my weekend with the bluths

Buster Bluth (Tony Hale) responds to publicist Jessie in the 'Arrested Development' episode 'Public Relations' from January 25, 2004

I bought the 'Arrested Development' DVD after seeing a couple of episodes on FOX and generally liking its quirky tone and unpredictable story lines. After just a few episodes from season one, I became almost addicted to this show. I watched all 22 first-year episodes in one weekend.

Matt Patay at IMDb has the best summary of the basic plot of AD that I've read so far:

Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman), a widower with a 13-year-old son, named George-Michael (Michael Cera), is forced to keep his large and dysfunctional family together after his father (Jeffery Tambor) is arrested for shifty accounting practices at the family-owned conglomerate and the Bluth family assets are frozen, making each member of the eccentric family panicing. Michael's snobbish mother, Lucille (Jessica Walter), finds herself living alone in a penthouse without the financial means to maintain it, while Michael's two brothers, GOB (Will Arnett) and Buster (Tony Hale), and his sister Lindsay (Portia DeRossi) with her husband Tobias (David Cross) and her daughter Mae (Alia Shawkat) also find themselves having to recreate their lifestyles to fit their new financial status.

Arrested Development is, but doesn't feel like, a sitcom. Bare of a laugh track and filmed with a single, often jittery camera, the series looks more like an overblown drama or a gritty documentary — not a comedy that features such loopy situations as an inflammatory ''chicken dance'' or a teenage boy driving a car while jammed on Daddy's lap.

I've seen a couple of fan sites that are really well put together, much like the show itself. my facvorite is 'The O-P,' a mock-newspaper that has everything anyone could want or need to know about the show and its fine cast of characters.