A Complete Recut of ‘Arrested Development’ Season 4 Is Coming to Netflix
Arrested Development hasn’t booked an official Season 5 premiere, but creator Mitch Hurwitz has the next best thing. This very Friday will see the release of a completely re-edited Season 4, undoing the Rashomon-style approach for a more traditional cut.
Hurwitz confirmed the long-discussed chronological edit in a new Twitter message; simultaneously promising that a Season 5 premiere date would be announced “real soon.” The new Season 4 edit takes the original 15 episodes and re-cuts them into 22 featuring the full cast in every episode, going by the title “Arrested Development Season 4 Remix: Fateful Consequences.” We’ve included the relevant portions of Hurwitz’s message below, along with the full tweet:
The original Season four of Arrested Development on Netflix; as some of you know, experimented with a Rashomon-style of storytelling – with each episode dedicated to the adventure of one member of the Bluth family.
The goal was that by the end of the season, a unified story of cause and effect would emerge for the viewer – full of surprises about how the Bluths were responsible for most of the misery they had endured. […]
But in between season 4 and this upcoming season 5 I had time to take that Rashomon-type story and recut it – shuffling the content from 15 individualized stories into 22 interwoven stories the length of the original series – as an experiment to find out, well … I guess “if I could make some money.” I mean, who am I kidding, I want this thing to syndicate eventually.
But I also pursued it as a comedic experiment to see if new jokes and a new perspective would emerge from a remix that features all of the Bluths in every episode, and where the simultaneity of the story plays out chronologically. And I’m really excited about the final result. It’s funny in a whole new way, and I believe it creates a really entertaining and hilarious new experience for the “viewer.” And I only call you that because I don’t know how to pronounce your last name.
The full re-edit will be available on “Cinco de Cuatro” – this very Friday, May 4. Hopefully Netflix will confirm an official Season 5 premiere date as well, following Henry Winkler’s recent suggestion that new episodes would bow “midsummer.”
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