Family has a knack for clouding and perverting and scratching and pulling at the attempts to follow our passions in life.
Dreams are often deferred by way of infinitesimal detours erected by societies charted through bloodlines and not just regional boundaries. Environments based on lineage can in many cases exert greater influence than those read off maps and controlled scientific studies. For, how might one go about measuring behavioral effect of a mother’s guilt trip or a father’s disappointment?
Few understand this periodically soul-eroding tendency of family love better than Michael Bluth.
Though in his case, it’s less like being intermittently splashed with a beaker of sulfuric acid and more like being positioned above dozens of gallons of the corrosive liquid, sitting on an ever-folding plank at a dunk tank where a seemingly endless queue of relatives take turns hurling a softball at an equal size target a mere few feet away. And they all have plenty of re-dos.
But as the protagonist of canceled Fox classic “Arrested Development,” played by Jason Bateman with a subtle balance of barely contained amazement and spiritually defeated routine, Michael must interact with and frequently assist these people on a daily basis.
Like we all do.
Admittedly, not all of us were expecting to be named the chief executive officer (CEO) of a company, only to be snubbed and instead expected to establish some sort of order to a beyond dysfunctional family decapitated of its figurehead father, who fittingly now spends his time in prison having love affairs with ice cream sandwiches.
Yet, though only a minute few of us have experienced the affluent Newport Beach atmosphere defined by complaints and insatiability that surrounds Michael, we can relate.
We’ve all had to deal with the same essential problems with different last names.
Lost in childhood
Everyone carries an inherent inclination toward neediness. Especially when temptation of the reliance on others is sweetened by common strands of DNA.
Unfortunately for Michael, almost none of his relatives has matured past the stage of adolescence, leaving them with the expectation of a world wherein they exclusively skip over the entrées providing true sustenance and growth and head straight for the saccharine desserts of reward with no work.
In this case, the term “work” can be applied both liberally and literally, as next to nil Bluths have any intention of obtaining a job, let alone holding one down for more than a week. Which would explain why they have so much time to ask him for favors.
Michael’s sister Lindsay (Portia de Rossi) wants to be respected for something other than her looks. A caricature of “limousine liberals” who berate others for their supposed environmental destruction and ecological ignorance while enjoying decadence viewed by most only through magazines and film, Lindsay struts in ostrich skin boots and a new outfit every day, demanding to be taken seriously.
She exemplifies the modern “Cosmo” girl screaming about objectification of women while secretly thriving on it.
Given that her mother is a poster child for cognitive dissonance, it comes as little surprise that Lindsay’s daughter, Maeby (Alia Shawkat), personifies the confused, yet rebellious state of youth so bluntly evident in her name.
Like so many of today’s young persons drowning in their endless loops of supposedly ironic revolt, Maeby devotes much of her time to finding creative methods of dissent intended more to confound than communicate a message.
She, just as so many teens and 20-somethings like her, acts on a motivation for attention rather than change.
Picture the already-groundless uprising crafted in “Rebel Without a Cause”-era America and implant the my-opinions-on-anything-and-everything-are-invaluable-treasures mentality of the Internet age and one is left with the awkward combination of shopping sprees at the leather store one day and plans for beauty pageants the next.
This is part of why “Arrested Development” is perhaps the greatest mirror and dissector of the American culture since the Golden Era of “The Simpsons.” It analyzes contemporary issues and behavior patterns by funneling them through the hilarious fallibility of humankind and the relationships therein.
Empathy in folly
Creator Mitchell Hurwitz said the idea for the “riches to rags” story of the show arose in light of the various accounting scandals surrounding major companies like Enron and Adelphia.
At the time, many were looking at the somewhat unreal magnitude of avarice exhibited by corporate heads with a level of disbelief surpassing outrage and entering sheer bewilderment. They wondered how greed could so easily deplete even the most basic reserves of human decency.
When a similar world view was seen through the eyes of the Bluths, however, it made more sense.
George Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor), the family patriarch who clumsily attempts to exert control over the company while in prison, makes a lovable CEO.
Despite all the defrauding of investors and cloaked power plays, he comes off no more evil than perhaps a frequently inappropriate, but funny, uncle.
For, no matter how deep into a string of ridiculous or manipulative actions George Sr. often succumbs to, he usually just looks like a victim of outside forces or his own human desire for more.
Empathy grows rapidly when we are able to not only picture ourselves in another’s shoes, but also admit that we just might fall prey to the same pitfalls given the same scenario.
Yet, George Sr. is not the only character to attain identification or pity through incompetence. Most everyone in the show fails repeatedly, particularly at what they are actually trying to do.
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