5. Less Focus On Creepy Michael
One of the reasons why those first few episodes were pretty poorly received was the overwhelming focus on Michael Bluth. Yes, Michael is the lead character and yes, he has always provided the show with the heart that its more selfish characters lack. But he is also, most of the time, the show's "straight guy". He just isn't particularly funny, which is fine given that he has such a hilarious group of comedy figures surrounding him. When asked to carry full episodes of the show on his own, the lack of great jokes showed. It wasn't until episodes about Tobias, GOB and Buster followed later in the season that the humour began to flow more naturally. Seemingly to try and make his character funnier, the writers also made Michael into a pretty unpleasant, arrogant and generally creepy figure in Season 4. Michael was always likeable as the normal "good" guy in a family of self-absorbed idiots, so this was certainly not a character shift that worked particularly well. Hopefully it's dropped for Season 5.