And it was... Arrested Development.

Haven't gotten a chance before today to say this, but wow. If this was the end of AD, what a phenominal way to go out. FOX can screw around with the show as much as it wants (part of me thinks the higher ups have a serious hate-on for the show and simply enjoy jerking it around) and it still brings the funny right up until the very end (Showtime...).

Two solid hours of undoubtedly the best comedy on television were enough to get me to skip the Olympic opening ceremonies (repeat anyways; CBC aired them live in the afternoon anyways) and anything else on that night. From the return of Franklin ("My name is Juuuuuuudge") to Lindsay being adopted ("I'm just not into older women...") to Lucille being the puppetmaster behind George Sr., if it was really the end it went out better than I could have ever expected. And if by some chance it manages to survive and moves to another network, so much the better.

Now people have complained that if it moves that it won't be the same show considering how it all wrapped up, but think about it... season one was all about George in prison and the finances frozen... they changed the whole premise in season two with George on the lam and the financial assets being unfrozen... and changed it again in season three with George under house arrest in the apartment, but essentially back with the family awaiting the trial. So what's different this time? I assume Lucille would be the one in jail or house arrest, the family still has legal woes except it's George who's free (and now established as not the brilliant mastermind, but the pawn).

As far as the Bluth Company being sold to Sitwell, meh. It was a legal agreement at best before the police showed up, and more Ed Begley Jr. = more funny. Gee, before AD who ever thought they'd be able to say that? Part of the brillance of AD was how the show evolved over time... does anyone really think the show would have remained as brilliant if George Sr. had simply stayed in prison for three seasons? Of course not. They used it as a plot device as much as they could have, then moved on to better situations.

The bottom line is this... if AD is over with, I'm satisfied with the way they finished out and will be getting season three the day it comes out on DVD. If it lands on Showtime or ABC, it's still got a ton of mileage left.

"Maybe a movie." We can hope, Ron. We can hope.