In an announcement both somewhat unexpected and somewhat early (and more than somewhat welcome!), Fox has announced a third season for Arrested Development. (Although combined with the news that they are renewing The Bernie Mac Show, there is the suspicion that this is not a case of standing by good programming so much as them facing a slate of lackluster pilots and choosing to go with the devils they know.)
In other notes:
- Stacked continues to be watchable, though well short of wonderful. Life with Fran continues merely to be well short of wonderful.
- Joey closed out the season on exactly the bear that one would have predicted from the pilot, in a romantic development that doesn’t work, that tries to layer a level of seriousness that doesn’t fit the character, but simply tries to fill a default generic sitcom romance formula that doesn’t fit the pre-existing character the series was built around. This show could stand some serious rework, and perhaps even switch more of the focus to his work situation rather than his home situation.
- Summertime’s here, and I suspect the network programmers will allow me plenty of time to watch the DVDs of the first seasons of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show, both recently received as birthday presents.
