Like many, I was a late arrival to the series “Arrested Development.” As a black kid growing up in the 90’s that name was forever associated with that Boho-Soul group that was a mixture of The Roots and Native Tongues and gave us songs like “Everyday People.”
However, once I discovered the short lived and critically-acclaimed show in re-runs on the IFC channel I was hooked. I wholeheartedly became one of the teeming masses who believed that the show, which ran from 2003-2006, was cancelled because it was too smart for network television and that the humor was ahead of its time. News broke in Hollywood yesterday that the show will be coming back with new episodes and a movie within the next year. Considering the content of the show and what’s happening politically in the nation, the return of AD to the small and big screen really proves the show was ahead of its time and America just needed to catch up.
Arrested Development was a cynical satire about a wealthy family trying to find their way in the world after losing the family fortune through scandals that were eerily similar to the Enron-like corporate shenanigans in the early 2000’s. When the show went off the air in 2006 we were just starting to feel this recession and the anger against corporate fat cats who got rich while millions lost their retirements hadn’t quite seeped into the public consciousness just yet. Fast forward five years, after $700 billion bailouts for banks that won’t give loans, 9% unemployment, a Wall-Street “occupation” and a recession that won’t quit, Americans are ready to embrace a dark comedy about rich people getting their comeuppance. Here’s hoping AD handles their resurrection as well as Futurama and Family Guy.
This originally appeared on Politic365.com.