[7.3/10] Only rating this one so low since I know the heights this hits later. The pilot isn’t as crisp in its editing and jokes as the show would later become, but it’s still a great intro the show and its comic sensibility. You get a good sense of who each of the Bluths is, why they’re terrible, and it sets up lots of the basic premises of the show -- like Michael trying to save the family, the model home, George Michael’s crush on Maeby, Tobias’s fluid sexual orientation and desire to be an actor, etc. etc. etc.
Plus there’s the great little setups and misdirects, like Buster’s cartography, panic attacks, and drum skills arising at funny moments, or the monopoly game coming back. And you get nice character establishing moments, like George Michael parroting things Michael says without knowing what they mean, or Lindsey’s faux-activism and GOB’s magic fascination. And man, while it took some time for various bits of the show to really ramp up, the back-and-forth between Michael and Lucille is classic right out of the gate.
Overall, a fine start for the show that would have been a stellar outing for most other series, but falls somewhere in the middle of the bell curve for AD given how great it gets down the line.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2018-06-01T04:10:18Z
[7.3/10] Only rating this one so low since I know the heights this hits later. The pilot isn’t as crisp in its editing and jokes as the show would later become, but it’s still a great intro the show and its comic sensibility. You get a good sense of who each of the Bluths is, why they’re terrible, and it sets up lots of the basic premises of the show -- like Michael trying to save the family, the model home, George Michael’s crush on Maeby, Tobias’s fluid sexual orientation and desire to be an actor, etc. etc. etc.
Plus there’s the great little setups and misdirects, like Buster’s cartography, panic attacks, and drum skills arising at funny moments, or the monopoly game coming back. And you get nice character establishing moments, like George Michael parroting things Michael says without knowing what they mean, or Lindsey’s faux-activism and GOB’s magic fascination. And man, while it took some time for various bits of the show to really ramp up, the back-and-forth between Michael and Lucille is classic right out of the gate.
Overall, a fine start for the show that would have been a stellar outing for most other series, but falls somewhere in the middle of the bell curve for AD given how great it gets down the line.