The fourth season of Arrested Development was released on Sunday and while reviews have been mixed I personally have loved every second that I've spent back with the Bluth family. That doesn't mean I think the new stuff is perfect but for a show that has been off the air for seven years I think they did a damn good job. I don't think the new season was ever going to be able to live up to the hype but overall I was pleased with the fourth season.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has said the show has met his hopes and in an interview on CNBC recently said that the company would be interested in more episodes of the show, if the cast is willing of course:
‘Arrested’ is unique, because that’s really up to the talent. If the talent were willing to do more, and interested in that, I”m sure we would be willing.
Obviously how many people streamed the new season is a big part of why they are interested in doing more episodes. I'm very interested in seeing some raw data on their viewers but it turns out that the company isn't going to be releasing detailed information on their ratings anytime soon and there is a reason for that:
The reason we’re not doing ratings is because we really want to focus on over the first year. That we're really not trying to get people to all watch it the first day something comes out. Netflix is about being able to watch when you want, not having to watch at a certain time like linear TV is. So we’re really not focused on the Day One ratings, it’s really over the first year.
Rolling Stone has learned though that the network monitoring company Procera is reporting that 1 in 10 viewers have already watched the entire new season and 36% of one service provider's users watched at least some of the episodes. Pretty decent numbers I'd say.
I'd be thrilled with more episodes especially with how they ended the season but like Hastings said it all depends on the cast. If not a new season I wouldn't be surprised if Netflix decided to go with the long rumored movie. Either way, just give me more Bluths.
