I’ve viewed this entire process of Netflix making a fourth season of “Arrested Development” with some skepticism, taking the default assumption that Mitch Hurwitz and company are simply staging an elaborate prank on Jeffrey Tambor. I won’t believe these new episodes are real, I told myself, until I’m sitting in front of my computer watching them.
I now have a date for when this will allegedly be happening: Sunday, May 26.
Netflix announced this morning that the fourth season – which will now feature 15 episodes, rather than the 14 that had previously announced – will be available to all Netflix territories beginning at 12:01 a.m. Pacific on the 26th (i.e., just after midnight on Saturday the 25th).
Back in January, Hurwitz – who still views this fourth season as a prologue to an “Arrested” movie he hopes to make if there’s enough interest in the new episodes – explained that each episode will focus on a different member of the Bluth family and what they’ve been up to since the beloved but low-rated comedy ended its run on FOX in early 2006. Jason Bateman will be the only castmember appearing in all episodes, and though Hurwitz has a specific viewing order in mind, he’s said they can be watched in any order that viewers want.
And now we know the date and time when people can start binging, if they want.