Will Arnett Says The Next Season Of Arrested Development Will Be Structured Like The First Three Seasons

Business Insider- “Arrested Development” star Will Arnett tells Business Insider that when the beloved comedy returns to Netflix for its fifth season, the star-studded cast will spend “much more” time together on the screen. The new season will be structured “much like the original broadcast series,” he added.

His comments were in response to a question about the biggest criticism of the fourth season of “Arrested Development,” which aired on Netflix in 2013. Due to scheduling conflicts, the show’s large ensemble cast rarely appeared together in most episodes. Instead, the season was an interconnected series of vignettes focusing on only a few characters at a time.

This time around, not only is the whole cast returning (“sadly, Jason Bateman has agreed to do it,” jokes Arnett), but Arnett tells us that the show will be structured in a way that’s similar to the original seasons. That means the cast will be appearing together and sharing more scenes, he hints, as opposed to season 4, which focused on one or two characters per episode.

Oh fuck yeah, this is huuuuuuuge news for any fans of Arrested Development. Like I said when I blogged that the show was officially coming back for another season, Season 4 of Arrested Development was somewhere between a hot mess and a huge mistake depending how you felt about it. Granted part of it may have been the writing. I’m not sure. I refused to go back and rewatch the season in chronological order (which you can attempt to find by going to this subreddit) to see if it was only the structure or the writing played a part. Plus I am a shitty writer, so who am I to say other writing by a group of writers that created one of my favorite shows ever is bad? But I truly think the layout of Season 4 was the big issue. Everything was disjointed and it all kinda just flopped from the jump.

However this news means that Season 4 was just a blip on the radar and we SHOULD be getting the old Arrested Development back. You fix the layout and I think you fix the show. For my money, the show can hold its own against any other comedy’s first three seasons. Going back to what worked during the glory years should mean the return of one of the greats. If you haven’t watched Arrested Development yet but kept saying you were going to, now is the time to binge and catch up. Bang out three seasons, watch a quick recap of Season 4, and you are ready to rock once Season 5 brings glory back to the franchise like Simba did Pride Rock.

And since Will Arnett was the one that dropped this news, you will be treated to some Best of Gob Bluth highlights.