There’s no denying that the show had pretty significant obstacles to get past simply in terms of logistics, to do with budgetary constraints, differences in the single-dump rather than week-to-week format, and of course the availability of the cast. All projects have obstacles like this, and the best ones conceive creative solutions to overcome them. That’s what Arrested Development does. The popularity of these performers that has resulted from the success of the original series wreaked havoc on their schedules, meaning getting them all in the same space on the same day for filming was complicated and virtually impossible, though they did seem to manage to do it for a couple of scenes.
They solved this with a narrative detail that is simultaneously straightforward and realistic: the family doesn’t see each other much anymore. Plenty of us can relate to that fact of life. We’ve become invested enough in the characters as individuals that giving them their own stories, with various run-ins with other members of the Bluth clan, can engage us just as deeply as seeing them all together at once. Before the start of the first season, in the story of the show, they were all living fairly separately, the Funkes in Boston and the Bluths in California. Considering the complications of their story since then, it’s perfectly reasonable that they would be apart for the years following the party on the Queen Mary. That means they don’t see each other as much anymore and we don’t get to see them together as much anymore, but that’s what happens when series grow up. It’s another case of Hurwitz and company turning a weakness into a strength.
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