The current television climate is teeming with crime shows due to the success of the C.S.I Crime Scene Investigation and Law & Order franchises. Drama and reality TV are dominating the television landscape whilst comedy has been left wallowing in the background, trying to draw audiences away from autopsy chatter and the back stabbing antics of housewives with a witty line or a quirky character. Unfortunately, most comedies can’t even muster one remotely funny character or one funny line for that matter. Never fear comedy fans because the future of comedy has arrived with Arrested Development, the funniest, smartest and most superbly cast comedy in recent memory.

The cast of the best show on TV.

Arrested Development chronicles the bizarre antics of the wealthy Bluth family. There's Michael (Jason Bateman), the only normal member of the family who hopes to inherit the family Frozen Banana business when his father (Jeffrey Tambor) retires. Regrettably for Michael, in the pilot episode, his father decides to hand over the running of the business to wife Lucille (Jessica Walter), much to the relief of Michael's three siblings who fear that if Michael takes over he will strip them of their company credit cards.

Michael’s sister Lydia (Portia De Rossi) is the typical rich girl whose purpose in life in holding charity fundraisers for strange causes. Lydia’s bizarre husband, Tobias ( David Cross), is a disgraced psychiatrist turned actor. Then there are Michael’s two abnormal brothers, magician Gob (Will Arnett), and perennial student of obscure educational courses, Buster (Tony Hale). The Bluth family is rounded out by the two children, Michael’s son George Michael (Michael Cera) and Lydia’s daughter Maeby (Alia Shawkat).

Arrested Development Menu

In the pilot episode, father Bluth is promptly arrested for fraud, leaving both his company and family is dire straits. Although Michael wants to leave his entire family behind after being shafted out of running the business, the rest of the family cannot cope without money and have no idea how to run the business. Michael must swallow his pride and keep his family and the company functioning.

Rarely does a show live up to its hype, but Arrested Development is an exception. All the awards and critical praise are well deserved and although the show hasn’t been given any respect by network TV here in Australia, the DVD release of the complete first season has been thankfully swift. Now there is no excuse for not indulging in the unconventional and insane antics of the Bluth family.

Arrested Development Season One contains all 22 episodes from the debut season plus the extended pilot episode.

1. Pilot
2. Top Banana
3. Bringing Up Buster
4. Key Decisions
5. Charity Drive
6. Visiting Ours
7. In God We Trust
8. My Mother the Car
9. Storming the Castle
10. Pier Pressure
11. Public Relations
12. Marta Complex
13. Beef Consomme
14. Shock and Awe
15. Staff Infection
16. Altar Egos
17. Justice is Blind
18. Missing Kitty
19. Best Man for the Gob
20. Whistler's Mother
21. Not Without My Daughter
22. Let 'Em Eat Cake

Arrested Development is presented in an 1.78:1 aspect ratio and is 16:9 enhanced. The show is filmed with a handheld high definition camera and so colours are not filtered and appear quite stark and occasionally things go a little out of focus, but this is all part of the style show and not a DVD issue.

Happy Family. NOT!

The only imperfection with this video transfer is minor aliasing, but it's very minimal and not distracting. Colours are vibrant, skin tones realistic, shadow details good and details clear and crisp. Overall, Arrested Development looks wonderful on DVD.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track is perfectly adequate for this dialogue driven show. This is strictly a front and centre channel package, with neither the subwoofer or surround kicking in at all. David Schwartz’s whimsical musical interludes come through clearly and are a standout in this solid audio package.

Thankfully for all Arrested addicts, the first season of Arrested Development includes a substantial amount of worthwhile extras.

First up is the Extended Pilot which is actually included in the episode selection menu just before the pilot episode. This extended episode contains around ten minutes of unaired material.

The first extra listed in the special features menu is an Introduction by Ron Howard. Howard is an executive producer of the show and provides the soothing and folksy narration for each episode. This little enthused monologue from Howard is a nice but ‘watch only once’ extra.

Jason Bateman

Audio Commentaries for three episodes

• Extended Pilot
• Beef Consomme
• Let 'Em Eat Cake

The commentary for the Extended Pilot features creator Mitchell Hurwitz, directors Joe and Anthony Russo and star Jason Bateman. The Beef Consomme commentary features creator Hurtwitz and actors Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, Michael Cera, Alia Shawkat, Jessica Walter, Jeffrey Tambor and David Cross. This group also provide commentary on the final episode Let 'Em Eat Cake.

Let me just state that commentaries are usually my least favourite extras on DVDs and unless I am actually required to listen to an audio commentary (which I am when I review a title) I avoid it at all costs. But all these commentaries are hilarious. Everyone has fun and speaks frequently and it’s very clear that everyone adores each other and that they're proud to be a part of Arrested Development.

Yoga is safer with a helmet!

A twenty minute collection of Deleted Scenes are spread across the three discs to coincide with the episode from which they were cut. I prefer deleted scenes to be included with the episode they relate too and because some of the scenes included are actually extended scenes, it's great they are included with the relevant episodes. An excellent extra!

Breaking Ground: Behind the Scenes of Arrested Development is a nice little featurette which includes interviews with the cast and crew. This featurette is in fullscreen and the quality isn’t very good, but almost every aspect of the show is discussed. Interviews are merged with entertaining behind the scenes footage and episode clips.

The final extra the first disc is a set of Original Songs by David Schwartz. Twenty-eight songs from the show can be heard on their own by simply clicking through the menu. Schwartz’s songs add a quirkiness to each episode of Arrested Development and while it's nice to be able to listen each song on an isolated soundtrack, these songs seem completely out of context when you simply listen to them without vision.

'80s headbands are sooo back. Sorta!

The only stand alone extra on Disc two is the Museum of Television & Radio Q & A with the cast and crew of Arrested Development. I was a little disappointed when I viewed this extra because it only runs for ten minutes. These Q&A sessions usually run for at least an hour, so it’s disappointing that this session has been cut for this DVD release. While there are a few laughs, everything seems slightly out of context because of the heavy editing.

Disc three boasts the remainder of the extras, beginning with the mockumentary TV Land-Arrested Development: Making of a Future Classic which runs for eight minutes. This is fun look at the cast and crew reacting to their show being deemed “classic� with almost all the cast playing up their "classic" status is some hilarious way. Jason Bateman and Will Arnett are especially funny with their staged ego fights and everyone basically pokes fun at the TV industry and their own self worth. Hilarious!

The final featurette on this DVD release is the TV Land Future Classic Award. Apparently, cable channel TV land (which shows classics like The A-Team, The Addams Family and MacGyver) hosts an award show that honours classic television. This featurette shows frequent Arrested Development guest star Liza Minnelli presenting the cast of the show with a future classic award. This small featurette combines interviews and clips with the award presentation. The whole thing is a little cringe-worthy, especially when the cast get up on stage with Minnelli, but it's still a nice little inclusion on the DVD.

The last two extras are a Sneak Peak at Season Two in which Ron Howard discusses what people can expect from the second season of Arrested Development and a short TV spot entitled Blind.

Arrested Development is a show everyone should be watching and if you managed to miss it on TV (which is understandable), I highly recommend you go out and buy this DVD.