Arrested Development: Season One (Hurwitz, 2003)

Yeah, so I'm definitely a johnny-come-lately on this one. I've known about it, and friends have recommended it voraciously. So after finding all three seasons at Target for $12.99 each, I've finally gotten to it. And it's brilliant. The menagerie of characters, goofy and self-absorbed as they are, are also surprisingly likeable (although they were a little hard to swallow in the first couple episodes). The whole story concept is decent enough on its own, but I sense that it really serves this season as a skeleton on which the show's bizarre hilarity can ensue.

What I really like is that the show has a Seinfeld-esque serendipity to its characters and events that things always seem to circle back around in some crazy, brilliant way. At times, the quips tend to move pretty quickly, so much so that I can see how lesser viewers might miss a lot of the jokes, but the editing is so top-notch that the really great gags are pretty clear. As for characters, the only real weak link, I think, is Tobias (David Cross)... which is a real shame, but I think that's just the relative weakness of the character struggling without a way to break out. Everyone else is great, particularly Gob, who is perpetually close to stealing every episode.