Saturday January 14, 2006

The Final Four

Fox has announced that it will air the last four episodes of Arrested Development in one two-hour block on February 10, the opening night of the Olympics. TVSquad expresses dismay, but I think this signals the shape of things to come. There was much talk about taking AD to the web, and Fox’s move is similar. They’re essentially taking the show straight to DVR, knowing that fans will find it wherever it is. As scheduling becomes less and less important, I wouldn’t be surprised if undesirable time slots increasingly became depositories for niche shows like AD—at least until TV and the net merge entirely and render scheduling completely obsolete. Here’s what to expect in the final episodes, according to Zap2it:

The final four episodes of the season will feature guest appearances by Justine Bateman, Jason’s sister, and Judge Reinhold, also seen in the “SOBs” episode (indicating that it may have aired out of sequence). Justine Bateman will play a woman who Michael believes may be his long-lost sister Nellie, while Reinhold plays himself, hired by the family’s new lawyer to act as a judge in a mock trial to help the Bluths prepare for a real court case.

The episodes will also feature Gob (Will Arnett) traveling to Iraq to perform a Christian magic act, which lands him in prison; Buster (Tony Hale) faking a coma to avoid testifying in the family’s court case; and George Michael (Michael Cera) and Maeby (Alia Shawkat) taking part in a mock wedding to entertain hospital patients. The whole thing ends up at a yacht party, which is where the series started.

Posted by jim at 01:29 AM ||