Afternoon Baseball

The DVD arrived today, and I couldn't be happier. Great deleted and extended scenes that far surpass last season's, a blooper reel that's several minutes long and as original and manic as the show itself, and commentary with not the whole cast, but the funniest and most outrageous commenters (Will Arnett chief among them).
Season 2 is more scattershot and has almost too much foreshadowing (as in several episodes in advance), but its very few misses (the Martin Short guest appearance, the rehashing of Julia Louis-Dreyfus' guest arc from last year -- all three episodes in a row, incidentally) are forgotten amidst the incredible highlights.
Those being, chiefly: All of "Afternoon Delight," Zach Braff's playing of the "Girls With Low Self-Esteem" director who shares Tobias' never-nude disorder, Tobias as a Blue Man, Buster losing his hand to a seal, Henry Winkler proving he's got more comedy range than anyone ever guessed, and of course, the incest obsession.

That's right, "Arrested Development" not only makes it OK to wink and laugh at incest and convulted relationships, it practically forces it upon you. When the two gay cops talk of giving a "mixed cocktail so neither of us will know who the father was," they could be describing, more or less, every relationship on the show. Whether it be Buster and Lucille's ultra-close mother/son relationship, or the odd father/uncle relationship of Oscar towards Buster, or Oscar and George, Sr. fighting over Lucille, or Buster confusing Lucille 2 (his ex-gf) with his mother Lucille, or Lindsay hitting on Steve Holt, Maebe's crush (of course, Steve Holt is now revealed to be Gob's son and a cousin of Maebe), or Ann's mom throwing herself at Michael, whose son is Ann's boyfriend, or the odd jealousy of Michael towards Ann regarding his son, or Stan Sitwell, who's the father of Michael's one-time gf, hooking up with Lucille 2, who was with Michael's brothers Buster and Gob at different times, the crazy love (or sex, or whatever) is all over the place, never weird enough to not get a laugh.
And of course, that's not mentioning the make-out session between cousins George-Michael and Maebe at season's end. (Actually, that one is a little weird -- even on the commentary, nobody is daring enough to make a joke while the two actors are sitting there)

But most importantly, season 2 on DVD is a chance to catch up on everything you may not have noticed the first time around, if you watched at all. It's not about saving the show -- that's probably impossible at this point. But it is about taking advantage of the opportunity that DVD provides to enjoy a quality product that our culture so often lacks.