The Malcontent

Showtime To Get Arrested?

I love our readers, but sometimes I do wonder if the feeling is mutual.

If you loved me, how on Earth would you all let me miss this universe-altering news?!  [Via A Socialite's Life]

Fox Makes the Baby Jesus Cry

The Pen15 Club breaks the saddest (if most predictable) news I have heard all week.

Arrested Development: Back With a Gay Vengeance

I am sorry to keep harping on Arrested Development, since apparently so few of us are watching it that even the friggin' WB regularly dispatches Fox's Monday-night lineup.  (Yes, there is video coming up.)

But for the love of God, please!  If you don't watch this show already, then start!  And if you do, then get more people to watch!  I cannot think of a funnier, snappier, more brilliant TV comedy, ever.  (Other shows have been probably just as funny, but none has matched the writing, pacing and performances of AD.  If it is canceled, I will sob like a disconsolate widow.)

Which is why last night was so great: not one, but two new episodes back-to-back, which meant double the amount of the fey, feckless Tobias Fünke, and twice his regular number of ridiculous attempts at an actual hairstyle.

As always, Tobias was caught in several double entendre holes of his own digging.  In the first episode, he coaches the painfully plain Ann Veal for an "inner beauty" pageant.  And in the second, he becomes a "mole," with cataclysmically comedic results.

And as a bonus, Malco-Vision is including a scene in which George Sr. is led to believe he is going to speak to young men at a "Startled Straight" meeting on the perils of prison life.  Which, of course, backfires.

[Watch video – 6:09, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 6:09, WMV format, low bandwidth]

Questions Crop Up

Like any good gay, I read my Out magazine every month, including the monthly missive by editor Brendan Lemon.  But the picture of Lemon in his columns is composed rather strangely, and I didn't think much of it – until I noticed the same odd cropping in another photo in a profile of Lemon over on Queerty.

C'mon, Brendan, let it shine!

Tara Reid wants to know: "Why is partying and having a good time bad?"

Umm, could this be why?

Arrested: New Lease on Life?

My favorite TV show, Arrested Development, might finally have found the key to igniting a much-needed ratings spark: mega-guest-star Charlize Theron.  (Normally, I am opposed to "special guest stars," but in this case I will make a huge exception.  I would double my donation to the hurricane victims if I thought it would keep AD on the air for at least a few more seasons.)

The Oscar winner has signed on for a five-episode arc in which she plays a British love interest of Michael Bluth's.

That much has been widely reported.  But if it's SPOILER(S) ye seek, they're after the jump ...

"Arrested," and No Contest

On Sunday, Sept. 18, the Emmy Awards will air, one night before the season premiere of Fox's Arrested Development.  I have given it some thought -- probably more than I should -- to why Arrested Development deserves to win, hands down, the Emmy for Best Comedy.  Again.

It is a departure for a half-hour network sitcom to forgo a studio audience for a one-camera shoot, but even more daring to attempt AD's rapid-fire delivery, running gags, obscure references and subtlety.  The writing is dense and complex, the pacing is often frenetic, and the performances -- every one of them -- are brilliant.  (I can't remember another show where I have so thoroughly loved all the characters for their own uniqueness and complexity.)

Of course, none of this is reflected in AD's mediocre ratings, but Fox's continued confidence that this will change gives me reason to hope.

It all hit me when I was watching one of the episodes from season two, which Fox has been re-running four per week on successive Fridays this summer.  My thesis can probably be summed up in one 40-second clip featuring the three Bluth brothers (Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Tony Hale) and their lawyer, Barry Zuckerkorn (Henry Winkler).  There is nothing fall-down funny about it, but it represents AD's respect for its audience and its (yes) subtle humor.

Consider it sort of a comedy IQ test: If you laugh, then you're either a current or prospective Arrested devotee like me.  If you don't, then please watch anyway so that it stays on the air for the rest of us.

[Watch video -- 3.5mb, WMV format]