Inconclusive

I finally finished the remix. With the exception of the Gob/Tony stuff, I actually think the last six episodes are tedious. The "previously" clips get too long and unwieldy, and the narrator talks too damn much over dialogue. They seem to have extended the worst scenes (Michael and GM lying to each other at the Ealing club, the shitty double date at Balboa country club, Michael's horrible haircut meeting with Ron Howard, etc.) while they cut some significant dialogue, like Gob's long "Bad example" speech about his revenge turning into real feelings. What does that mean, combined with cutting the post-Cinco scene where he gets the call from Tony Wonder and stares in the mirror?

They also changed other things, i.e. Steve Holt's pest control van collides into somebody else, not Michael and Gob arriving in Sudden Valley. Of course they still haven't fixed the timeline, constantly talking about "last night" and "1 day ago" about the Opie Awards, yet having Tobias and Debrie talk about how it's been 3-6 weeks for them in their mini-universe. Fucking put dates on your damn scenes!


On the other hand, I think they tried to cut back some of the most depressing parts of Debrie's bad rehearsals for the musical. There's not as much of Lucille's cutting criticisms; there are some, yes, but it doesn't go on so long as to feel like she's a kicked puppy cowering. In any case, Tobias is the villain truly destroying Debrie, not Lucille. It's his clueless acting obsession, always talking her out of being a lawyer, turning down Lucille Austero's job offer, and forcing her to do the musical, that's destroying her. He's a Bluthian monster who deserves to go back to prison. That's not one ounce of him that's lovable anymore.

The buildup to Cinco is poor, juggling too many stories at once, and making Marky Bark's return seem more random. I kept thinking that John Beard's long narration for the 3 Cinco episodes would be revealed as part of the movie by Imagine Entertainment about the Bluths. But no payoff yet. And still no clarity on what Gene Parmesan was doing there, or who played The Thing. The show made Lindsay's embrace of her true Bluth self more clear, as she became anti-immigrant during her speech. But they cut her post-Cinco scene with Herbert Love in a coma, and her agreeing to run in his place.

At least they cut the unnecessarily mean-spirited scene where Annyong goes to jail for using the Balboa country club tab. I can't believe the writers made that Transparent joke, and even left it in after Tambor was fired from that show.

Season 5 is apparently coming out on May 29th, according to the Bluth staircar being spotted in New York with that date. Maybe I'll have time to rewatch season 4 again, this time taking notes for a new/updated timeline.