The quiet return of Arrested Development shows how radically television has changed in the space of five years

In a crowded television landscape, it’s hard for any show to stand out. Some series, like Netflix, are highly promoted It’s all disgusting!Come and go after one season. Others remain quietly under the radar year after year, like The Road, which completed a three-season run on Hulu in March, went unnoticed. You may have watched and loved these shows. You probably know someone else who did. But whether short-lived or oddly long-lived, many shows lack the qualities that make them worthy of social media fodder and random bait, the 2018 equivalent of water-cooled conversation topics: they exist without seeming to matter.

It’s a tough environment even for likable, rambunctious shows returning after a long absence. It is considered Development stopped. The savvy, media-aware audience heard A.J a lot about the Mitchell Horowitz ensemble comedy a week before Netflix premiered its fifth season on May 29, but they’ve been hearing about it for all the wrong reasons. Allegations of sexual misconduct have been made against Development stopped He co-starred with Jeffrey Tambor for alleged behavior during production of the Amazon series transparent It overshadowed both shows. Although no accusations of sexual harassment have surfaced in connection with Tambor’s work Development stoppeda disastrous The New York Times interview Tambor revealed major tension there by verbally abusing co-star Jessica Walter, who broke down in tears when the topic was brought up.

Instead of expressing sympathy for Walter, cast members Jason Bateman, Tony Hale, and David Cross were quick to excuse Tambor’s behavior. (All three men have since publicly I apologizeWhile the star Alia Shawkat participated He gave a revealing interview On why the conversation was so awful and why you didn’t speak more at the time.) All in all, it was a bad day to be Development stopped Publicity, bad day for Tambor’s attempt at redemption tour, and bad day for fans who are under the illusion that the show was as much fun to watch as it was.

Not all publicity is good publicity, and knowing Tambor’s actions towards Walter, along with the other charges against him, made it hard to see Development stopped In the same light in which it was received before. eagle Critic Matt Zoller Seitz Enter the term “cultural vandalism” To describe the effect of an artist’s unfortunate behavior on a piece of art. Development stoppedSeason 5 has arrived with heavy marks.

But will erasing those marks change the relatively quiet reception to the new season?

Here’s some inside baseball: If you worked on a pop culture website between 2006 and 2013, you run the elements Development stoppedThe long-rumored comeback was like printing page views. The show never enjoyed massive ratings during its three seasons on Fox, but it did garner critical acclaim and an enthusiastic cult following. When the final episode, “Arrested Development”, was shown on February 10, 2006 as part of a one-night burn of the final four episodes, it brought the series full circle. But many fans still want more. This obviously included Hurwitz and the crew, who have often hinted that they’re ready to star in Season 4. However, the idea seemed far-fetched — until Netflix began looking for available properties that could boost the profile and reputation of its original content slate. And the rumors turned into reality, and the fourth season Development stopped Hit Netflix in May 2013.

That was only five years ago, but it was a different era for television (as well as the rest of the world). Netflix premiered its first original series, house of cardsin February 2013. View another signature, Orange is the new blackIt was still a few months away. (Subscribers can already enjoy Hemlock GroveHowever) Development stopped To the service, at that point still best known as a place to stream movies or rent DVDs by mail, was a big deal, one that would help establish Netflix as a platform on which original series could thrive — or as titles for revived movies. Development stopped Note, “Semi-Original Series”.

Development stopped He also came back at a time when TV revivals, on Netflix or elsewhere, weren’t common. Family man And Futurama It was canceled and they’re back, but usually, dead shows stay dead. Development stopped helped change that, paving the way for the revival of everything from Gilmore Girls to Twin Peaks to Mystery Science Theater 3000 — a trend that includes what was briefly TV’s biggest success story of 2018, the now-cancelled highly rated revival Roseanne.

now, Development stopped He’s back in the world of television his fourth season helped create, but he doesn’t seem to make a huge splash in that world. Reactions to the fifth season have been muted, with phrases like “mostly fine” And “Fun in places.” Netflix does not publish ratings, which makes it difficult to gauge fan reaction. But the social media response suggests that the new season hasn’t turned fans into locker parties, as the season 4 premiere did.

Some of this is likely due to issues with Development stopped Itself. Season 4 was divisive. Scheduling issues kept the cast away from much of the production, resulting in episodes centered around individual characters rather than the strong ensemble that drove the first three seasons. These new episodes moved to a different cadence than their predecessors. The humor took on a more sinister side, and while some viewers saw this as a feature rather than a bug, many did not. And while Season 5 has returned to a more traditional method of production, it has its own issues. Where was season 4 Development stopped‘s white album – A bunch of singles coming together into one package – Season 5 sometimes plays like a show Let it be, with a band learning to play together again. (And even here, it’s the solo turns that stand out, particularly Will Arnett’s work as the increasingly tortured Gob Bluth.)

Tambor’s situation is also hard to dismiss. This is disastrous times The interview undoubtedly helped quell enthusiasm for the show’s return and cool the goodwill toward the cast members who defended it. But even without it, the premiere anew Development stopped The 2018 episodes aren’t quite the event they were in 2013, for reasons outside of the show itself. Given the fragmentation of the television landscape, the sheer number of familiar properties being adapted or rebooted, and the intense marketing that goes into turning streaming service fare into showtime, the premiere of approx. any The TV show in 2018 couldn’t be the event it was in 2013. Even the shows that Can Unite Torn Viewership Either It’s Set To End Soon (game of thrones) or engaged in a seemingly irreversible decline (the walking Dead). There’s more great TV now than ever before, but the medium is moving at warp speed. There is more to watch than ever before, and more He deserves They watch, but unless there’s a particular show that impresses on social media or garners a vocal audience willing to give it a go, it’s hard to see the impact of any new arrival.

And the excess of things to watch made viewers treat new television like a job, like a heavy responsibility. If anything, viewers are now looking for reasons to be excused from the obligation to watch something. Where they used to work to find something to watch, they are now looking for reasons to tune in. Development stopped It was once a special. Now, it’s a show that struggles to remind viewers why it’s so special.