And with one final episode, "Arrested Development" has now ended its run for a second time. This time it wasn't abruptly canceled, but given the chance to live once again by Netflix, which brought the show back with a fourth season that I believe to be a success. However, that hasn't necessarily been the case throughout the fifth season, as this has been more clunky than usual, switching between clever humor and annoying gags. They've now reached the ending and finished off on a note. Luckily, this was a fine one; not great, but definitely not as bad and unfunny as it could have been.
The Bluths have never had a time in their life where things were as tense as in this final hour (yes, an hour!!) of "Arrested Development." Yet, they've also not had an easier time getting out of trouble. A lot of storylines had been set up to give the narrative for this season, with the disappearance of Lucille-2 being the big one. Buster was on trial for her murder, and after changing the actual murder suspect 100 times throughout the episode, that storyline was just kind of abandoned without a real conclusion to it. It's the second part of the episode that really manages to bring out the fun of this show, as the whole border subplot comes to a rather dramatic ending, that leads to a satisfying conclusion for Michael and his son. These are characters that we have rooted for throughout the entire show, and it only seemed fair that they would be the ones to prosper from everything. Gob is still paranoid about possibly being gay, and we finally get an ending to the long-standing question of where Lindsay have been... Granted, an ending that doesn't really clarify anything, other than the fact that Portia de Rossi had quit acting. However, it adds to the surrealness of this show in a kinda fun way and leaves things as scrambled as they've always been for the family, which is how we like them best. This final season certainly hasn't been the greatest, but it managed to close out the show on a satisfying note.
"The Fallout" leaves the door open for a possible return, but works as an end to a show that already had one, but was saved. It features a happy ending for Michael, but another messy situation for the rest of the family, which feels a little inconclusive, yet weirdly satisfying when you think about it.