Low Price Pilot

Review of whole series not just one episode.

Lots of Americans grew up in family businesses. I was one of them and I think running your own business does build a certain kind of insanity through the family. No one epitomizes this better than the beleaguered Bluth family. Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) is that one sane one whereas his mother, his brothers, his sister, et al, swirl around him pursuing their own best interests (never anyone else's best interests and certainly not the family business's best interest). Ron Howard who produced the show also narrates it and does a wonderful job of it. The business is tanking in the wake of the senior Bluth's (the pater familias) financial wrongdoing within the firm.

The biggest discovery for me on this show was Michael's lothario older brother played by Will Arnett. I have been tuning in Will Arnett ever since this show and he is funny in everything I see. I had never seen him before this show. Most recently I saw him vie with Alec Baldwin's Jack on 30 ROCK for NBC's CEO position. He played a gay corporate type to perfection.

I loved Jeffrey Tambor on LARRY SANDERS so was glad to see him playing the pater familias and his twin brother Oscar. Tambor always brings a level of inept smarminess to his semi villainous characters. They don't ever quite make it to being villains because he is always shooting himself in the foot as he tries to pull off a nefarious act. His character is in prison in this series and he is particularly self absorbed yet bumbling from there. if the father is smarmy, the mother, played by Jessica Walter, is the ultimate as the matriarch with a thousand schemes afoot, all to promote her own best interests. She takes manipulative to a whole new level.

Portia DeRossi plays Michael's greedy twin sister. She is good but it is her sexually waffling husband (David Cross) who is the character to watch. One of his many baffling but hilarious acts is to leave his career as a psychiatrist to become an actor.

This was a very funny show which I totally enjoyed. HBO did it again, of course.
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