Wednesday, May 29, 2013

The Thing on Netflix's "Arrested Development"!


If I think too much about the current television lineup on any network, I tend to lose faith in much of humanity.  I try not to place too high a level of importance on what's playing on TV, which, since its inception, has been by and large a vast wasteland, but when shows like The Big Bang Theory draw in millions upon millions of viewers, it seems like the End Times might just be upon us.  Similarly, it seems that many of my favorite shows get the axe well before their time, which leads me to the only logical conclusion available: I am apparently a curse on the shows that I watch.  Perhaps I should start to watch shows that I hate, then, and take one for the team?  I shudder at the thought.

In any case, the show Arrested Development is a good example of this curse; in fact, I put such a powerful curse on it that it got cancelled before I even started watching it!  Luckily, though, Netflix was good enough to rescue it and new episodes of a much-delayed fourth season have just begun airing.  If you haven't watched this show yet, you should get to it!  Start at the beginning and work your way up.

I'm trying to pace myself with this season, and so far I've managed to limit myself to a respectable two episodes a day.  The fifth episode of the season focuses on the character of Tobias Fünke.  Without giving away too much of the plot, I can't hold back the fact that the Fantastic Four and the Thing specifically plays a big part in this episode.  Above you'll see the show's take on the Thing and the Invisible Girl.  You might also notice a nifty easter egg in the form of the background movie poster, advertising for "Gangie Face Lift 4".


The episode in question references a fictitious 1992 "Fantastic Four" movie.  This was either a big coincidence or a nod to Roger Corman's horrible 1994 unreleased FF flick, which was apparently filmed to fulfill some legal measure on Marvel's part.  The poster in the episode, which was probably thrown together at a moment's notice, looks cheesy but, ultimately, better than Corman's movie FF:


 Regardless of the intent, it was really fun to see the Thing referenced so heavily on the new season of Arrested Development.  This season has a different feel than the previous Fox series, but there are still plenty of laughs, some great uncomfortable moments, and a lot of great things to build off of.  I've got nine more episodes to go and I'm looking forward to seeing how everything is brought together.


That's a pretty good costume.  The more I think about it, the more I think that this would make a great outfit for Comic-Con.  Uh oh...

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