5. Brian Was "The Sane One" In The Family
In any dysfunctional family sitcom, there's your basic crazy family and there's the one member that occasionally gets into trouble because of/on the behalf of the family. Their antics are designed to keep them exciting and to make episode fodder, but ultimately the sane one returns to their position as the anchor to the ship that is the family. The whole point of the "sane" character is for the audience to have an effective surrogate in the story, and to be able to better observe and laugh at the absurdity of all the other characters. As we've seen with Arrested Development's fourth season though, when you let "The Sane One" become as screwed up as the rest of the family, it ruins the balance of the show's chemistry. With Brian dead, the balance is gone and the family has no one to anchor them with their sanity. Without that anchor, the antics of the family aren't as interesting because there's no one to put them in their place after they've gone to far.