Netflix review: Arrested Development Series 4 Episode 3
Review Overview
Laughs
3Development
3Andrew Jones | On 28, May 2013
Indian Takers puts us in the focus of Lindsey Bluth-Fünke, who, as devotees may remember, had her world shattered at the end of Season Three when she found out she was adopted and – worse – 40 years old.
Living with this revelation, she feels more a victim than a member of the Bluth family and takes off to India to seek guidance from a shaman. Said shaman makes her turn back around to America to find true love, which comes when she joins husband Tobias at a method acting clinic – and meets Marky Bark. Played by The Three Stooges’ Chris Diamantopoulos, he is the first big supporting character from these new episodes. Marky is the son of Clint Howard’s Johnny Bark from Season One and is a very aggressive anti-establishment figure who lives on an Ostrich farm – the perfect man for Lindsey’s rebellious political activism.
Only the second episode to take a character out of America, Indian Takers is another slow affair, focusing too much on how horrible a person Lindsey is – with the odd side plot to show how abused Tobias is and how annoying he can be. There’s a chunk of the episode, a solid four to six minutes, involving them they planning what kind of house they want to buy without any credit, escalating from a tiny family home to a plush mansion. Once again, this is the kind of jump cut joke that needs to snap quickly – from conception of small property to building of insane palace – but the amount of time we see Tobias, Lindsey and realtor Ed Helms makes the joke tedious and stops any of the humour hitting home.
Lacking in much plot motivation, this episode is more of an aimless character catch-up, not quite finding the balance that Michael’s first episode (almost) did and completely the other end of the spectrum to George Sr.’s first episode. This half hour with Lindsey is exactly what you’d expect from hanging out with Lindsey Bluth-Fünke. And that’s not a compliment.
Indian Takers is another sadly draining experience, with nothing clicking and only a few call-forwards for later on, if you catch one car’s licence plate. It’s so poorly paced that it feels dragged out 10 minutes before the end – and the big reveal of Tobias’ clinic hasn’t got the snappy punch it should have. It just whimpers away. Maybe that’s what Hurwitz was after, a Season-Three-of-Community vibe.
After the third episode of Arrested Development Season Four, we’ve seen three characters return and none of them have made a joke. 90 minutes in, let’s hope we hit the second hour of the season laughing.
For more on the Bluth’s new outings, read our Arrested Development interview with the case, our chat with Annyong, or our other Arrested Development Season 4 reviews.