Beyond the Binge reflects on episodes from a full season perspective. It is not intended to be spoiler-heavy, but there will be some spoilers throughout. Previously: Queen B.
Short of line-by-line highlighting the entire episode there’s very little I can do to convey the sheer brilliance that is “A New Attitude.” If you left “Colony Collapse” assuming it would be your favorite of Season 4, I’ll venture a guess that you crowned a new champion by the time the credits rolled here. So much GOB goodness, surface jokes and meta jokes galore, storylines coming together, perfectly utilized Ben Stiller, this episode is Season 4 at its absolute best. I got all tingly when the mariachi band played. So perfect.
Let’s get right to what you may have missed and then handle the rest of the highlighting in the comments, shall we? That way we can entertain each other over our national holiday in the thread below. Man, I have been over-explaining the sh*t out of everything lately.
“Is yours Julie Bowen?” Presumably because Mitch Hurwitz has on many occasions alluded to Modern Family being a more mainstreamed version of Arrested Development, there are several Modern Family references throughout Season 4, the best of course being this opening bit where GOB and Michael get competitive over the fact that neither of them is dating Julie Bowen.
“No, that would be a “J”. This is a “T”. GOB still sucks at religion.
Everything “Attitude” points to homosexuality in Season 4. From the magazine first introduced in “Flight of the Phoenix” to the men’s clothing store where GOB is shopping to the name of the episode.
The Gothic Castle is a recurring joke from Season 2. Fun with Netflix Captions reveals this is how GOB thinks of the spelling when someone mistakes the name.
“But are we good?” GOB whispers to George Michael after their fake gay break up, in reference to the “Are we good?” from “Colony Collapse.”
GOB’s flashback to the talking bird toy hallucination (triggered by spotting an ostrich!) and the words, “You know if tomorrow you won’t open up and let someone else in, then the treasures you have inside may never come out” is later revealed in “Off the Hook” to be the words of one of the “Locker Hawker” guys surveying the outside of the storage unit. Slightly less moving, just like Tobias’s insightful words to Lucille were actually about the superhero Invisible Girl.
You may recognize Office Taylor from Tony Wonder’s act as one of the gay cops trying to have Maggie Lizer’s baby in Season 2.
When GOB bites his own tongue the water he puts down has blood seeping into it.
The Poof Woops Column has a “Product Recall” section that explains why GOB’s “magic smoke” caused his bees to “drop like flies.” Also, pretty sure Johnny Storm is Tobias.
GOB and Tony’s slideshow of good times is a callback to the night of good times had by GOB and GOB’s wife (Amy Poehler) in the first two seasons.
Tony and Sally conspiring in bed while sharing a cigarette is a House of Cards (also on Netflix!) parody, as heavily nodded to by Sally’s “house of cards” line. Also — in case you haven’t been paying attention — Sally’s ignorance towards leg-shaving and the caterpillar/fuzzy moth point to Sally suffering from Alopecia just like her dad.
Sudden Valley: As Seen On “To Entrap A Local Predator” GOB’s ad is the best.
Siri calls GOB “gawb,” which I thought was a nice touch.
The song lyrics to “Balls in the Air” during the Michael/GOB ball fight are, um, interesting.
Is Tony’s Place the flipped house from Modern Family? One Redditor investigated.
And finally, here are some GIFs of two magicians hellbent on f*cking each other.
Followed by easily the most important “Previously On”/”On The Next” closing to any episode of the season thus far. Obviously the final reveal is monumental, but I can’t help but think the addition of the FF4 cutaway further cements the “Michael is Rock Monster” theory. I’m still a little unclear as to how much of Michael’s memory the forget-me-now wipes out. If anyone feels like mapping it out in for me I’ll happily “SAME” it in agreement.
Sources: Arrested Development Wikia & r/ArrestedDevelopment
