Michael's family is a bit worse off from when we joined them last season. His father, George Bluth Sr. is on the run from the law and may be hiding in Mexico, his uncle has moved in with his mother, his sister and brother-in-law are taking a break, his son has a girlfriend, and he's still trying to hold them together. Welcome to Arrested Development.
Though the show has been praised by critics, and won countless awards (6 Emmy's, a Golden Globe and some others), the show hasn't been able to find an audience. I think the show is simply too smart for the average couch potato, and they flip the channel to a rerun of Friends or Frasier. There are running gags that can't be appreciated by watching an episode of the show, but fans that watch the entire season are rewarded with brilliant writing, and excellent acting.
The second season was a few episodes shy of a regular season; 18 episodes aired, and Fox has packaged them in a 3 disc set:
Disc 1 (2:11:34)
The One Where Michael Leaves (21:56)
The One Where They Build a House (21:55)
Amigos! (21:57)
Good Grief (21:59)
Sad Sack (21:50)
Afternoon Delight (21:57)
Disc 2 (2:11:44)
Switch Hitter (21:58)
Queen For a Day (21:58)
Burning Love (21:57)
Ready, Aim, Marry Me! (21:58)
Out on a Limb (21:56)
Hand to God (21:57)
Disc 3 (2:11:51)
Motherboy XXX (21:59)
The Immaculate Election (21:57)
Sword of Destiny (21:59)
Meat the Veals (21:58)
Spring Breakout (21:59)
The Righteous Brothers (21:59)
Video
The show continued shooting in HD for the second season, and Fox has included an Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) presentation on the DVDs. The picture looks extremely good, with a bit of video noise in low-light conditions being the only problem. The picture is very sharp, and there's no evidence of edge enhancement. Each disc features a "play all" feature, and chapters are placed after the opening of each episode. Don't forget to watch the "Next time on..." bit at the end of each episode; they use it to tie up some stories.
Audio
Fox has delivered a pretty good Dolby Surround track for Arrested Development. The track won't blow you away, but the material doesn't require anything fancy. I didn't notice any problems with the dialog, or sound effects. The rear speakers were quiet, though I wasn't expecting much to come from them. The set includes English, French and Spanish subtitles.
Commentary Tracks
Creator Mitchell Hurwitz and actors Will Arnett, Michael Cera, David Cross, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat and Jessica Walter provide entertaining commentary on 3 episodes: "Good Grief," "Ready, Aim, Marry Me!" and "The Righteous Brothers."
Season One in 3 Minutes (3:12)
It's actually over 3 minutes, but who cares. This is a good feature to watch before watching the episodes here, just to refresh your memory on the events of season 1.
Deleted & Extended Scenes (28:33)
There are deleted and extended scenes for most of the episodes this season.
Blooper Reel (8:43)
I love blooper reels.
Summary
I love this show, and it's hard for me to wait for the DVDs, but I enjoy watching it in a marathon session. I was so annoyed when Ron Howard (the narrator) said, "Next season on Arrested Development! I thought, "Noooo, I can't be done the season yet!" but I was.
I had the pleasure of visiting the Arrested Development set when I was in LA last January for the Television Critic's Association event (I was a speaker on a panel and got to hang out the rest of the day). We came to the set after eating with the NYPD Blue cast members, and as I walked into the stage area I saw the cast members milling around. They were all there, and we could walk around and chat with them as we explored the various sets used for the show. Everyone was extremely nice, and I had an enjoyable conversation with Michael Cera (a fellow Canadian) and Alia Shawkat. There was a frozen banana stand handing out bananas, and Michael loved trying to get everyone else to have a couple (he's a banana pusher!). It was nice to chat with the stars of such a great show, and to discover they're all very cool people.
The second season DVD set is slightly disappointing compared to the first. There are far fewer extras on the set, but some of the oddities (like the "Fox Widescreen" logo) have been eliminated, which is good. It's still a decent release, but the season 1 set was better.
This is my favorite comedy on TV, but it seems unlikely we'll see a fourth season if the rating don't improve. I'll have at least one more season to look forward to watching on DVD, but I'll cross my fingers and hope that it'll get picked up again; this year was pretty close.
