Summer can mean a slow death for those of us who are still awesome and like sports and television. Thankfully, Al Gore invented the DVD. Throughout the summer we’ll be running a series of DVD binge recommendations to help you claw your way to football season. Now up: Arrested Development.

Aired: On FOX from 2003-2006.

Genre: Smart, nuanced, laugh track-less sitcom.

IMDb Plot Outline: “Level-headed son Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) takes over family affairs after his father is imprisoned. But the rest of his spoiled, dysfunctional family are making his job unbearable.”

Number of Episodes: 53 over 3 seasons.

Estimated Viewing Time: IF you’re single and you spend many a weekend hungover, you can knock out all three seasons in approximately three weeks. 22 minute episodes are like candy, you can alway do one more. IF there’s some chick at your place who refuses to leave you’re probably looking at a month to a month and a half.

What to Anticipate:

• Laughing your balls off.
• Wondering how this show ever got canceled.
• Developing a surprising appreciation for Jason Bateman.
• Jonesing to try a frozen banana.
• Being baffled you like something with Liza Minelli in it.
• Adding “never-nude” to your vocabulary.
• Deciding Will Arnett’s GOB is your favorite TV character of all time.
• Then deciding Michael Cera’s George Michael is.
• And then changing your mind to Tony Hale’s Buster before going back to GOB.
• Realizing a well-timed bleeped out fuck is fucking hysterical.
• Trying to figure out when the Fonz got so GD funny.

Actors You’ve Heard Of: Bateman. Will Arnett, although he was relatively unknown before the show. David Cross, his stand up is awesome. Portia de Rossi. And Jeffrey Tambor, who has been in tons of great shit and you’ll know him immediately.

Awesomest Character: REALLY tough call. And highly debatable, but we’re going to have to go with GOB. Partly because he does magic and partly because Will Arnett was pretty much born to play the role and will probably never do anything as awesome again. If you don’t find just about everything he says hilarious you suck at life.

Gratuitous Eye Candy: Depends on the episode. No one in the regular cast, unless you’re into old ladies or chicks that bang Ellen Degeneres.Interesting Side Notes:

• Ron Howard was one of the show’s producers. He filled in as the narrator for a pilot taping and his voice worked so well that he narrates all the episodes.

• Every episode features a preview for the next episode that isn’t actually a preview, just random scenes.

• The show’s first season won the Emmy for Best Comedy and FOX still almost canceled it because of the poor ratings. The show only lasted three seasons because it couldn’t crack the “idiot demographic”. It may have paved the way for The Office to do so though.

• Speaking of The Office, Rainn Wilson (Dwight) and Will Arnett were the final two actors being considered for GOB.

• An Arrested Development movie is in the works for 2009.

Most Common Side Effects of Binge:

• Being unreasonably bullshit the show only lasted three seasons.
• Saying “I’ve made a huge mistake” after you realize you’ve fucked up.
• Searching for all the actors on YouTube.
• Downloading “The Final Countdown” to your iPod.
• Trying to figure out why Bateman can’t be as awesome in his movie roles as he was on this show.

Binge Addiction Level:

• High…if you have any semblance of a sense of humor.
• Low…if you have seen or plan to see Date Movie, Epic Movie, or Disaster Movie.

NextRound’s 1-10 Recommendation : 10 out of 10 (We pretty much gauge whether we like people or not based on their knowledge of Arrested Development).

[Sources: IMDb, Wikipedia]

Email This