![From left: Will Arnett (Screenshot via YouTube), Jason Bateman (FOX), and Jessica Walter and Tony Hale (FOX)](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/f079159d05ef5b85766698d8bdf3e842.jpg)
With TV Club 10, we point you toward the 10 episodes that best represent a TV series, classic or modern. They might not be the 10 best episodes, but they’re the 10 episodes that’ll help you understand what the show’s all about.
The first three seasons of Arrested Development are peak TV comedy. (And alright, parts of season four are, too, if we’re being honest.) The sitcom, which premiered 20 years ago, on November 2, 2003, developed a massive cult following—much of it after the show left Fox in 2006. Audiences are still cherishing its genius humor, an exquisite blend of slapstick, visual, and running gags meticulously combined with razor-sharp writing, performances, narration, and camerawork. Two decades on, Mitchell Hurwitz’s series—its pre-Netflix iteration, anyway—is still as groundbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny as it was back in the ’00s. And it might even be more so, thanks to the show’s immense rewatchability. (What else would you expect from a narrative style that inspired 30 Rock and Community?)
Arrested Development’s comedy lives on in many forms: endless internet memes, quotable lines about the cost of a banana or making a huge mistake, and flawless character dynamics. The show unleashed its distinct, farcical storytelling in its pilot (look out for The A.V. Club’s appreciation of that episode later this week), establishing the crackerjack jokes and nuanced wordplay we’d come to love. On the surface, AD’s diegesis feels facile because its protagonists are shallow and selfish. The Bluth clan loses its status because of patriarch George’s (Jeffrey Tambor) crimes and “light treason.” His son, Michael (Jason Bateman), tries his darndest to keep the family together because, you see, he has no choice. The fun stems from the show not shying away from the protagonists’ toxic traits and bonds, and there’s zero sincere effort to redeem them, Schitt’s Creek-style. Arrested Development accepts that this group of people is unequivocally fucked. They’re bound to collapse just like the house Gob (Will Arnett) leads the construction of in season two.
It’s hilarious to watch hermanos Michael and Gob engage in rivalry, George Michael (Michael Cera) and Maeby (Alia Shawkat) avoid being “Les Cousins Dangereux,” and Tobias Fünke (David Cross) embarrass himself in every possible way. Most of all, it’s a joy to witness Jessica Walter as series MVP Lucille Bluth, the cold matriarch who hates curly fries. Everything Walter did—from joyfully screeching at Gene Parmesan to attempting a wink—she aced. So now, to mark the show’s 20th anniversary, we’re tracking the story of the wealthy family and its 10 funniest episodes (listed in chronological order).