How to watch ‘Arrested Development’ after it leaves Netflix

The news that Arrested Development will leave Netflix has shaken fans. The show has long been considered one of the best sitcoms of the modern age, and many are wondering how they will be able to enjoy the show once it leaves the popular streaming platform. 

What is Arrested Development?

Arrested Development was created by Mitchell Hurwitz. It is a sitcom that follows the dysfunctional and formally wealthy Bluth family as they get entangled in many weird and wacky misadventures. The show launched on Fox in 2003 and ran for three seasons until it was canceled in 2006. 

But, in 2013, Netflix made a deal to produce a new season of the show. This fourth season has a different format from the previous ones, with each episode focusing on one character. Later, in 2018 this season was re-edited to present it as one chronological story dubbed Season 4 Remix: Fateful Consequences. The final season returned to the original format and landed on Netflix in 2018.

How to watch Arrested Development once it leaves Netflix

Part of what makes Arrested Development’s future so confusing is the previously mentioned reboot. Thankfully, for fans of the original pre-Netflix seasons, there will still be ways to enjoy the show. The first three seasons, the ones not made by Netflix, are still available to stream via Hulu. Also, these seasons were released on DVD as individual seasons and one boxed set. So these episodes will be easy to view even once the show leaves Netflix.

But, it is the reboot where things get tricky. The original, one character per episode, version of season four did get a physical release. But neither the second version of season four nor season five got a physical release, and at the time of writing, they are not available on any other streaming platforms. So they will not be available to view once they are removed from Netflix. 

However, it is unlikely that these seasons will become lost media. Netflix co-produced these episodes with 20th Television, a company now owned by Disney. This removal is because the licensing deal that allows Netflix to distribute the show has ended, forcing it to remove the sitcom. This is similar to the situation we saw last year when Netflix pulled the Marvel TV shows from its service, only for the shows to eventually reappear on Disney Plus. 

Arrested Development will likely follow a similar path once it leaves Netflix. It’s clear that, due to increased competition in the streaming space, Disney is keen to bring all the shows it owns back to its in-house streaming service rather than allowing other companies to distribute them. So, due to the massive popularity of Arrested Development and because the original seasons are already on Hulu, it will only be a matter of time before the new seasons return to streaming.