Arrested Development and Schadenfreude

The comic premise of “Arrested Development” the instant classic TV sitcom was schadenfreude: the enjoyment of the suffering of others. No matter how dysfunctional your family is, the Bluth family is likely worse. If they are not more disturbed they are at least more absurd. Add to this they are wealthy or at least they were in the past and they continue to live a wealthy life style. Who among us doesn’t enjoy seeing the spoiled members of the higher classes brought down?

The central protagonist, Michael seems the most normal at first. But as the episodes roll out you begin to see that his charm is superficial. He is manipulative and self-serving even toward his son for whom he claims to do everything. Michael thinks of himself as the most responsible member of the family and a victim of their idiosyncracies. But as often as not, he brings his problems on himself. Though he won’t admit it, he is emotionally co-dependent on his family and incapable of sparating from them.

Gob, Michael’s older brother, is a failed Magician, an infantile anti-social womanizer who is not very bright. He competes with Michael for their father’s approval. The father George withholds his approval and uses this as a tactic to manipulate Gob.

Michael’s twin sister Lindsey is spoiled and lazy. Her calling in life is shopping, an activity she engages in despite the fact that the whole family is bankrupt. She loves to throw fundraisers for social causes that she really doesn’t understand in order to engrandize her self-image. Her husband Tobias is clueless latent homosexual who left his profession as a psychiatrist to pursue an acting career despite his obvious lack of talent.

The youngest sibling is Buster who is autistic. Although an adult in his 30s, he is dependent on his mother for support. Their relationship is incestuous at least on a psychological level. He wants to get away from her but he doesn’t have the social or self-care skills to pull it off.

Lucille, the matriarch of the family is a cold hypercritical alcoholic who uses her children to serve her own needs.

George Senior,the family patriarch, is a corrupt real estate CEO who’s corporate crimes have landed him in jail.

Grandson George-Michael is naive and gullible and apparently always thinks the best of everyone in the family. He is infatuated with his cousin Maeby who is a complete non-achiever in school but is street-wise and has inherited the family gift for grifting.

The plots run from the vissicitudes of life in prison for George, the collapse of the model home in which the family is dwelling, to the romantic difficulties of every family member. That the series was not a bigger hit I attribute to the subtlety of the humor and the absence of a laugh track. One who is above or below enjoying the deliciousness of schadenfreude based satire of the American family,will simply see the Bluths as “despicable”. [ see blogcritics.org/archives/2006/02/18/120720.php .]

For the rest of us the show gets funnier as it develops the characters and their comic dilemmas. Perhaps the majority sitcom-watching American public doesn’t have the attention span for that kind of commitment to such flawed characters. Still the show developed an avid cult following which can continue to enjoy the Bluths’ pain on DVD.

The characters are portrayed by an remarkable ensemble of brilliant comedic actors. The devise of schadenfreude that runs through the series provided a seeming inexhaustible source of humor for the writers to draw on.

It was a hilarious show.

“but i’m white”

:laughing: