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Zadnja dva ali tri tedne sem bil precej priden. Najprej sem v dobrem tednu obrnil vse tri sezone Arrested development. Teden dni Michaelove preprijaznosti, George-Michaelove nerodnosti, Gobovih ponesrečenih trikov, Lindsayinih oprijetih majčk, Maebyjinih masterplanov za ne-delo, Busterjevih neumnih pogledov, Georgeovega laganja, Lucilleinega popivanja pred zajtrkom, Lucille(II)ine vrtoglavice in seveda samega obstoja Tobiasa Fünkeja.

Kot da ni dovolj, da se serija nepreklicno konča takorekoč sredi epizode, Arrested development je bila do tedaj najbolj zabavna - ne, to mogoče ne. Najbolj hecna, hilarious, droll, funny, ridiculously laughable - serija, ki sem jo pogledal. Kadarkoli. To pomeni, da mi je bila bolj hilarious kot Friends, katerih deset sezon sem gotovo pogledal najmanj štirikrat. In to ni kar tako, da te čisto nepripravljenega doleti najbolj hecna serija ever ever. Ker vsi vemo, kaj pomeni dobra serija; no, vsaj vsi, ki ste podobno šibki, kar se tiče n-urnega vdajanja tej primitivni (?) obliki zabave.

Torej si lahko približno predstavljate mojo zadrego, ko sem bil s serijo gotov. Kaj sedaj? Nepotešen zaradi odrezanega konca nisem niti pomislil, da bi posegel po kakšnem konvencionalnem 90s sitcomu. Niti Seinfeld, ki pač velja za elito med morjem Will&Grace-type-thing humorističnih serij, mi ni dišal. Ker enostavno veš, kaj dobiš. Ne, da te té nanizanke niso sposobne zabavati kake pol ure na dan, mogoče se tu in tam celo naglas nasmejiš situacijski forici, ampak po ogledu Arrested development veš, da je zunaj še mnogo več. Kaj torej sedaj?

Odločil sem se za zelo tvegano potezo. Steve Carell je eden najbolj antipatičnih ljudi z najbolj antipatično faco z najbolj antipatičnim glasom. Poleg tega je komik, which only makes the thing worse. Tista vloga nerodnega in nesposobnega 40yearoldvirgina, Dana (in real life) ali Evana (Almighty) mi je ogabno bedasta in ji ne nasedem, sploh. Zadovoljivo neopazen in na trenutke v svoji indiferenci celo zabaven je v Little Miss Sunshine, pa tudi tisto ni bohvekaj. Zato seveda nisem nikoli niti trznil v smeri njegove adaptacije The Office, a kar sem spregledal je, da bi lahko ta rojeni antipatik svojo antipatičnost obrnil v svoj antipatičen prid. Pogledal sem uvodni del prve sezone ameriške verzije te inovativne serije in ugotovil, da je zunaj tudi nekaj, that can top Arrested development.

Michael Scott je karakirana verzija modernega ameriškega republikanskega volilca. Se pravi arogantnega hipokrita, ki se trudi biti odprt in ravno preko ponesrečenih poizkusov odprtosti kaže svoj debilizem. Seveda je vodja malomeščanskega obrata, v tem primeru prodajalne papirja. Rad poudari, da vodi zelo pisano druščino prodajalcev in računovodij; v kolektivu je en afroameričan, ena indijka in en mehičan, ki je povrh še homoseksualec. Na to raznolikost je pravzaprav ponosen. Njegov tesni sodelavec in najboljši salesman (v nekem februarju je bil tako dober, da so mu podelili kar dve plaketi za salesman of the month) je [tega se ne da opisat, noben superlativ tu ne zadostuje za oznako] Dwight Schruth, na račun katerega se z raznimi praktičnimi potegavščinami kratkočasi Jim Halpert. Kot naprimer s to, da zalije njegov spenjalnik v žele puding ali da plača vsem sodelavcem, da ga en dan kličejo Dwain. Pri teh prankih mu nemalokdaj pomaga Pam, tajnica, s katero Jim počasi (!!) a vztrajno plete več-kot-le-prijateljsko zvezo. V pisarni imamo še prijaznega Tobyja, ki ga Michael zaradi nadzorne vloge neizmerno sovraži, pa vojnega veterana Creeda, ki trpi za nanavadno obliko post-vietnamskega sindroma, zapito Meredith, Phyllis, poročeno z Bobom Vanceom iz Vance refrigerators, mladega interna Ryana, verskega fanatika Angelo in meni all-times-favourite lik, Kevina, ki je najbližje, kar je dejanski človek prišel animiranemu liku v risanki; res vrhunska igra Briana Baumgartnerja.

Štiri sezone The Office sem seveda pogledal takoj, ker je še bolj addictive, kot sem bil vajen. Bajdvej, vsi ki še niste, poglejte na uradni NBC strani t.i. webisodes, v katerih najdemo nekaj obrobnih zgodb stranskih likov. Zelo zabavno. Na kratkočasniku pa lahko pogledate, kako serija dejansko izvira iz japonske (not! ^-^)

Za razliko od Arrested development, ki ga ne bodo več snemali v obliki serije (naslednje leto naj bi posneli film, a je vse skupaj precej v zraku), se The Office vrača januarja z novimi epizodami. Do takrat imam še kup dela. Trenutno obračam genialno HBOjevo The Wire in pred mano so še štiri sezone Baltimorske zgodbe o real police, po tem si bom najverjetneje še enkrat ogledal The Sopranos, razmišljam pa tudi o ostalih HBO projektih, sploh Deadwood, mogoče tudi Rome ali Curb your enthusiasm. Slednjega, ko se mi bo ponovno potožilo po kvalitetnem humorju.

Za konec prilagam še dober in zabaven članek iz TV squad, ki so ga spisali ob novici, da bodo na Foxu ukinili Arrested development:

“You’ve heard the rumors. Emmy for Best Comedy, Golden Globe for Best Actor, WGA Award for Best Episodic Comedy - all of that be damned, low ratings deserve to be punished. And so Fox is probably on the cusp of cancelling Arrested Development. After all, as David Cross helpfully pointed out on The Jimmy Kimmel Show last month, Rupert Murdoch could make a lot more money off of a hip reality show like America’s Cutest Retards. Here at TV Squad, we have just one thing to say about that:

“Good Riddance!”

Yeah, that’s right. You heard me - we don’t want shows like Arrested Development sullying our beloved network. Face it, FOX - nobody wants to watch a character-driven comedy. We want traditional sitcoms that take place in living rooms. With couches. And lazy husbands and hot wives and mean-spirited children. Either that, or procedural dramas. Lots of them. Anything with forensics, you just keep coming. Reality is good too - let’s have more of those shows where attractive people eat bugs and poor people fight for prizes. In fact, just put those two shows together - make some hot bug-eating chicks fight over an unemployed factory worker, and then give the winning couple a makeover and a dream house. Then give us a shocking twist. Give us anything, as long as you take away Arrested Development.

We expected more from creator Mitchell Hurwitz - he is, after all, the man that brought us Golden Girls - and no one knows better than executive producer Ron Howard how well tried and true formula works. And yet, they expect us to watch a sitcom without a laugh track? It’s like, every single line is potentially funny, and some of them are funny in three or four different ways - how are you suppossed to know when to laugh? They can’t all be jokes … right? And even if they are, what are you suppossed to do? Watch the thing over and over again to glean jokes that flew past you the first time? It sounds to us like Arrested Development wants to reward viewers who are smart enough to remember old details and have the tenacity to careful pay attention to new ones. That’s elitist. We don’t like that.

In addition, the “scenes from the next episode” that appear at the end of every Arrested Development installment never actually appear in the following week’s episode. This is not only extremely unprofessional, but it’s just plain rude to promise something that you have no intention of delivering. I have personal testimonials from dozens of viewers who have been seriously traumatized by this cruel ploy on the part of the producers of Arrested Development - they’re trying to get people to tune in the following week for scenes that aren’t even there! Why would they trick us like that? We here at TV Squad don’t like to be tricked. We don’t think you do, either.

Arrested Development is a non-traditional, genre-bending, richly layered and intellectually complex character-based comedy. Plus, there’s a character named Job, but they spell it GOB - and that’s just blasphemous. For all of these reasons and many more, we think Arrested Development must be cancelled. Shows like this make us work hard, and that makes our brains hurt, and we don’t like that. We don’t need Arrested Development, and we don’t want it.

Join us, America, in mobilizing the effort to rid our television screens of such dangerous material. The sooner we get this thing off the air, the sooner we can all sit down, relax, pop open a cold one and bask in the soothing rhythms of America’s Cutest Retards. “

http://www.tvsquad.com/2005/03/14/cancel-arrested-development/

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