Arrested Development Season 5 Review: 6 Ups And 3 Downs

Downs...

3. The Messy Start

Arrested Development Season 4
Netflix

With just eight episodes to go on, thanks to the season being split in two and trying to play to the Emmys, this truncated season flies by for the most part, but it does get off to a very rocky start.

The first couple of episodes basically play out like their own remixes of Season 4, as they attempt to not only recap events that happened five years ago (in the real world, with hardly any time at all passing in the show) but reframe certain stories too, in ways that'll allow them to be built upon further this year.

It would perhaps have been better to have more of a time jump, or simply get straight on with the job. Once Season 5 gets going it's excellent, but the first couple of episodes (and it bleeds into the third instalment to a degree as well) are very slow and messy in having to deal with Season 4, rather than immediately taking things forward.

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Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.