Arrested Development Season 4: Episode 12, Senoritis, Review
Did you know that it's illegal to go to high school past the age of 21? This may or may not actually be true, but Maeby sure does learn a lot in this episode...
By now in the new season of Arrested Development, things are really starting to pay off. All the seemingly bizarre little quirks and idiosyncrasies that have been scattered throughout the first eleven episodes are really starting to come to fruition. To this point, I don’t think any episode lets you in on as many jokes as “Señoritis.” The episode serves as Maeby’s starring vehicle, who thus far has been largely absent from the new season (still not as absent as Buster!). Always the sneakiest and most clever Bluth, Maeby has actually been serving behind the scenes in the new season in bigger ways than previously thought.Maeby, who was once the world’s youngest film executive, now seems to be one of the world’s oldest high school students. Right when Maeby was gearing up for graduation, Lindsey and Tobias were both compelled to travel to India. Feeling neglected once again and always looking for a way to get her parents to notice her, Maeby decides she’s just going to continue going to high school until someone says something. Unfortunately, that never really comes, and Maeby spends the next several years flunking her “senior year”.In this time, a vengeful Kitty ousts Maeby for being a too-young executive at Imagine. So it’s only perfect timing that Maeby visits George Michael’s college for math help right when George Michael is setting up his software, FakeBlock. After earning the lifetime achievement/kiss of death Opie Award, Maeby knows that FakeBlock is all she has, well, besides a few other schemes she has going. While finding investors, Maeby also whores out her mother to Herbert Love, when Love’s assistant hears Maeby refer to Lindsey as a whore at a bar. In the same bar, Maeby believes she sees her high school boyfriend Perfecto hitting it off with a bunch of cops. She believes him to be an undercover cop, and after a meeting with attorney Barry Zuckercorn who tells her that it’s illegal to attend high school after 21 (Maeby is now 23) she decides to sleep with Perfecto for leverage. All is going swimmingly for Maeby, that is until Cinco de Quatro. First, George Michael fires Maeby from FakeBlock for spending lots of investor money. Then, while at the festivities, Maeby learns that Herbert Love has ended the relationship with her mother, effectively killing her tenure as a pimp. And just to make matters worse, it turns out that Perfecto is not an undercover cop, just another 17 year old who is bad at math, and then the real undercover, Rocky Richter, arrests Maeby for child molestation. Hey, it must run in the family.Maeby’s episode was a fun, fast moving revolving door of previously set-up jokes. In the time since the show has been off the air Alia Shawkat has become an even better deadpan deliverer, and she brings a new emotional weight and sympathy to Maeby that has always been lurking but has never been realized like this. “Señoritis” is one of the season’s highlights and a great addition to the fourth season.The Best of the Rest:– Maeby uses the aliases “Maeby Flunke” and “Maeby Featherbottom” when continuing her high school career.– In India, Maeby poses as the shaman that tells Lindsey that she is “full of shit”.– Maeby is called an “algetard” by Donny/Rocky Richter.– Maeby tells Steve Holt that she used to date a guy named Steve Holt without realizing that it was Steve Holt. STEVE HOLT!– Maeby’s profanity laced acceptance speech at the Opie Awards is a reference to the recent sorority letter that has been making its rounds on the Internet.– “Gangie 4 Facelift” is actually a check for Maeby’s horror movie franchise.– Narrator: She had made a huge mi…. Maeby: No, I’m fine.– George Michael’s kissing technique is brutally torn apart.Den of Geek Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that’s your thing!
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Nick Harley is an entertainment journalist and alumnus of Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. Nick also works as a Senior Content Specialist for the…