Can Arrested Development Recapture Its Magic?

Arrested Development was given a bad rap when it was cancelled by Fox in 2006. It was given a bad rap before it was cancelled. In fact, it was never given a chance; from its very first season the network didn't have a clue what to do with it, and rather than give it time to find a larger audience it was cut down in the middle of its third run. Rarely has a show as continuously excellent been treated so shabbily.

That is one of the reasons why there has been such high anticipation since it was first rumoured that the show was going to be brought back. It didn't deserve to go. The acting was of the highest class, the story lines inspired and the jokes bordering on genius. Everybody loved it, from the cast and crew, to the devoted fans, through to the normally cynical critics who failed to find fault with it.

Yet Fox continued to mess it about. Concerned with the original ratings, which were low, the network kept changing the show's schedule, meaning that what fans it did have never knew when exactly it would be on. Like many shows in the last ten years, it took DVD box set releases for Arrested Development to cement itself in the public's consciousness, which is where it has remained, untainted by future episodes threatening to destroy the quality of the show. It lived on, in its little bubble, three seasons of perfection that would be talked about in hushed, reverential tones.

It made a star out of Michael Cera, and finally took Jason Bateman into the big time. And now, after all the talk, all the rumours, the crossed fingers and prayers to higher beings, the Bluths are now officially returning, first in a mini-series, and then in a big screen release. The excitement is tangible.

There do, though, remain doubts. Can the show recapture its magic? Does Mitch Hurwitz still have the hunger to make another hit sitcom (it would appear in this instance he does, thankfully)? Will it, as Henry Winkler in one of the show's many acts of comedic genius, jump the shark? Will Michael Cera be able to return to ensemble comedy having established himself as the King of indie-type comedies? All these questions, tantalisingly, will have to wait to be answered until 2013 at least.

One positive is that Fox seemingly won't be involved in the show, with rumours suggesting that Showtime will buy the rights. So at least they can't mess it up the second time around. However, as we've seen with other shows that have returned from the television grave, repeated success is far from guaranteed. Family Guy and Futurama are two obvious examples of shows that have come back after being axed by Fox, and neither have come even close to being as good as they were first time around. Shows that make comebacks such as this rarely - if ever - are. However, when it comes to a product as good as Arrested Development was, with characters as iconic as Tobias Funke and G.O.B. Bluth, we are happy to live in hope. We'll be watching, and we'll be desperate to see that Arrested Development proves that Fox were wrong to ever contemplate taking it away from us in the first place.

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