--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: Arrested Development image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6971896ea4215d36/69869f01810bbb1635c92f3f/t100_tv_arrested-development1.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 14, 2014 # _Arrested Development_ by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Everett On one level, this sitcom about an ethically challenged California real estate family was a catalogue of 21st-century disappointments, from the war in Iraq (where the Bluths scored a sweet “light treason” deal building model homes for Saddam) to corporate corruption (with Enron and Adelphia parallels aplenty). On another level, it had Fonzie as a lawyer, great cousin-incest jokes and puns (as when Buster—perpetually henpecked by his mother Lucille, has his hand bitten off by a ‘loose seal’). The self-referential, language-besotted, in-joke-packed love child of _The Simpsons_ and Christopher Guest movies, _AD_ never forgot the needy human core in its family of freaks—toxic Lucille, spoiled Lindsay, David Blaine wannabe GOB, sexually confused Tobias and so on. The business was fraudulent; the characters and laughs genuine. [Get This TV Series](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002PYS7Y/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3100882/arrested-development/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3100882/arrested-development/"},"headline":"Arrested Development","datePublished":"2014-08-14T19:05:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:02:07.376Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3100882/arrested-development/","keywords":["Comedy","drama","Jason Bateman"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6971896ea4215d36/69869f01810bbb1635c92f3f/t100_tv_arrested-development1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6971896ea4215d36/69869f01810bbb1635c92f3f/t100_tv_arrested-development1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3100882/arrested-development/","name":"Arrested Development"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Arrested Development","description":"Arrested Development never forgot the needy human core in its family of freaks - toxic Lucille, spoiled Lindsay, David Blaine wannabe GOB, sexually confused Tobias and so on. The business was fraudulent; the characters and laughs genuine.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/GLoDXjHC/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2007-09-04T15:10:13.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/GLoDXjHC.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3100882/arrested-development/","duration":"PT31S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3100882/arrested-development/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```