TVSquad

More and more, Arrested Development is starting to feel like a soap opera. Look at the interlocking storylines we've got going on, going into the third season: incest, multiple brands of adultery, mistaken identity, wrongful imprisonment, illegitimate paternity ... it really goes on and on. Don't get me wrong – I love this stuff, and I think tonight's season premiere shows that the show is as strong as ever. But can we really waste time wondering why no one's watching? How could you possibly just jump on the ship now, and really get why a line like, "Kitty, you've got blue in your hair" is totally hilarious?

Well, I guess that one is actually pretty universal – at least for the pun inclined. Let's tour the episode's high points, shall we?


Michael finds out that the Bluths are going to have to get rid of the family cabin. Well, "family" cabin is maybe the wrong term; the cabin is where George Sr always promised to take Michael for father and son weekends, which he would routinely blow off to boff bimbos there instead. Michael decides that, if he's got one night left with the keys to the cabin, he's going to make it special – he's going to take George Michael there and give the kid the father/son weekend he never had.

But then he finds out the his father switched places with his twin brother, and that Oscar is the elder Bluth in prison. He's spending his days (of course) writing a blog, which is available here. I'm especially fond of Entry #41 – but then I'm never one to turn down RAVIOLI. Meanwhile, George Senior is in Reno, "hiding in plain sight" as a member of the Blue Man Group.* So Michael is forced to abandon George Michael to go to Reno to track down his own father instead.

Michael shows up at Bluth Company to announce his plans to Lindsay and GOB. Everyone's celebrating, because with George safely ensconced in prison, they can have the family assets back. Except it's Oscar, not George, so Michael's got to go to Reno. From atop the copy machine, Lindsay tells him to sort it out quick, because she wants to buy a Volvo. She hands him a picture. "Uh, that's not a vol-vo," he says. Whoops. That was from sitting on the copier.

Michael goes to see George Michael to break the bad news about their cabin trip. He suggests that GM might instead "pop a tent outside with your cousin Maeby." Little does Michael know, but George Michael and Maeby have been avoiding one another since they accidentally kissed in last season's finale. Maeby stutters that she's not really an outdoorsy type. Michael pats GM on the back and says, "This is a good chance for you to rub off on her." Wa-wa-waaa.

In Reno, Michael bumps into Tobias, and finds out that a) Tobias and Kitty have split up, and b) George Senior and Kitty and fooling around (hence the blue in her hair). Meanwhile, GOB gets a letter from an organization called SAD - Sons and Dads – that tells him that someone is looking for him. Long story short, he hooks up with Steve Holt, who is actually, really his son, but lots of misunderstanding ensues.

Okay, let's wrap up with a look at *my* favorite subplot: Les Cousine Dangereux. Lindsay ends up driving Maeby and George Michael to Reno to hook up with everyone else, and whilst she's out of the car, the cousins agree that things are only weird between them because they never finished their makeout session at the end of last season. They agree to meet in the stair car the next morning to finish the act. But that night, George Michael and his dad are lying in sleeping bags in the cabin, and Michael asks his son if something is wrong. George Michael confirms that there is something going on, and it does have something to do with a girl, but he doesn't want to talk about it, "because ... you won't like her." Michael responds, "Is it Ann? Because I ... like ... Ann." Uh, no ... not Ann. Michael vows that the next morning, the two of them will go out fishing and solve George Michael's girl problem – and, "I'm not going to let myself get dragged away by the family this time." The cousins never make their rondevous; Michael wakes up to see that he and GM are literally getting dragged away, along with the cabin, which George Senior has hooked up to a truck and is driving away.

And on the next Arrested Development? What do you think?



*I'd just like to say that when they did that Blue Man Group bit at the Emmy's last night, I was pretty convinced that it was actually going to be a David Cross sketch. I couldn't believe that they actually invited the real Blue Man Group instead.