of the group in which he has to deal with his entire family who is crazy in many different ways, plus his father is now in prison. Jeffrey Tambor plays his father, George Sr, who now resides in prison due to running his business very unprofessionally. Shoddy accounting practices and other incorrect real estate practices leaves Michael Bluth to deal with being in charge of the Bluth Company. That is not an easy task. Most of the show is centered around Michael and having to babysit his entire family. Michael and his son, George Michael live in one of the Bluth Co. model homes, and soon everyone follows. Let’s break the entire crazy family down. First you have Michael’s mother Lucille, who is pretty evil and not a very good mother. Most of the time she is lying to her children just to get them to do something for her. Then you have Michael’s siblings, GOB or George Oscar Bluth, Michael’s twin sister Lindsay Bluth Funke, and don’t forget about Buster. Ah Buster. Let’s just say he’s a grown man who acts like he is 4. Still lives with his mom and relies on mommy to do everything, Buster soon finds a sugar mama in Lucille #2, played by Liza Minelli. Going back to GOB, played great by Will Arnett, he is one of my favorite characters in the show. A Magician who struggles to find work and at the same time has a tough time with people taking him seriously. He makes me laugh because he gets in most of the disputes with his brother Michael. Michael soon falls for GOB’s girlfriend who is a spanish soap opera star. It doesn’t last though, since she catches both of them fighting on the front lawn of the courthouse. Awww brotherly love. Sounds familiar, right Bryan? Next you have Lindsay, Michael’s twin sister. She is a blond beauty who knows it and flaunts it. Lindsay is married to Tobias Funke, played by David Cross. Another favorite character of mine. Lindsay and Tobias marriage is on the rocks and has been for years. Tobias has many red flags thrown up in relation to his sexuality. Plus the guy’s a never nude. I mean NEVER. He’ll where daisy dukes underneath his clothes and even shower with them on. Lindsay and Tobias have a daughter, Maeby. She is about the same age Michael’s son George Michael. Now living together all in one house, George Michael develops a incenstual crush on his cousin Maeby. You never do get closure on that story arc throughout the season. The jokes are just there. Maybe that will be explored more in season 2. That pretty much covers the family. The show has some great guest appearances on this DVD first season like Henry Winkler, Heather Graham, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and a few others.

Looking at the extras on the 3 disk set, include deleted and extended footage of most of the episodes featured separately on each disk. I prefer it better that way since there are 22 episodes and you just include them on disk 4 or something you may not know which scene belongs to what episode. Next, each disk has audio commentary by the creators, directors and cast including Jason Bateman, Jeffrey Tambor and more. A few other featurettes like “Breaking Ground: Behind the Scenes of “Arrested Development,” which features interviews with the cast and a closer look at the show. Plus don’t forget to check out The Museum of Television and Radio cast panel discussion, “The Making of A Future Classic- a TV Land feature, promo spot and a season 2 introduction by Ron Howard. Plenty for you to check out.

Overall, I love Arrested Development. The show is quirky, intelligent, fun and is pretty damn hysterical. While most of the time, the humor is not laugh out loud funny, it is done nicely though. I can’t wait to see what happens this upcoming season. All I can hope is that the show is not cancelled because Fox can certainly pull the plug quick on something that may be brilliant but despite poor ratings, puts some reality show drivel on instead.

Features:
n- The nevern-aired extended pilot
n- Audio commentaries on selected episodes “Braking Ground: Behind the scenes of ‘Arrested Development'” featurette
n- Ron Howard’s inside look at “Arrested Development”
n- Deleted/extended scenes
n- The Museum of Television & Radio cast panel discussion
n- Original songs by David Schwartz
n- TV Land featurettes and more!

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Surround CC

Video:
Widescreen 1.78:1 Color (Anamorphic)

Subtitles:

Favorite Scenes: “Top Banana,” “In God We Trust,” “Shock and Awe,” “Altar Egos”
Rating:
Running Time: 512 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: