10 Unforgivable Mistakes That Ruined Great 2013 TV Shows

10. Arrested Development Forgot Its Premise

It would be somewhat tough to say that the fourth season of Arrested Development was a complete failure, because it wasn't. It packed in some laughs, the acting was top notch, and the writing wasn't out of left field - but Mitch Hurwitz's ambition in utilising Netflix's binge-watching model caused the show to lose its focus, which caused the rest of the season to be weaker. By having each episode focus on one character whose actions would temporally overlap with the actions of other characters, the episodes often grew dull. Part of what made the first three seasons so much fun was watching the ensuing dysfunction as the members of the Bluth family interacted, but in season 4, the characters were largely isolated, and so the familial-interaction-dynamic (otherwise known as the premise of the show) was removed. Furthermore, spending entire episodes with just one character often grew boring: for example, the early George, Sr. episodes, which revolved around his business dealings, lacked the laughs. If these scenes had been interspersed alongside scenes with other characters, they likely would not have felt so bothersome. This further emphasises that the true strength of these characters lies in bouncing them off each other--not in showing them in isolation. It seems Hurwitz wanted to utilise binge-watching model of Netflix and justify the show as a web series so much that he occasionally forgot the point of the show: to make us laugh and occasionally identify with the most ludicrous, dysfunctional family on TV, and not to show his characters on isolated, personal journeys.