Bluth family return for new season
THE riches-to-rags saga of the fictional Bluth family and their struggling real estate business will return for a fifth season in the hit comedy Arrested Development, Netflix said, inspired in part by US President Donald Trump.
Series creator Mitchell Hurwitz quipped “that stories about a narcissistic, erratically behaving family in the building business – and their desperate abuses of power – are really underrepresented on TV these days”.
He said, “I am so grateful to them ... for making this dream of mine come true in bringing the Bluths – George Sr, Lucille and the kids; Michael, Ivanka, Don Jr, Eric, George-Michael, and who am I forgetting, oh Tiffany. Did I say Tiffany? – back to the glorious stream of life.”
Ivanka, Don Jr, Eric and Tiffany are the names of four of Trump’s children, not names of Arrested Development characters from the previous four seasons.
The show’s leading cast – Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, Jessica Walter, Jeffrey Tambor, David Cross, Michael Cera and Alia Shawkat – will all reprise their roles. No details were given on the plot or when it would air next year.
Arrested Development originally aired for three seasons on the Fox network from 2003 to 2006. It follows the Bluth family after patriarch George Sr is jailed for fraud. Netflix rebooted it for a fourth season in 2013, its first foray into creating original comedies.
Walter, who plays manipulative matriarch Lucille, said: “The Bluths were really smart – well, smarter than the Trumps.”
Season 4 saw George and Lucille Bluth’s unsuccessful plan to profit from a government contract to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. — Reuters