Point/Counterpoint On How Enthusiastic To Be Over News Of Arrested Development Reunion

Yesterday night, the world turned upside down. At least, the social media world turned upside down if you tend to run in the types of circles who enjoy dense, joke-filled, and, frankly, amazing cult comedy series. If you’re not one of those people (rent the DVD’s, seriously) whose Twitter feeds exploded, here’s the deal; Arrested Development may be coming back for both a movie and a 10 episode “limited run” series.

This is obviously huge news. So huge, in fact, that we here at Mediaite are going to try something that has never been tried before. One of our writers is going to have a point/counterpoint debate with his own brain over just how excited he should really be.

Let us begin.

Point: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT IS COMING BACK!!!!!!!!

Counter Point: Is it? This show’s resurrection movie has been “confirmed” more times than SNL‘s been declared dead. And now they want us to really believe it this time because they made allusions to all the other rumors having been done on purpose to “throw us off?” Yeah, I really don’t believe that. Especially the idea that the “Michael Cera is the holdout” was really an inside joke. Who would ever think that was a good idea? That “joke” made tons of people hate Cera!
But, hey, I’m one of the people who will argue passionately that Scott Pilgrim was a stone cold masterpiece. Maybe I’m just crazy.

Point: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT IS COMING BACK!!!!!!!!

Counter Point: And then Mitch Hurwitz goes out of his way to say that everything is organized except for the money issues. Look, I don’t care how busy Tony Hale is (bring back Community‘s pottery class!), the money issues were always the hardest part! I don’t know much about the TV industry, but I do know that it’s going to take an awful lot of money for Showtime or Netflix to buy the rights to these characters just so they can air 10 episodes of a show that never got much of an audience in the first place.
I know both those companies care more about subscribers (and therefore reputation) than ratings, but the chain of events that would have to fall in place for this to happen is more convoluted than last night’s Breaking Bad.
But, hey, I’m one of the people who thinks last night was the first ever bad episode of Breaking Bad. Maybe I’m just a cynic.

Point: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT IS COMING BACK!!!!!!!!

Counter Point: But, should it? I mean, if I’m reading these comments correctly, each episode is only going to focus on one character and they won’t get together until the first scene of the movie. Doesn’t that fly completely in the face of everything that made the show great? As an audience member, I loved the rapid interplay between the characters and the seeming dozens of stories they crammed in each episode. Are they going to invent eight other instantly-great characters for each part of this mini-season? It just doesn’t make sense.
But, hey, I’m one of the people that thought the third season was just as good as the first two. Maybe I’m just stupid.

Point: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT IS COMING BACK!!!!!!!!

Counter Point: Ok, great. I’ll watch it with you after a marathon of the Party Down movie, two Deadwood movies, Fire Walk with Me extended DVD, and season of Veronica Mars where she’s an FBI agent.

Point: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT IS COMING BACK!!!!!!!!

Counter Point: Why don’t you ask the people who waited years for the Duke Nukem sequel how that came out? You pop in Chinese Democracy recently? How are Margaret‘s chances at the Oscars this year?

Point: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT IS COMING BACK!!!!!!!!

Counter Point: Look, I just refuse to get excited. It will only end in me being hurt again.

Point: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT IS COMING BACK!!!!!!!!

Counter Point: No. I won’t do it.

Point: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT IS COMING BACK!!!!!!!!

Counter Point: Please stop.

Point: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT IS COMING BACK!!!!!!!!

Counter Point: It’s not happening.

Point: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT IS COMING BACK!!!!!!!!

Counter Point: Ugh.

Point: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT IS COMING BACK!!!!!!!!

Counter Point: I mean, it would be cool to see them all together again.

Point: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT IS COMING BACK!!!!!!!!

Counter Point: And I do have faith in the writers.

Point: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT IS COMING BACK!!!!!!!!

Counter Point: I guess crazier things have happened.

Point: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT IS COMING BACK!!!!!!!!

Counter Point: I actually liked Sit Down, Shut Up.

Point: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT IS COMING BACK!!!!!!!!

Counter Point: Oh, fine.

Point: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT IS COMING BACK!!!!!!!!

Counter Point: ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT IS COMING BACK!!!!!!!!

Watch the video of the announcement from YouTube below:

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