This marks my 500th review and, as I often do with these milestones, opted to take the occasion to write on another episode of Arrested Development. Everyone Gets Atrophy comes in the fifth season and shines with many of the hallmarks that make AD so great. This starts with the title, which as usual has a few different meanings, obviously working in "atrophy" but also referring to the family's meaningless (self-awarded) trophy and GOB being left out in Everyone Gets a Trophy days. The episode follows along those lines and is packed with jokes- GOB channels Tobias in referring to his girlfriend as his "beard now"; the real John Beard's rising polls; Tobias going in and out of Michael. And there's some in-jokes, with Ron Howard referencing his movie Solo (which was pretty awful, but oh well). To the dialogue the show maintains its physical humour, with Michael ducking George Michael.
It's great to see the characters back together again after season 4. It speaks to the greatness of the show that Portia de Rossi, though officially retired, returned for a few episodes including this one, bless her. It's a real shame Alia Shawkat indicated she wouldn't be coming back for season 6, though she said she's proud of the work she's done on AD.
This episode also moves AD into the Trump era; in season 4 they foresaw the maniacal Mexican border wall promise and in season 5 began capitalizing on this. GOB's "Cry me a blizzard, snowflake" is brilliant; the Mexicans' response "I rape, and I murder, and I joke" is spot on, and the mimicking of Trump's 2016 gaffes is handled fine enough. AD began in an era of George W. Bush, Iraq and Enron, and as the US is back under the leadership of that party, which has only gone farther off the deep end, the show is attempting to keep up the pace.
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