Considering Season 4 of Arrested Development landed on Netflix with an entirely different narrative and structure than the seasons that fans grew to love in the series’ years on Fox, it was truly hard to predict what creator Mitch Hurwitz would conceive for Season 5. (Assuming Season 5 would even exist.) Understandably, the biggest hurdle for the show is getting the gigantic cast signed on and scheduled, but once that happens, Hurwitz has revealed the in-development Season 5 will essentially be a serialized murder mystery. I’m betting they catch the culprit blue-handed!
If you’ll recall, the Season 4 finale ended on Buster getting arrested for the murder of Lucille 2, who had gone missing during the Cinco de Cuatro celebration (after smacking Michael), leaving behind only a pool of blood at the bottom of the stair car. (The episode also ended on G.O.B. possibly taking a sex date with another man, but that part wasn’t mentioned.) And as some suspected, Season 5 will center on the investigation surrounding her disappearance/murder, which will certainly not go smoothly, particularly if the cops on the case are the ones we’ve seen on the show in the past. Hot Cops are always welcome, though.
When he first came up with the concept, Hurwitz says he had no idea that the true crime genre was going to become so popular, according to Deadline. Thanks to the podcast Serial, the HBO docuseries The Jinx and, most recently, the excellent Netflix series Making a Murderer, people can’t get enough of longform looks at memorable crimes. Is the possible murder of Lucille Austero on the same page as those other projects? It certainly can be, since Arrested Development is full of characters that could serve as suspects. But I seriously doubt Buster had anything to do with it, unless there’s hook DNA found on the scene.
The popularity of murder mysteries isn’t the only coincidence that Hurwitz has come across when putting together ideas for Season 5. Season 4 saw Linsdsay running for Congress as a Republican on a platform of putting up a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, but to extend that idea further is to basically ape the controversial early campaign of Donald Trump. As well, Hurwitz had planned on getting George Sr. to turn into a woman to change up his relationship with Michael and the rest, but then actor Jeffrey Tambor took on the starring role in Transparent as a man transitioning into a woman. Perhaps Hurwitz should be the subject of a cable reality show about an entertainment psychic.
Season 4 had its share of naysayers, which is fine, since it had to make some big changes in order to exist in the first place. Hurwitz is going into the writing of Season 5 knowing that, so perhaps compromises can be made to make everyone satisfied. Those looking to see Hurwitz and Will Arnett working together before then will be happy to know that Netflix will be putting out the duo’s new show Flaked later this year. Here’s hoping we’ll get more Arrested Development before 2017.
