It’s being variously called a “reboot”, a “revival”, or just a fourth season but IMO one of the more interesting show business stories is Netflix’s resurrection of the Fox television series, Arrested Development. Seven years ago Fox cancelled AD after just three seasons and, frankly, the series struggled to get that far. It averaged about 6 million viewers per episode in the first season, 4 million in the second, and three and a half in its final season. Since the cancellation there have been rumors of the show being reborn elsewhere, a movie, etc.
Then about a year ago Netflix announced that it had ordered a fourth season of Arrested Development. The results became available on May 26 and the whole season was made available at once. Here’s how it was reported:
Fox’s early cancellation of “Arrested Development” played out like a rock star dying in his prime: It catapulted the show into cult-favorite status, leaving fans wondering what could have been.
Netflix tried to answer that question with a revival of the series, but critics and investors aren’t thrilled.
Netflix (NFLX) released all 15 episodes of season four on Sunday, and unlike the rest of Netflix’s foray into original programming — completely new series like Kevin Spacey’s “House of Cards” and Ricky Gervais’ “Derek” — the “Arrested Development” reboot came with a built-in fan base of millions.
The company is betting a lot on original series, and “Arrested Development” is one of the brightest stars in its lineup. But shares of Netflix were down as much as 6% in midday trade Tuesday, the first trading day after the episodes were posted online.
This may be just a “sell the news” reaction after Netflix’s months of marketing the revival, which included pop-up banana stands (a series in-joke) in cities across the globe.
That appears to have been the case. Netflix’s stock has recovered much of the ground it lost over the last couple of years since it announced the development last year and, after a brief dip immediately following the release of the fourth season of AD, it appears to be holding its own.
I’ve never watched Arrested Development, broadcast, on DVD, or streaming, but I do find the phenomenon of its coming back from the dead interesting. Increasingly, I’m wondering whether we’re going to be seeing a lot more original programming being bankrolled by the streaming services. As mentioned in the squib above, Netflix has several more originals (none of which I’ve watched, Hulu has some originals, and Amazon has announced its own original programming.
I suspect that the example of Arrested Development, a television series originally broadcast finding new life with first run programming via streaming, is likely to be rare. For such a thing to make any sense the series in question needs to have been cancelled before it ran its course, it needs an ardent following of (I’d say) at least three million people, and the producers and cast need to be open to the idea. I can only think of one other prospective candidate for such a treatment and it strikes me as a very long shot.
Firefly
Yep. That’s the one that came to mind.
Pros
loyal fan base, most of whom are stream-friendly
proven track record via Serenity
strong concept, good characters
Joss Whedon is obviously open to the streaming format
Cons
Sci-fi is expensive
a lot more time has passed since the show was broadcast
the cast is old (Nathan Filon is probably not available)
The only other series I can think of that might fit the bill is Veronica Mars.
“House of Cards” is actually quite good.
I, too, liked “House of Cards.” I didn’t watch “Arrested Development” during its original run but have tried to get into it via Netflix reruns without much success. It’s too cartoonish for my tastes.
Check out the Brit basis for House of Cards, also called House of Cards (first season, anyway). I think the humor is more mordant in the original, but, hey, it’s the Brits.. The original, in toto, was only 12 episodes. The late Ian Richardson was the lead. Highly recommended.
@James Joyner
AD has niche appeal I suppose. I found it enormously refreshing as it didn’t spoon-feed humor to the audience: no laugh track, lightning quick banter and intricate jokes spanning multiple seasons meant you really had to be engaged.
@Ben Wolf: I’ve only seen the first three or four episodes; I must just need to give it more time.
The series is definitely cartoonish, ehich can put people off. I felt the same way about South Park for a long time and didn’t appreciate the humor because I generally don’t like cartoons. Now I’m glad I decided to give it a real chance.
I like Arrested Development (the first three seasons anyway), but find it overrated at the same time. At its best it’s ingenious and extremely funny – but when the show isn’t at it’s best, which is at least 75% of the time, it’s awkward and frequently cringeworthy. More is not necessarily better with regard to jokes – you still need to be able to hit the mark with some of them.
James, if you found the first few episodes too cartoonish, all I can say is that it becomes far more so.
Dave, FYI there’s been a very successful Kickstarter to resurrect Veronica Mars as a movie. Firefly, though ain’t coming back – Fillion & others have made this clear.