Let It Be is nothing like the best Beatles album, but Let It Be Naked is woeful. Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now Redux is an objectively worse film than the original, a masterpiece of botched structure and abandoned vision. George Lucas going back and slathering the original Star Wars trilogy in godawful CGI was little short of a crime against culture. Creators have retroactively buggered about with their work before, but all the notable examples are from film and music. Then again, it’s worth pointing out that this rarely works. A little work here or there would improve these shows immeasurably. Lost could erase, like, half the episodes from series three. The weird first series of Parks and Recreation could be rejigged to make the characters as likeable as they would eventually become. Matthew Weiner could go back to alter the second series of Mad Men so that it didn’t sag under the weight of Peggy’s boring family.

It might prompt other showrunners to go back and tinker with their own unsatisfactory blips. If it works – if he pulls a lost classic from the ruined fuselage of what we’ve already seen – it could change television. For anyone who loved Arrested Development – and anyone who loved Arrested Development loved Arrested Development – the disappointment was palpable. Scenes that would have once been tight and bulletproof dissolved into directionless mush. Without the whole gang all in the same place at the same time, Arrested Development suddenly became lumpen and belaboured. But because the fourth series had to be taped together atom by atom – including plenty of infuriatingly conspicuous greenscreen inserts – Hurwitz was forced to adopt a Rashomon structure, with each episode focused on a different main character.Īnd it was draining to watch. As a result, Hurwitz essentially had to abandon the form altogether.įor two great years, and then a slightly dodgy third, Arrested Development had been a traditional ensemble full of awful characters driven to their worst impulses by their close proximity to one other. Almost without exception, the cast had become hugely successful in the years since the show went off air, and piecing together a Netflix revival looked like a brain-breakingly difficult nightmare of logistics and scheduling.

If you saw it, you’ll know that the most recent series of Arrested Development was a bit of a mess. The results will either be a curate’s egg of colossal proportions or a bold new way forward for all imperfect shows. Mitch Hurwitz’s decision to ‘remix’ the fourth series of Arrested Development is one of the most interesting things to happen in TV for years.

Remix tv serial episodes