Justice Is Blind (21 Mar. 2004)

Michael gets an evidence file about his family after sleeping with the Maggie Lizer, the prosecuting attorney. But he suspects that she's not exactly telling the truth, so he sends Tobias ... See full summary »

Director:

Jay Chandrasekhar

Writers:

Mitchell Hurwitz (creator), Abraham Higginbotham

Stars:

Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Will Arnett

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Jason Bateman	...	Michael Bluth
Portia de Rossi	...	Lindsay Bluth Fünke
Will Arnett	...	Gob Bluth
Michael Cera	...	George-Michael Bluth
Alia Shawkat	...	Maeby Fünke
Tony Hale	...	Buster Bluth
David Cross	...	Tobias Fünke
Jeffrey Tambor	...	George Bluth Sr.
Jessica Walter	...	Lucille Bluth
Julia Louis-Dreyfus	...	Maggie Lizer
Amy Poehler	...	Bride of Gob
Michael Paul Chan	...	Judge Lionel Ping
Henry Winkler	...	Barry Zuckerkorn
Timothy Davis-Reed	...	Officer Kelley
Justin Lee	...	Annyong Bluth

Storyline

Michael gets an evidence file about his family after sleeping with the Maggie Lizer, the prosecuting attorney. But he suspects that she's not exactly telling the truth, so he sends Tobias to her house to investigate, who finds out that she's not blind. Meanwhile, GOB's divorce does not go as smoothly as planned.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 March 2004 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Stage 5, 20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hurwitz Company, The, Imagine Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When playing the prosecutor in "The Trial of Captain Hook", young Michael begs the judge to throw the book at Captain Hook. Here, he literally throws a book at Maggie Lizer to prove she's not really blind.

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Goofs

At the very end of the episode when Justice runs into the courtroom door, you can see the trainer's feet underneath the door. You can also see the trainer hit the door to make it look as if Justice actually ran into the door.

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Quotes

Lindsay Funke: [about the Ten Commandments] I don't know... give 'em to a school.
Michael Bluth: I don't want anymore of my family members having run-in's with the law. The Ten Commandments stay.
George Oscar 'Gob' Bluth: So now you loooove the Ten Commandments.

User Reviews

Thou shalt worship AD

The last review of an Arrested Development episode I wrote was four months ago, for Altar Egos; Justice is Blind is its sister episode and this is my first AD review of the new year. Continuing the story of Michael's affair with Maggie, his dad's prosecutor, Michael finds out Maggie is faking her blindness.

Aside from Tobias struggling to evade her in a break-in, there's nothing particularly spectacular about the revelation. Michael at one point throws a book at Maggie's head, a joke used by Fox in advertisements of the show- but is this really the best AD has to offer? AD typically has more success with verbal humour than slapstick. Meanwhile, Maeby is also faking a disability, pretending to be her own sister who is ill. The reason: she gets money from sympathetic people. This may be Maeby's least ethical stunt- later we see her posing as a movie executive which involves equal deception but less hurt. So Maeby is less lovable here. Also notable from this episode is that we see some hostility and malice between George and Buster. This may be funny, but it creates the false impression that there was no love between the two. The episodes Good Grief and Out on a Limb show there actually was some.

Despite these shortcomings, Justice is Blind does shine in at least one respect- the use of the Ten Commandments. We can laugh at Lindsay's lack of understanding as to how separation of church and state works and we can laugh at Michael and GOB's ignorance of what the Commandments are. We can take note of how fitting it is that the Bluths would campaign against the Commandments. These jokes feel more like Arrested Development than simply naming a blind dog Justice.