Arrested Development

Arrested Development

1. Semiotics

I think Bluth family signifies disharmony among family members in this show. They always cause trouble and they seem to not have unity. By looking at this family, the audience can learn that not having unity in a family can lead to disharmony within family members.

2. Genre

Genre of Arrested Development is comedy and drama, according to the website http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0515236/.  However, I think of it more like a drama rather than a comedy, because I found only two or three scenes funny. Sitcoms like Friends and Seinfeld consist of scenes that are intentionally made ridiculous and foolish. However, scenes in Arrested Development are just normal and obvious. Scenes are not made intentionally funny, they are just scenes put together to make a story. This show permits more time for plot development rather than jokes. To me, this is show is a drama, rather than a comedy.

3. Representation

I think this show represents the real world to the audience, that is, this story is related to the world of people. There are a lot of dysfunctional families in this world. Bluth family is represented in this show as a dysfunctional family. Most of the Bluth family members seem to have some problems. Lindsay, Michael’s “twin” sister, is very shallow, superficial, noisy, and ignorant. She often flirts with other men. Michael’s older brother Gob received little attention from his parents since he was a child. His mother just hates him. He seems to have difficulty in language. Michael’s son George is very obedient, since he lived only with his father since he was a child. Just like this, most of the family members of Bluth family seem to have some problems. By looking at Bluth family, the audience can realize that family like this doesn’t look good. Other people might say bad things about a family like this. By showing this kind of family, this show teaches audience to not live like this family.