Bye, bye, Bluths
'Arrested Development' was too witty and subtle to last
There's no point in getting righteously ticked off about the end of ''Arrested Development." The show was born to be a martyr. It was built for TV fanatics and Hollywood insiders, and its three-year run has been an unexpected gift. I doubt Fox honchos truly believed the brilliantly insane sitcom would become a Nielsen hit when it premiered in 2003, despite a likeness to the network's successful animated comedies. ''Arrested Development" was too densely witty and too elliptically naughty to ever become a Next Big Thing. From the start, this series had ''legendary ratings flop" written all over it.
Indeed, we're lucky to have gotten 53 rich episodes. I still marvel at the frequency of jokes in each 22-minute block of ''Arrested Development." The four final episodes, which air back to back tomorrow night at 8 on Channel 25, are so layered, you'll want to re-watch them to catch the puns and self-references and sly allusions you overlooked. The writers of the show, led by creator Mitchell Hurwitz, loved to bury easy-to-miss comic Easter eggs in their dialogue. And with no laugh track to signal ''LAUGH NOW" and a cast that's expert at casually dropping lines, so many of the goofs on Tobias's sexuality and Lucille's alcoholism just snuck on by.
Thankfully, the series will always be re-watchable on the medium that has rescued TV from the electronic void: DVD.
But it wasn't just the sophistication and intricacy of ''Arrested Development" that doomed it. Yes, the show was so imaginatively out there it made viewers work to understand its unique comic language. But viewers are willing to disentangle tight plot knots on the likes of ''Lost." We're not always lazy.
The deeper problem for ''Arrested Development" was its identity as the antithesis of ''Everybody Loves Raymond" at a time when family sitcoms have retreated from the edge. To be a hit domestic comedy, you have to be as fangless and traditional as ''According to Jim," or else leave domestic humor behind for the dating realm. Arguably, as global threats become more harsh, viewers prefer to see home life as a safe haven and not as the hyperactive battlefield it is on ''Arrested Development."
Indeed, the writers were at their funniest and sickest when they zeroed in on the lies and indifference of the Bluth family. That material portrayed the kind of domestic perversity that can make mainstream viewers writhe uncomfortably. On a drama such as ''The Sopranos," a mother who doesn't love her children is a burden on her son that evokes sympathy; on ''Arrested Development," it was the kind of nasty punch line that wasn't for the sensitive. Jessica Walter's matriarch, Lucille Bluth, wasn't a clingy nurturer like Doris Roberts on ''Raymond"; she was a brittle lush who turned son Buster (Tony Hale) into a childlike mess. Just the presence of comedian David Cross in the cast -- as gay-not-gay son-in-law Tobias Funke -- was not for the squeamish. Known for his subversive humor as a comedian, Cross brought along the sort of ''Gen X" irony that isn't in full vogue. Tomorrow night, for instance, his Tobias is caught wearing one of his daughter's jackets.
Incest was also an ongoing source of cringe comedy on this family show. Teenager George-Michael (Michael Cera) has had a thing for his cousin Maeby (Alia Shawkat) for years, a crush that plays out in the finale. Lucille positively ruined Buster with her inappropriate treatment, memorably by taking him to an annual ''Motherboy" dance. Oh yes, and tomorrow night, Michael, played by Jason Bateman, has a possible liaison with a character who may be his sister -- and who is played by Bateman's older sister, Justine. The flirtation scenes are freaky-deaky indeed.
As domestically twisted as ''Arrested Development" could be, it wasn't all about Bluth navel gazing. Unfortunately, viewers who might have enjoyed the ''Daily Show"-like political target practice may have stayed away because of the family lunacy. The show repeatedly turned outward, on Hollywood's obsession with youth, on the
The world of pop culture also took many hits throughout the series, from Henry Winkler's literally jumping over a dead shark to a spoof of James Bond movies. Even the Fox network received its share of jabs, notably in a bitter episode filmed shortly after the series was canceled. Tomorrow night, look for bits on ''Law & Order," ''My Name Is Earl," and William Hung.
It was probably not the right time for such a bent sitcom on a major network. It's tempting to point the finger at Fox, for its reckless time-slotting of the show, which won Emmys for best comedy, writing, directing, and casting. But I sense that the cancellation has more to do with us than them. There is certainly a taste for wicked and abrasive TV comedy today, but it's a cult phenomenon. Shows such as Ricky Gervais's ''The Office" (which is cooler than the American version) and Larry David's ''Curb Your Enthusiasm" probably wouldn't thrive on a major network, where the priorities are high ratings and advertiser comfort with the material. If the rumors that Showtime will take over the Fox sitcom come true, which is highly unlikely, the cable network will serve as a better home.
''Arrested Development" was both wonderfully ludicrous and subtle. Alas, it might have been too much of each to survive.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. 
