All hilarious things must come to an end. Arrested Development will be removed from Netflix on March 15, but what will happen to those two Netflix-produced seasons?
Arrested Development follows Michael Bluth, played by Jason Bateman, as he tries to dig his money-hungry family out of the holes they dig themselves into. The show has had quite a tumultuous journey. The irreverent cult comedy won respect and even Emmy Awards — winning six times including a win for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2004 — but it never really gained a huge audience and the Fox network canceled it after three seasons.
The love for this show refused to die and Netflix resuscitated the series nearly a decade later and produced two subsequent seasons, which weren’t as universally loved as the original episodes. The cast came back for season four, but they were mostly isolated in their own stories and it took away from the ensemble magic that had made the show work.
Netflix’s episodes of Arrested Development were one of the streaming service’s first original projects, and the series as a whole has been a fixture for many years. This marks the end of an era, but the series is still available to stream on Hulu — except the ones released on Netflix. Hulu is owned by 20th Century Fox, but as far as the Netflix-produced episodes, that’s still yet to be determined. It could be an MCU-like situation where the episodes go to another service, jumping ship like the way Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Punisher, and Iron Fist came to Disney Plus.
The impact of Arrested Development is unmistakable. Bateman went on to land Netflix’s hit thriller Ozark, and Alia Shawkat — who played his troublemaking niece Maeby Fünke — stars alongside Jeff Bridges in FX’s The Old Man. Tony Hale, who plays the socially awkward younger brother Buster Bluth, went on to star in Veep and won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2013. Hale also starred in The Mysterious Benedict Society on Disney Plus, which lasted for two seasons.
Speaking of Marvel, Avengers: Infinity War, and Endgame directors the Russo brothers directed the first episode of the series and produced the show. This isn’t the only time the Russos have been involved with comedy, they also produced and directed NBC’s comedy Community.
Arrested Development‘s removal follows a trend of long-running shows being removed from streaming platforms entirely, as HBO Max has sent the likes of Westworld to Tubi. Hopefully, this will be a short-lived trend that won’t affect too many other shows and movies.