Is going out to the movies an endangered pastime in Madison?

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As I sat with about 60 other people at MMOCA Rooftop Cinema on Friday night, watching one harvester ant rip the head off another one on the big projection screen, I wondered if the concern that theatrical moviegoing is an endangered pastime might not be so grave.

Which is not to say that there isn’t reason for concern. But if you can fill seats for “The Hellstrom Chronicle,” as MMOCA did, there’s definitely room for hope.

The concern, expressed well by Mark Riechers at Madison Arts Extract last week, is that there’s a large group of movie lovers in Madison who don’t go out to the movies. They’ll come out in droves for the Wisconsin Film Festival, but when independent films come back to Sundance Cinemas and elsewhere, the theaters are nearly empty. Granted, this is a problem everywhere; when I was last home visiting my parents in Denver, I sat in the city’s majestic Mayan Theatre all alone to see “Rust and Bone.”

But I think Madison has a particular challenge, having to do largely with the fact that we’re a second- or third-tier market with first-tier taste in movies. Independent films don’t usually open everywhere at the same time the way “The Internship” does; instead, they roll out slowly, starting in New York and Los Angeles, spreading to cities like Chicago and San Francisco, eventually making their way to some smaller markets if they’re doing well enough. It’s a cinematic Doppler effect: you hear about a movie through reviews in the New Yorker or New York Times, and then weeks or months later you see it. A larger city like Denver can largely dictate when an indie movie will get to their theaters, but for Madison, we seem to largely have to wait and see for many of them to trickle down to our level.

The problem for Sundance is that they don’t often know when the films will finally make it to Madison until, sometimes, the Tuesday before the Friday they open. That’s not much time to build up any word of mouth that a film is opening. If a movie that already has a fair bit of advertising and viewer interest, such as “Before Midnight” or “Much Ado About Nothing,” it has a good chance of making a big splash. Madison will usually come out big to support those films, judging by the lines at the concessions counter at Sundance. But other, lesser-known films might arrive without much notice, and if audiences aren’t willing to take a chance on them, they could open and close in a week. And, as the price of going to the movies goes up, audiences are less likely to take those chances.

Of course, there are exceptions; “Free the Mind,” a film made in Madison about meditation research at the UW, ended up being a surprise hit for Sundance, playing for several weeks. Sundance does broadcast what’s playing through its e-newsletter, and programs smaller indie movies into its Screening Room Calendar, which maps out weeks ahead what arthouse movies will be showing. And there are media resources (such as, ahem, this blog) that feature reviews and news about what movies are playing. But in general, the burden is on the viewer to keep track of what’s playing where and when.

And, as Mark points out, the rise of Netflix Instant and VOD has changed the equation. On the one hand, streaming makes a vast treasure trove of movies available for movie lovers, cheaply and easily. That’s an unalloyed great thing, giving good films that might have tanked theatrically (or never even made it to a Madison theater) the chance to be seen. The trade-off, though, is that there’s no sense of urgency for audiences to go see a film in theaters, because they know it will inevitable end up on DVD. (And yet so called “day-and-date” releases, simultaneously out on VOD and in theaters, seems to be working for indie distributors like IFC and Magnolia. Go figure.)

Yet, in Madison, we’re blessed to have this other strain of filmgoing, exemplified by Rooftop Cinema, Cinematheque and the Wisconsin Film Festival, that seems to do very well. Those Studio Ghibli films that screened Sunday afternoon at the Chazen this past semester were absolutely packed, the festival never seems to go wanting for crowds, and folks will turn up to see almost anything, no matter how off-the-beaten-path, at Cinematheque or Rooftop. The other encouraging sign I’d point to is the continuing success of the “Classics” series at Sundance Cinemas, which often has the biggest crowds of any theater there on a Wednesday night. We actually outpace other Sundance theaters in larger cities like Houston when it comes to our support of classic movies.

All of which is to say that there’s we’re ahead of the game compared to many other places — there’s a lot of movies to see, and a lot of appreciative and hungry movie fans who could go see them. The challenge continues to be making sure audiences know what movies they can get out to see, and why it’s important they do so.

What’s playing in Madison theaters, June 7-13, 2013

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All week

“The Purge” (Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema) — “Star Trek Into Darkness” was basically a remake of the classic Trek episode “Space Seed,” and now this horror-thriller lifts the premise from another Trek episode, “Return of the Archives.” (Will Landru make a cameo?) In the future, once a year there’s a 12-hour period where all crime is legal, and a family has to deal with a pack of murderous intruders. Festival!

“The Internship” (Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema) — My full review is here. “Wedding Crashers” Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson reunite for this much tamer comedy about middle-aged guys who get an internship at Google.

“Kon-Tiki” (Sundance) — The incredible voyage of Thor Heyerdahl, across the ocean in a flimsy raft, is recounted in this adventure tale that played at the Wisconsin Film Festival.

“What Maisie Knew” (Sundance) — My full review is here. A wrenching custody battle between two self-centered New Yorkers is viewed through the eyes of their six-year-old daughter in this powerful drama.

Opens Wednesday

“This Is the End” (Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema) — Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride all play themselves, pampered Hollywood actors who realize the apocalypse is upon them.

Friday

“The Hellstrom Chronicle” (9:30 p.m., Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 227 State St.) — MMOCA kicks off its Rooftop Cinema series with this 1970 film that mixes sci-fi and documentary footage to show how insects are fascinating, creepy creatures. The screening is free for museum members, $7 for everyone else. The good news of this unseasonably cool weather is that actual insects may not bother the audience during the screening.

Monday

“Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan” (9:30 p.m, Memorial Union Terrace, 800 Langdon St.) — The best of the “Star Trek” movies plays on the lakefront, as Kirk and Spock face off against the delightfully hammy Khan and his crew. Free!

Wednesday

“Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1:30 and 6:45 p.m., Sundance Cinemas) — Sundance’s Classics Series is devoted to Steven Spielberg in June, and the chance to see the original Indiana Jones adventure up on the big screen is what summer is all about. Plus the Rooftop Bar at Sundance is now open!

“The Internship”: Searching for comedy in the world of Google

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“The Internship” opens Friday at Point, Eastgate and Star Cinema. PG-13, 1:59, two stars out of four.

Once I realized that “The Internship” wasn’t going to be that good, it wasn’t that bad.

I realize that’s the faintest of praise for the new comedy reuniting “Wedding Crashers” Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, but it’s true. Once you accept that the movie isn’t going to be that funny, and isn’t going to be particularly sharp or thoughtful, it’s able to coast on the charms of its stars. For a while.

Vaughn and Wilson play Billy and Nick, two watch salesmen who have been made obsolete in the age of iPhones. (Watches are obsolete? Then why is Esquire magazine trying to sell me a $9,000 one every month?) After Googling for possible job opportunities, using keywords like “jobs for people with few skills” (good joke), Billy hits on it. Google. The fortysomething pals will enroll as interns at the company.

Entering a campus that looks unnervingly like the Madison Children’s Museum, slides and all, the pair find that their summer internship isn’t really an internship, but a semester-long competition with other students for jobs at Google. Of course, they land on a team of misfit nerds, and of course they are derided by the cool kids, led by Max Minghella. And, of course, Billy and Nick use some of that Generation X moxie to whip their team into shape.

“The Internship” unabashedly hits all the familiar beats of the campus comedy — the nerdiest kid turns into a wild man under Vaughn’s tutelage, Wilson’s charm defrosts a chilly professor — er, I mean, Google executive — played by Rose Byrne. Padded to nearly two hours, the movie lurches from one challenge to another, from coding to Quidditch, without much logic or wit. If this is really how Google selects its new employees, Bing should be eating its lunch.

But Wilson and Vaughn are certainly affable comedic actors, and Vaughn co-wrote the screenplay, playing to his strengths with long, digressive monologues delivered at rat-a-tat pacing. I also liked Josh Gad as a mysterious campus presence who gives Vaughn some sage advice. And there are moments where the film hints at the dire state of the economy, as when the younger members of the team fret about their job prospects, or when Billy and Nick’s boss (John Goodman) explains the gloomy outlook for their middle-aged careers thusly: “Where you’re going, you’ve already been.”

In the case of this overly familiar comedy, that goes double.

 

“What Maisie Knew”: A child learns how to survive her parents

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“What Maisie Knew” opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. R, 1:43, three and a half stars out of four.

In the first scene of “What Maisie Knew,” we see six-year-old Maisie (Onata Aprile) playing tic-tac-toe with her nanny Margo (Joanna Vanderham). The game serves as a fitting metaphor for divorce: a confrontational game between two opponents that nobody ends up winning.

What’s different, and heartrending about how “Maisie”  looks at divorce is that it does so through her six-year-old eyes, sometimes uncomprehending, sometimes understanding far better than her parents realize. Why is Mommy crying? Who is that woman with Daddy? At times “What Maisie Knew” can be difficult to watch, especially if you’ve been through similar circumstances as either a child or parent. But it’s an intimate, well-acted and nuanced film that provides a fresh angle on an all-too-familiar struggle.

Maisie’s mom is Susanna (Julianne Moore) a fading rocker in the Courtney Love mode, who vacillates between neediness and indifference towards her young daughter. Her father is Beale (Steve Coogan), a wealthy art dealer who spends most of his life on the phone or abroad for business. They break up at the beginning of the film, and soon much of Maisie’s life is spent shuttling back and forth between one parent and the other, listening to one bad-mouth the other. There’s no doubt Susanna and Beale love Maisie, in their way, but there’s also no doubt that they are pretty lousy parents, self-involved and eager to win Maisie over to their side. The film is actually an adaptation of an old Henry James novel, but feels utterly contemporary.

Beale ends up moving in with the nanny Margo, and in retaliation Susanna marries a hunky young bartender, Lincoln (Alexander Skarsgard). As Beale and Susanna recede from the film — mercifully — it’s left to these new step-parents to take care of Maisie. And the twist you should see coming but don’t is that they turn out to be great parents for Maisie, much better than her biological ones. The relationship between the towering Skarsgard and little Aprile is particularly affecting — the two actors have a warm rapport you rarely see in child-adult relationships.

The acting is all terrific here — both Beale and Susanna could have easily been broad, villainous types, but Coogan and especially Moore make them seem more pathetic than villainous, so wrapped up in their own needs they can’t see the damage they’re doing. But this kind of film only pierces your heart if the child actress is good, and young Aprile is unbelievable, so natural and unforced, without a hint of cutesiness or pathos about her. The film looks at the world entirely through Maisie’s perspective, both in how it views the characters and in its luminous cinematography, the colors popping off the screen, the frame rate sometimes slowing down just slightly in moments of dreamlike rapture.

As Maisie stares uncomprehendingly up at her nattering parents, or warmly at Lincoln and Margo, you sense that she really does know quite a lot, and whatever happens, she’ll rise above it.

MMOCA’s Rooftop Cinema brings the avant-garde to the great outdoors

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Most of the outdoor movie offerings in Madison play it pretty safe, whether it’s family movies at the Duck Pond or cult hits on the Memorial Union Terrace, or, of course, summer blockbusters at the Highway 18 drive-in.

Which makes it that much more impressive that, for eight years running, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art has managed to fill seats in its Rooftop Garden (outside Fresco) with audiences eager to see 1960s experimental short films, trippy animated features, even a full-length music video that turned into a rooftop dance party.

Rooftop Cinema programmer Tom Yoshikami says he looks for films that are both accessible and avant-garde, if such a thing were possible. That means films that may be adventurous, but are also funny or strange or otherwise engaging to an audience. That often means short films, since a full-length experimental film can try even the most dedicated cineaste’s patience. And, of course, it helps that the setting is so wonderful, an unexpected angle to view the downtown skyline, the sounds of State Street wafting up from below.

Rooftop Cinema has a typically eclectic line-up planned for its eighth season,, running every Friday night in June at the museum, 227 State St. The show starts around sundown, and admission is free for MMOCA members, $7 for everyone else, and tickets are available at the door. Chairs are available, although many audience members bring blankets to sit on, and the Fresco bar offers cocktails to bring out onto the roof.

Here’s the June line-up:

Friday, June 7 — “The Hellstrom Chronicle” — A rare full-length feature film for Rooftop Cinema, “Hellstrom” is a strange 1970 film that blends B-movie sci-fi with documentary, as a (fictional) scientist warns about the viciousness of the insect population, and uses micro-photography of insects to prove his point.

Friday, June 14 — The Films of Miranda July — Before she made feature films like “You and Me and Everyone We Know” and “The Future,” July made several funny and unsettling short films. Fans of her work will immediately recognize her artistic stamp on these films.

Friday, June 21 — Animated shorts from the National Film Board of Canada — Canada has been a reliable source for entertaining animated shorts for Rooftop over the years, and our neighbors to the north finally get an evening devoted to their work, spanning from 1955 to 2013.

Friday, June 28 — Experiments in Space and Time — The list of short films for this closing collection is still being finalized, but the films will be a humorous look at altered perspectives, including “Turning Over,” a film about an odometer turning from 99,999 to 100,000 miles. (That was a bigger deal in the age of analog, kids.)

Instant Gratification: “Natural Selection” and four other good movies to watch on Netflix right now

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It’s the first week of the month, which means that Netflix Instant has added a whole bunch of new titles to its streaming service. It also means it took away a bunch, including “The Intouchables,” which just went up on Netflix and led this column a couple of weeks ago. C’mon, Netflix, check with me first!

Pick of the week: “Natural Selection”: My full review is here. I saw this indie comedy at the 2011 Milwaukee Film Festival, and though it never made it to Madison, is definitely worth catching up on. Rachael Harris of “The Daily Show” and the “Wimpy Kid” movies gets a rare chance to shine as the lead, a repressed Texas housewife who goes looking for the biological son of her critically-ill husband, who had been donating sperm on the side. What she finds is a skeevy, thieving man (Matt O’Leary) who she nonetheless tries to love like a son. It’s one of those comedies where nobody is above making fun of, but nobody is beyond empathy either.

Documentary of the week: “Chasing Ice”: My full review is here. Global warming can be beautiful. “Chasing Ice” features some truly majestic shots of glaciers cracking and falling into the ocean, or climbers descending into iridescent blue chasms caused by melting ice. It’s visually stunning, but chilling when we realize how irrevocable this beautiful destruction is.

Classic of the week: “Apocalypse Now Redux”: Netflix has both the original theatrical cut of Francis Ford Coppola’s epic 1979 Vietnam War film and this new director’s cut, which features additional scenes, including a controversial visit to a French plantation. It’s not definitive, but definitely worth seeing.

Comedy of the week: “Bedazzled”: As a comedy duo, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were in their prime in this swinging 1967 farce about a hapless man (Moore) who makes deals with the Devil (Cook) that somehow don’t turn out quite right. Very funny stuff.

Thriller of the week: “The Deep End”: Tilda Swinton is terrific in this well-plotted 2001 noir about an ordinary mother who tries to extricate her son out of a blackmail scheme.

You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting an “E.T.” screening in Madison

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I’ve got nothing against Steven Spielberg’s beloved 1982 family classic “E.T. The Extraterrestrial.” I showed it to my own kids for the first time a few months ago and they loved it (although it may have helped that I shut it off just when E.T. started getting the sniffles.)

But it seems a little odd that Madison audiences have gotten so many chances to see the film in so many different ways over the past few weeks. First, Madison Parks kicked off its “Moonlight Movies” series of outdoor family movies in May with a screening of “E.T.” at Olbrich Beach.

Then, last Monday, the Lakeside Cinema series at the Memorial Union Terrace kicked off its series of outdoor films — all having to do with aliens or outer space — with, you guessed it, “E.T.” (“Spaceballs,” not quite as heartwarming, plays this Monday night.)

And now, when I was at Sundance Cinemas on Sunday to see “Frances Ha” for the second time, I saw that Sundance’s Classics Series is devoted the month of June to the works of Steven Spielberg. And screening on Wednesday, June 19 is, of course, “E.T.” My only question at this point is why the Rooftop Cinema series at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art couldn’t have worked in a “E.T.” screening in its June series — perhaps playing it backward to make it a little more avant-garde.

I guess it’s a testament to “E.T” as a bonafide family classic that generations of moviegoers will turn out for, both older audiences feeling a touch of nostalgia and young families exposing their kids to the saga of Elliot, Gertie and their new houseguest. Still, that’s a lot of Reese’s Pieces.

The Spielberg series, by the way, shapes up like this, hitting four of his biggest films. Not an “Always” in the bunch.

Wednesday, June 5 — “Jaws” (1:30 and 6:45 p.m.) — Less family-friendly than “E.T.,” to be sure, but the film that pretty much invented the concept of the “summer blockbuster” works like gangbusters.

Wednesday, June 12 — “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (showtimes TBA) — Seriously, how great will it be to see Indy’s first outing on the big screen again with an audience?

Wednesday, June 19 — “E.T. The Extraterrestrial” (showtimes TBA) — See above.

Wednesday, June 26 — “Schindler’s List” (showtimes TBA) — Not exactly my idea of big-tub-0f-popcorn summer moviegoing, but a film you must see at least once. I wouldn’t make a plan to go out for drinks afterward, though.

“Frances Ha”: Finding a place of her own

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“Frances Ha” is now playing at Sundance Cinemas. R, 1:26, four stars out of four.

“How much longer?” Frances’ mother shouts through the locked bathroom door as Frances (Greta Gerwig) floats in the bathtub, unwilling or unable to move.

It’s a question that Frances asks herself, over and over, in Noah Baumbach’s beautifully funny ode to twentysomething uncertainty, a universe of unmade beds and house parties, casual hookups and platonic roommates. In addition to giving a sparkling and deeply-realized performance as Frances, Gerwig also co-wrote the film with Baumbach (the two are now partners in real life as well). The result is a film that bears all of the zingy dialogue and sharp characterizations of Baumbach’s other films (“The Squid and the Whale,” “Greenberg”) but with more of a generosity of spirit towards its characters.

It’s also one of the most insightful movies about female friendship to come along in quite a while. The movie opens with a glorious black-and-white montage of Frances and her roommate Sophie (Mickey Sumner). The pair are inseparable (“We’re like the same person but with different hair,” Greta tells people), and we see shots of the pair scampering through the streets, having philosophical talks on fire escapes, cackling at house parties. It’s like the dream every Midwestern liberal arts student has about what life in Brooklyn would be like after graduation.

But every dream ends, and in New York, real estate is usually the culprit. Sophie gets the chance to live in Tribeca, and takes it. The two vow to stay close, but a gulf slowly widens between them that can’t be spanned by the Williamsburg Bridge. Sophie, in publishing, starts growing up, getting serious with her boyfriend, making new friends.

Frances, meanwhile, is caught in stasis. Her career as a professional dancer has stalled out, and she starts bouncing from apartment to apartment, humiliation to humiliation, watching as Sophie and others slide forward on their moving walkways to adulthood while hers remains closed for repairs.

It’s a familiar arc for Baumbach, heaping self-inflicted punishment upon punishment upon his characters, as we see Frances blather at dinner parties, her self-deprecating monologues becoming less and less entertaining to her audiences. But there’s a lighter touch here, and a poignancy, especially watching Frances and Sophie drift farther away from each other. There’s a deceptively cheery phone conversation late in the film, where Frances is just piling lie on top of lie about how well she’s doing, that’s just so sad compared to how honest and inseparable they had been.

She takes an ill-advised trip overseas which has to be the worst cinematic trip to Paris every committed to film. Conversely, when she goes home to Sacramento for the holidays, we brace ourselves for condescending comedy about life in the suburbs. Instead, it’s a lovely montage of images as Frances reconnects with her loving parents and old friends; her look of longing as she rides up the escalator to her plane back to New York is piercing.

Gerwig is a tremendously acute physical and verbal comedic actress, capturing the mix of grace and clumsiness with which Frances navigates every aspect of her life; we can see her do a beautiful pirouette in the dance studio, then get her ring stuck on her thumb on the subway ride home. She’s an equally lovable and maddening character, and we root for her to clean up the messes she can’t help make.

And it’s that rare film in which the heroine’s happiness or fulfillment doesn’t depend on her finding the right guy or not. A couple of guys move in and out of her life, but they’re largely in the background, and when she seems to finally find the right one, it’s nice, but not a make-or-break thing. She’s already found a place of her own.

What’s playing in Madison theaters, May 31-June 6, 2013

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For some, summer moviegoing means seeing the big blockbusters, the AC in the theater blasting. I’m all for that, but for me, quintessential summer moviegoing means being outside. Maybe it’s just a byproduct of being a Wisconsinite and being cooped up for so many months. But I have got to see something outdoors, whether it’s a cult classic on the Union Terrace or an avant-garde film on the roof of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. In that spirit, I wrote the cover story for 77 Square this week on the different al fresco movie options in Madison this summer, and the appeal of each.

Here’s the rest of what’s going on in Madison movies this week:

“After Earth” (Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema) — M. Night Shyamalan needs to write a movie set in an alternate Earth where his post-“Signs” movies are considered his best work. In this one, though, he’s been on a precipitous downward slide in the last decade, and the reviews for this Will and Jaden Smith sci-fi action film aren’t kind. Also, weird that this isn’t in 3D, right?

“Now You See Me” (Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema) — The trailer for this caper film about bank-robbing magicians didn’t work for me at all, but the cast (Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Woody Harrelson) definitely does. It’s certainly something a little different for a summer movie.

“Frances Ha” (Sundance) — Everybody’s favorite movie this year seems to be Noah Baumbach’s collaboration with writer-actress Greta Gerwig in this tale of a New York dancer hitting a quarter-life crisis. Supposed to be funny and sharp, and wise about female friendships in a way that movies usually aren’t. Pick of the week.

“Not Today” (Point) — A different kind of Christian-audience film, a drama aimed at alerting audiences to the horrors of the sex trafficking trade, as a callow young man traveling abroad tries to save the daughter of a homeless man from being sold into slavery.

“Iddarammayilatho” (Star Cinema) — AMC Theatres seem to have really found a niche by showing films aimed at Indian audiences (sometimes without English subtitles). The strength of that audience is evident this week, as  the theater books a new Bollywood movie and this one, a Telugu-language romance.

“Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani” (Star Cinema) — This is the Bollywood film, a lavish musical about lovers in love and, at 2 hours 48 minutes, rather brisk for Bollywood.

Monday

“Spaceballs” (9 p.m., UW Memorial Union Terrace, 800 Langdon St.) — Mel Brooks’ “Star Wars” spoof isn’t one of his top-tier comedies, but it’s perfect for the Terrace crowd, and the “Alien” sequence with John Hurt always has me on the floor. Free!

Wednesday

“Jaws” (1;30 and 6:45 p.m., Sundance) — What’s summer without a nice swim? Sundance kicks off its Summer Classics series with Steven Spielberg’s relentlessly entertaining 1975 film. I wrote an appreciation when it was released on Blu-ray last fall.

“Arrested Development” rejects the money in the banana stand

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I haven’t written about television before on the blog, but I wanted to say a few words about the new “season” of “Arrested Development” on Netflix Instant. Maybe it counts because I write every week about the movies on Netflix in my Instant Gratification column, or it counts because this all seems to be building to an “AD” movie, or, why the heck not.

Anyway, I’ve only seen the first two episodes so far, so I’m in no position to judge how Mitch Hurwitz and crew have executed their vision for this fourth season, seven years after the beloved series was cancelled by FOX. What I want to talk about is that vision they had, and why I think it’s laudable, no matter how well you think they pulled it off.

First off, it feels like a misnomer to call this “Season 4,” any more than you would call a future movie “Season 5.” As you may know, Hurwitz decided to approach the “Arrested Development” universe in a very different way for these 15 episodes. Part of this was driven by the freedom allowed by the Netflix release model, in which all the episodes could be released in one glomp, and he didn’t have to adhere to the rigid 22-minute model of network television. And part of it was driven by the limitations of his cast — most have gone on to successful careers in movies and TV after (and because of) “Arrested Development,” so trying to get the whole ensemble to commit to a full season at the same time was impossible.

So, instead, Hurwitz has made a “Pulp Fiction”-style version of “Arrested Development,” in which each episode follows one of the main characters around through the same massive storyline. The episodes all fit together, so if you see an ostrich show up in Episode 1 (and you do), odds are it will be explained by someone else’s episode later in the season. “Arrested Development” always had complex storylines and callback jokes; this format makes the callbacks an essential feature of the complicated storyline.

Opinions differ widely as to whether this is working or not. I thought the first two episodes, one following Michael (Jason Bateman) in is descent into financial misery, the other following George Bluth (Jeffrey Tambor) and his “sweat and squeeze” scheme to get rich.  I laughed; in true “Arrested” fashion, I’ll probably laugh more the second time I watch them.

But, even more than liking them, I appreciate that Hurwitz has tried something different. I think that’s almost noble in an entertainment age that seems built around franchises, and selling back to the audience what it already owns. You see that in films like “Star Trek Into Darkness,” which takes entire scenes and lines from an old “Star Trek” movie and repackages them for a new era. You see that in veteran bands, like the Rolling Stones or U2, who release new music that seems carefully crafted to sound just like their old music. All this rebooting and remaking can make for fine entertainment, but there’s always this nagging sense that we’re being pandered to a little.

In the hype leading up to the release of the “Arrested Development” episodes last Sunday, I was getting a little worried that the show would do that, use Season 4 as basically a victory lap of callbacks and “There’s always money in the banana stand” signifiers that served only to keep the franchises going, make the diehard fans feel clever and satisfied. However successful it ends up being, this season isn’t pandering to the faithful. It assumes that if you liked a show as groundbreaking as “Arrested Development” was on television, you would like to see it continue to break ground.