Cult sitcom Arrested Development, which returned to screens in 2013 on Netflix almost a decade after its cancellation, is rumoured to be returning to the streaming service with another 17 episodes, and it sounds as bizarre and surprising as fans of the show could expect it to be.
Creator Mitch Hurwitz has revealed that while none of the episodes has yet been written, the sprawling outline and arc of season five has been completed and that it will take the form of a serialised murder mystery in the vein of Netflix mammoth hit Making a Murderer or HBO’s The Jinx. Viewers will now be teased on the mystery that took place at the end of the show’s up-and-down fourth season, which culminated with Buster Bluth (Tony Hall) being arrested for the murder of his on-again-off-again love interest Lucille Austero (Liza Minnelli).
Arrested Development has always poked fun at TV tropes, and now the Hurwitz says he wants the new season to skewer the popularity of true crime whodunits.
Production on the show’s new season has yet to begin, but IndieWire is reporting that the aim is to bring the show to screens by November’s US Presidential election. This is due to the fact that the fourth season also ended with Lindsay Bluth (Portia de Rossi) mounting a political campaign as a Republican candidate, after garnering huge support from voters for her plans to erect a wall to stop Mexican immigrants crossing into California – a lynchpin in Republican hopeful Donald Trump’s election manifesto.
Netflix is hoping to capitalise on its previous successes with its own programming, with more than 30 original shows scheduled to debut during the next 12 months. The streaming giant lead the nominations at this year's Golden Globes, with a total of nine for six of its shows, although it failed to win in any of the categories.
Hurwitz and Arrested Development star Will Arnett already have a show in production, with Flaked expected to debut in the summertime. Flaked tells the story of a self-help guru whose web of lies begins to unravel, and who must work to keep ahead of the stories he’s fabricated.
