Arrested Development

I've almost given up on accurately rating this show episode by episode. The show is a 10 as far as I'm concerned, so when it comes to rating episodes, it's just nitpicking. This episode is a pretty good example of how rating systems fail. Is this episode amazing? Yes. Is it as good as "Afternoon Delight" or "Good Grief," two of my favorite episodes of the show that have "10's?" Not quite. But I have to rate the episode so it's in comparison to the rest of the episodes. Whatever.



Enough about ratings! The episode itself is yet another episode where Michael gets hooked up with somebody and ultimately fails. Perhaps Michael is meant to be single... but if that means we get more hilarious episodes like this, I don't mind.



The idea of the episode is pretty simple. George-Michael is in love with his ethics teacher, played by Heather Graham here. Graham can be a fantastic actress when given the right script and she meshes extremely well with the cast in the episode. She doesn't exactly realize that George-Michael likes her and she's a fan of Saddam Hussein ("You mean she wants to learn about him, I'm sure..") Lindsey mistakingly believes that George-Michael wants her the way a son wants a mother, so she tells Michael in an attempt to get him to date her. Michael becomes enamored by her and the two quickly begin dating.



Eventually, this plot dovetails with the plot involving Michael and Gob. You see, Gob is still a bit sore over Michael's betrayal with Marta. He believes by trying to hook Michael up with a woman and then hitting on that woman and eventually sleeping with them, Michael will be hurt. But Gob makes a mistake by trying to hook Michael up with a transgender guy... and mistaking Michael's kindness for actually liking the transgendered person, he has sex with him/her (It's one of Arnett's best moments when he admits to Michael what he did... So great). So when George-Michael sees his teacher walking out of his father's room, Michael lies and says Gob slept with her. Of course, as soon as Gob learns that Michael slept with the teacher, he makes it his duty to sleep with her too. And once again, Gob screws up and sleeps with the wrong teacher, mistaking the civics teacher for the ethics teacher.



The episode is filled with so many great gags, most of them focusing on Michael, Gob and George-Michael. There's the reaction that both Michael and his son have towards the teacher ("No ring..."), there's Gob claiming his trysts with each woman/man were one time things and then getting phone calls from them, not recognizing them on caller I.D, plus the insanely awkward laughing that occurs between Michael and Mrs. Fairly, the teacher ("So where's your wife?" "...Uh, she died." "Then why are we laughing?!"). It's that weird awkward humor that "Arrested Development" does so well.



There's other great plotlines here, including the introduction of "Annyong," one of the shows weirdest yet best ideas. I love the way nobody understands that "Annyong" is hello and just gives that to him as a name. It also sets up some great future tension between Buster and Lucille, something that never gets old.



As I mentioned in the review, maybe I should've given the episode a better rating.. but instead, let's just forget about number ratings and focus on how good the episode was.

Heather Graham is a very hot guest star in this episode and has the hilarious role of George Michael’s ethics teacher/crush/father’s girlfriend/Saddam lover.



This episode is one of the best ones yet, especially Gob sleeping with all the women he thought Michael liked for getting back at Michael almost sleeping with the girl he was cheating on. Gob has some priceless moments in this episode such as “George Michael, what are you doing at a high school dance” and sleeping with the civics teacher instead of the ethics teacher.



Overall, the episode is very well plotted, especially the George Michael-Ms Baerly-Michael triangle and the scene between George Michael and Lindsay is possibly the funniest scene with Lindsay misunderstanding his intentions.

Another really good episode in the series is Season 1's Shock and Aww..I love the story line with Nazhgalia, and Michael just being curtious but G.O.B mistaking it for an attraction. The exchange between Michael and G.O.B when Michael comes down stairs after sleeping with George Michael's ethics teacher is priceless, Nazh apologizes to Michael as if he would be crushed she slept with G.O.B. Easily one of the best of many great exchanges between Michael and G.O.B. Michael finally gets someone to sleep in his bed though his first bed mate is Buster, who if you listen Michael tells his mother when she says we have to do something about my son. He says "I totally agree mom Buster goes home with you..we flip the matteress this never happened." So clearly Buster wet the bed. Great stuff this is also the first episode that introduces us to Annyong, who plays a big part later. The only thing that made me not put this episode on my top ten list was the fact that Tobias was subsequently absent from this episode.