How Schitt’s Creek Made Me Realize How Terrible Arrested Development Is
Like many people who currently consider themselves Arrested Development fans, I’d gotten into the show in my teen years. I got into it late compared to most of the people that I know who have watched it; starting the show right around my 18th birthday, shortly after season 4 was (originally) released, and watching the entirety of the show within a week. I’m honestly still not sure what drew me to it, as I’ve tended to hate other shows about terrible people’s misfortunes (I couldn’t even sit through a full season of IASIP), but after watching all 4 seasons, I couldn’t stop myself from talking about it to everyone for the following couple weeks. At the time, I thought the humor was unique and iconic; as I got older and found myself rewatching it, I’d grown to realize the show’s flaws (primarily the blatant and never-ending racism and misogyny) but still enjoyed quite a bit of the other humor.
I heard about Schitt’s Creek for the first time earlier this year and was wary to start it, due to a feeling that it’d be similar to Arrested Development. I knew both shows were centered on a rich and privileged family that unexpectedly lost everything, and I struggled to see how a show on such a premise could be genuinely good; especially now that I was aware that most of my attachment to Arrested Development was due to nostalgia. After getting a very enthusiastic recommendation from a friend, I hesitantly decided to start Schitt’s Creek. Surprising myself, I quickly binge-watched the entirety of the first 3 seasons, and what had already aired of season 4 within 72 hours. I was shocked at how genuinely good it was, mostly because the show reinforces over and over that the Roses (while sometimes shallow) are good people. In fact, I enjoyed Schitt’s Creek so much that I had nearly forgotten about Arrested Development, which had become a comfort show of sorts, until Netflix released the season 4 “remix.”
For those of you who are unaware of the Arrested Development’s season 4 “remix”: the events of season 4 were re-edited to have the season flow chronologically instead of each episode focusing on one specific family member, like the original release. I’d forgotten the majority of season 4; besides finding it clever how the writers revealed information throughout the season, I hadn’t cared about most of the events and could only recall bits of Gob and Buster’s episodes. I decided to watch the “remix,” thinking that it’d be nice to get the story in a straightforward way. As I mentioned before, I’d become aware of how racist the show was within the five years since I originally watched it, but I’d forgotten (or maybe never realized in the first place) how horrifically racist season 4 had been. I couldn’t bring myself to let go of my comfort show and admit it was terrible, even if I could talk about it’s problems extensively. But then the season 4 “remix” came crashing into my life. And one of the primary plotlines is about the Bluth family trying to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. I felt physically sick to my stomach every time that plot came up, and I still can’t believe these fuckers behind the show really decided to re-release this bigoted shit now of all times, in the five years since season 4 was originally released.
I’m not going to act like Schitt’s Creek is a racially diverse show; only a handful of minor characters are played by actors of color. But I can’t think of a single instance where a joke on Schitt’s Creek came at the expense of a racial minority; something that Arrested Development does an infuriatingly large amount. I can’t recall an instance where Schitt’s Creek reduced a character of color to a stereotype, when that’s pretty much all that Arrested Development does to its characters of color.
Where Arrested Development shows Lucille and George as neglectful and tearing their children (and each other) down at every turn, Schitt’s Creek shows Johnny and Moira reconnecting with David and Alexis and supporting them in both their personal and professional successes. As someone who’s experienced parental (emotional) abuse, I can clearly see how it’s affected the Bluth children, but Arrested Development often treats the abuse as comedic, and when the show actually treats the abuse with seriousness, it is explored so shallowly that it’s almost not worth acknowledging. While Johnny and Moira weren’t exactly good parents prior to the move to Schitt’s Creek, they do genuinely care for their children, and they clearly love each other dearly.
While I’ve had issues with the way women are written in many comedy shows, Arrested Development is pretty abysmal in that area. While the show has an overall problem of giving any of the characters genuine depth (or character growth, as everyone seems to just keep doing the same shitty things over and over), at least they sometimes give the men something nearing that and semi-interesting plotlines. Basically every plotline Lindsay has reinforces her shallowness, and every time it seems like she might start being more introspective and change, it’s brushed off by the writers. Lucille’s characterization doesn’t extend far beyond being a controlling and manipulative bitch. Maeby’s storylines are rarely connected to the main plot and most of her characterization relies on her seeking attention. Ann has no characterization at all and only exists to be the butt of the jokes. Every other female character only exists as a love interest or a joke and is immediately forgotten once they are no longer receiving attention from the male characters.
Schitt’s Creek ensures that none of the women are reduced to tropes. Even a woman trying to find her ex-fiancé that recently moved to Schitt’s Creek is given more depth than being a “crazy” jealous ex, and the narrative wants the audience to find her sympathetic and likeable, even though she’s only present for one episode. In four seasons, we’ve seen Alexis grow so much; from a shallow and self-centered woman to someone who wants to better herself and her community. (And Moira has grown in a similar way, due in part to her friendship with the Jazzagals.) At the end of season 4, we even see Alexis genuinely tell Ted that she’s happy to see him happy with someone else when she confesses her feelings to him.
One of my favorite relationships on Schitt’s Creek is actually David and Stevie’s; something that Arrested Development would never do, as the show seems to follow the thought that men and women can never be true friends. Stevie and David’s similar personalities allow for them to bond a bit and realize they genuinely enjoy each other’s company. They’re constantly getting into hijinks with each other and teasing each other, but they’re always very honest and sincere with each other as well. They make sure to be there for one another — such as when David made sure Stevie knew that she wasn’t destined to end up lonely like her aunt, and when Stevie took David out for a spa weekend to help cheer him up when things with Patrick got rocky.
And unfortunately, there’s more terrible content that the Arrested Development “remix” forced me to endure…
Season 4 is plagued by tons of predatory (and some even outright pedophilic) humor. From Gob dating an 18 year old (who was also his nephew’s ex!), to all that vile humor about George Michael moving into one of the Bluth houses where all his neighbors are sex offenders, to that cursed Maeby-Perfecto storyline. While the show had occasionally veered into this territory before — I think I remember Gob trying to seduce an 18 year old at some point in season 1, that whole Lindsay-Steve Holt flirtation (which also, is part of an extremely transmisogynistic episode!) — but in season 4, it becomes inescapable, as this humor is seemingly at every turn.
There’s also the blatant whorephobia surrounding the whole Lindsay-Love situation. There’s the blatant disregard of the damage the U.S. military does to other countries with the joke of Buster flying a drone and hurting real innocent people because he thinks he’s playing a video game (which is just a taste of all the ableism directed at Buster. There’s also a joke of a police officer about to attack Buster because of his disability in one of the final episodes, which I’m pretty confident I hadn’t seen in the original release). There’s the plotline of George’s testosterone levels decreasing which makes him more emotional and he even adopts an appearance as a woman in the final episodes, which I can’t imagine the writers handling with any care in season 5, if it’s not completely dropped. There’s also the god-awful George Michael-Maeby incest bullshit, which the writers didn’t let die in the seven year break between season 3 and season 4.
Schitt’s Creek doesn’t make me sit through any bullshit like this, because the writers are presumably decent people! The writers know good humor comes from awkward situations and minor misunderstandings; not from incest, predatory behavior, or mocking and attacking people in marginalized groups.
In all honesty, after watching the season 4 “remix”, I can say with certainty that the only vaguely redeeming story of the season is the Gob-Tony storyline, where Gob realizes he’s gay; which is handled in an extremely messy way, so I’m hesitant to give praise to that storyline anyway. Tony’s first mentioned as the “gay magician” in early season 4, but it’s soon revealed to the audience that Tony is pretending to be gay to make more money. Even though that’s suggested to not be true because his relationship with Gob does turn out to be genuine, it’s still despicable that Tony’s lie to profit off LGBTQ+ individuals is what allows for this plotline. And, as I mentioned earlier, Gob has predatory tendencies, so he’s hardly good representation. Hell, we don’t even see Gob and Tony kiss! (But we do see Gob manipulating his nephew into meeting him at a gay club and then kissing him to trick Tony into thinking he’s gay!) There’s just a joke about how Gob and Tony actually had sex, and who knows if they’ll actually acknowledge any of this in season 5 either!
This is one area where Schitt’s Creek truly shines. As Dan Levy, the creator of the show, is an out gay man, he decided to make David pansexual (and he is explicitly labeled as such near the end of season 1). While David doesn’t have a serious male love interest until season 3, he’s flamboyant and clearly shows interest in men and the narrative always treats him with respect. David’s growth in the first two seasons, allows for the beautiful romance the audience gets to watch in season 4, between David and Patrick. David has been hesitant to really truly open up to people, as he’d never had a real friend until Stevie, and his longest romantic relationship had only been 3 months. And comparing David and Patrick’s relationship to Gob and Tony’s just makes Arrested Development look even more abysmal, as Schitt’s Creek shows us Patrick realizing and embracing his identity as a gay man — while Patrick is initially hesitant, he never panics or tries to deny his feelings for David, and tries to find ways to spend more time with David as he sorts through these new emotions.
P.S. Also fuck Jeffrey Tambor and as fucking repulsive as the Arrested Development writers are, they shouldn’t have brought him back for season 5 when it’s literally public that he’s assaulted trans women! I hope season 5 is a giant flop for Netflix!
