Television

Arrested Development: Netflix To Release 'Remixed' Version Of Season 4

David Cross and Jason Bateman on Arrested Development season 4 Netflix
By AJ Caulfield

Arrested Development is finally coming back, just not in the way fans might have expected. 

Series creator Mitch Hurwitz announced on Tuesday that a "remixed" version of Arrested Development season 4 will arrive on Netflix before the long-awaited season 5 makes its debut. 

The new edition of season 4, titled Arrested Development Season 4 Remix: Fateful Consequences, will include 22 episodes, all of which will have A, B, and C plots and storylines that interlock, thus giving it a more traditional television series feel akin to the first three seasons of the dysfunctional family comedy. 

"The original season four of Arrested Development on Netflix, as some of you know, experimented with a Rashomon-style of storytelling — with each episode dedicated to the adventure of one member of the Bluth family," Hurwitz wrote in an open letter posted to the Arrested Development Twitter account. "The goal was that by the end of the season a unified story of cause and effect would emerge for the viewer — full of surprises about how the Bluths were responsible for most of the misery they had endured."

He continued, "In some ways [it was meant] to be an experience for that viewer, perhaps, akin to eating toast, then some bacon — maybe a sliced tomato followed by some turkey — and realizing, 'Hey, I think I just had a BLT.' But in between season 4 and this upcoming season 5, I had time to take that Rashomon-type story and recut it — shuffling the content from 15 individualized stories into 22 interwoven stories the length of the original series — as an experiment to find out, well ... I guess 'if I could make some money.' I mean, who am I kidding? I want this thing to syndicate eventually."

Hurwitz then added that he pursued the new edition of Arrested Development season 4 as "a comedic experiment to see if new jokes and a new perspective would emerge from a remix that features all the Bluths in every episode, and where the simultaneity of the story plays out chronologically," noting that he's very excited about the finished product. "It's funny in a whole new way," he said, "and I believe it creates a really entertaining and hilarious new experience for the 'viewer.'"

As for when Arrested Development enthusiasts can expect season 5, Hurwitz stated in the announcement letter that it will stream on Netflix "soon, like real soon. Like, if you knew when, you would not be wrong to be thinking, 'Why are we all just hearing this now?'"

Read Hurwitz' full letter below.

Arrested Development Season 4 Remix: Fateful Consequences will arrive on Netflix on May 4, the "premature holiday the Bluth family knows as Cinco de Cuatro."

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