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: Señoritis.
One of the few aspects we haven’t thoroughly discussed during our in depth strolls through season four of Arrested Development is the Michael Cera redemption factor. It’s no secret Cera has become a divisive individual on the internet since venturing into the feature film portion of his career. I can understand most of the rational criticism even if I don’t particularly agree with it, but I see absolutely no way that slipping back into (a much different looking) George Michael Bluth doesn’t have even the most rabid haters looking at him in a more favorable light.
Cera turned in just a rung below a Will Arnett performance (seriously, suck a fat one Emmy voters) and his work went a long way to making the new Netflix season the triumph it is. Like Ron Howard said from the beginning: it’s a father-son story. And the son portion fuels the undeniably strong finish.
Let’s jump into everything you may have missed in a top five episode…
George Michael still can’t catch. In the opening to the “Freshman Year” segment you see George Michael ducking and turning when the girl on the lawn tosses the frisbee at him.
5SF/UPROXX Video’s own Olivia Dudley is the study lead in the kissing experimentation scene. Great lab coat. The exam is also a nod to this.
The cartoon George Michael is watching in Spain is Mitch Hurwitz’s short-lived Sit Down, Shut Up which starred the voices of Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Henry Winkler.
Also, Rosalita says, “The drones are coming” when she’s getting intimate with George Michael. Buster takes out an art museum in Spain in “Off the Hook.”
George Michael’s overtly sexual transformation, complete with mustache is a nod to Michael Cera’s role in Youth in Revolt where Nick Twisp’s confident alter ego rocks a similar stache.
¡Átame! Per Wikia: “George Michael’s dorm contains a poster of the dark romantic Spanish comedy ¡Átame! The film is about a recently released psychiatric patient who kidnaps an actress in order to make her fall in love with him. The main character believes it is his destiny is to marry her and father her children. When the film was brought to America, it received an X rating from the MPAA. It, along with Les Cousins Dangereux, creates a running gag of George Michael having posters of movies about racy love stories in his room. The film also mirrors the plot of Maeby and George Michael’s storyline in that George Michael tries to construct a love story through inappropriate means (George Michael selecting Maeby as a tutee in order to seduce her). It also serves as a reference to George Michael’s year in Spain.”
Also his development was about to be “forestalled.”
“It’s kind of hard to do in these matador pants.” Mitch Hurwitz revealed in his Reddit AMA that they decided to cut away from George Michael’s full chicken dance simply because it seemed funnier as a nod than going through with the full thing, similar to how they handled many of the allusions and running gags this season.
“I’m someone who in-heiress a lot of money.” George Michael’s subtle response to Maeby’s flawed logic/vocabulary on first watch.
In case you missed George Michael’s unfailing clock as previously highlighted.
Everything about the computer lab scene is a parallel to Michael’s computer lab scene from “Flight of the Phoenix,” from the bad Spanish to the bad chair.
The contact photo for Michael on George Michael’s phone is from Michael’s “Mayon-Egg” reaction in season two.
The painting in the Ealing club is the same painting that’s never hanging the same way in Mad Men. I have no idea what that means, but awesome.
And finally, here’s a tremendous GIF wall comparing the scenes from The Social Network that are parodied this season.
Take to the sea!
Sources: Arrested Development Wikia & r/ArrestedDevelopment
