These episodes don’t go together so much as I just have no way of deciding which one is the best of the three. The first episode that sees Buster fall deep into a light to no coma also features the famous “Mock Trial with J. Reinhold” plot, with little jokes sprinkled throughout, including a Hung Jury for a band that is named after its band leader, William Hung. Franklin the puppet is also featured prominently and hilariously as Gob finds new ways to make him talk without moving his own mouth. I just can’t even.
Then, in “Family Ties,” there’s Justine Bateman playing Michael’s possible-sister Nellie, a source for plenty of jokes and awkward moments where you’re like “Dear god they’re brother and sister!” and on top of that she’s a prostitute that Michael hires to blow everyone in the office (away). “Exit Strategy” might be the best of the bunch solely for its concluding sequence surrounding Operation Hot Brother. All the jokes about the Iraq War are tied up here, including George Sr. being confirmed to be set up by the British, the confirmation of a Bluth-style model home that turns out to be housing Saddam lookalikes, and the discovery of a fake WMD that inspires cravings for an ice cream sandwich. The stories from this third season were so tightly constructed that you got the sense the show was really starting to show what it could do.
Continue reading on the next page…
