On the whole it's a really complex project they've gone for here with so many twists and turns to take in and so many hidden references between episodes and jumbled storytelling. I'm probably gonna have to re-watch it all at some point in the future to get the whole story down in my head chronologically, there's still a couple of things where I'm not even sure what happened.

The wrapping up of the whole plot was a bit of a let down in my opinion. There wasn't really a huge payoff with the whole Cinco de Quatro festival. It was a bit all over the place, and the ending with Michael and George Michael was almost depressing. Not really sure what I was expecting though, but I'm a huge sucker for finale's of seasons/series' that I dunno, was kinda wanting some sort of nice ending or something.

Having complained a fair bit there though, when the jokes were on they were really on. I think RoXer hit the nail on the head earlier on in the thread about some of the dialogue dragging on a bit, and there were a few jokes that happened with, but all the nods back to previous running jokes plus the creation of new ones in this season were great. As well as some of the usual great one liners. GOB's wedding was probably the highlight of the whole thing for me.

GOB's episodes in general were by far the highlights for me actually. Tobias' story was the usual crazy Tobias antics and that was pretty fun. I'm guessing Tony Hale wasn't really available to film all that much cause he was pretty much absent for like the first 10 episodes bar the odd scene, but I think that worked in favour for his episode since it was just the same Buster stuff as in the past, so it didn't seem overdone throughtout all the episodes. Lucille was fun as usual, George had his moments but I thought his episodes were probably the ones that dragged the most for me. Lindsay, George Michael and Maeby were all still spot on with their characters and their stories were fine. I did like the reveal of the real "FakeBlock" thing after so many hours of it seeming like such a huge deal.

So I'm guessing it was Ann's dad that scum bagged GOB's stunt?

A really different feel from the season 1-3.... but it is a whole different animal really.

They released it all at once because it is pretty much made to watch in a row. It is a very interesting project in that way. Not a traditional TV Series, more like a really long movie. It is designed to be taken in as one piece.

Being so long, it does get a bit jumbled. I can't help but wonder if they could have edited it in someway to make each character's story actually run parallel like in the earlier seasons, rather than revealing new aspects to a scene/event each episode.

I do like the plethora of new characters, and all the various dangling plot threads (provided we get another season that is).

I already said this before, but probably the biggest little thing that bothered me was actually young George and Lucille being played by different actors. Especially Seth Rogan. Took me "out of" all flashbacks, and I nearly missed the point of one when I didn't recognize it was supposed to be Lucille.

Annnnyways.... Probably gonna give it another watch to get everything straight.

Pete the mailman, or just there during really bad timing. Like the arse spinning the sign in the background too.

For starters, I think a lot of the internet needs a swift punch in the face. Kind of like how the season ended. I've been reading a lot of negative reviews, which is fine if they want to be negative because there's a lot to be negative about for season 4, and a lot of these detractors wrote their "scathing" review or formed their opinion of the entire season when they were only 2-4 episodes in. I will never value someone's opinion on something if they don't finish it. In this case, they were not even 20% through with it. I can MAYBE look the other way if you form a valid argument for why you walked out or gave up so early but most of what I read was written after the 3rd episode or so. And a lot of the negative reviews were acting as if their world was coming to an end or something and was very childish.

Now on to my childish review.

The pacing seems weird and that's from a very big domino effect. The length of the episodes are 30something minutes compared to 22 when on network tv. Obviously they have no commercials on Netflix so they are allowed free reign to go as long as they want. And maybe they shouldn't. There were moments when I thought the music was way too loud but then I realized it's because there isn't anything happening on camera. A character is stuttering, someone is walking to/from somewhere, Ron Howard is overly-narrating a scene. It turns out the music wasn't loud, it's just more noticeable because there were a lot of moments of inaction. A lot of filler. It could be blamed on poor editing but I think it goes before that. It seems like having charcter-centric episodes was Mitch Hurwitz's idea from the beginning and it's ambitious but it never clicked. AD is about a lot zany things happening to a lot of characters at once ("once" being per episode and not the entire season) and then ties in at the last 5 minutes of the episode (and not last 4 episodes of the season).

So whatever you want to blame that format problem on (scheduling conflicts, poor editing, overambitious writing) needs to be fixed by season 5. And there will be a season 5. Even if it isn't officially announced, how 4 ended left way too much in the air to end a series on. There will be a season 5 and if there's a movie it will most likely take place after that. And hopefully Mitch Hurwitz will accept some of the criticism and season 5 can revert back to it's original style.

There were WAY too many callbacks to earlier jokes in seasons 1-3. I hope season 5 doesn't callback anything and it's all brand new jokes. I liked just about all of the guest stars. John Slattery's character was great as was Chloe'sFrom24 (will never use her real name). Young Barry Zuckercorn is tremendous too (played by Henry Winkler's son). Terry Crews is great. Everyone was. I liked Kristen Wiig and Seth Rogan too.

The bar for best comedy this year isn't set too high with what's on TV right now. If I would grade this season it would be like B- maybe. This wasn't the best season of Arrested Development but it's easily better than whatever is on TV today. Better than Modern Family. Better than The Office.

So, George Michael is going to be a father with Modern Family chick right? I wonder who the 4 guys in Guy Fawkes masks were.

the Queen Mary capsized.

I think Maebe's acceptance speech was one of the top highlights with the parody of the sorority chick's email.

She said "double fucking news flash" and "cunt punt." That's what it was. Fuck you. You fucking snob.

Old reliable Tobias laugh... that whole scene where he is mistaken for a sex predator.

"Is there a little girl here all alone?"

"Come help daddy get his rocks off!"

"Is that our anus tart?"

not sure how I feel about the last episode not wrapping everything up more

the trial of buster, michael and george michael at odds, gob as ceo, the divorce of lucille/george and lindsay/tobias/maebe coming back together, the death of lucille 2, anonymous and fakebloc

The Bob Loblaw Law Bomb of "If he can't reach, this case is in breach." Only for the scenes later showing Barry buying a step ladder so he can reach. Also, did they actually ever cover what he was breaking into?

Pretty sure Barry was breaking into the high school that Maeby haad spent the last 5+ years attending.

Loved how Barry said "I can't reach the chachi!" in the trial.