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‘Arrested Development’ on Netflix: ‘Kinda brilliant’

Posted at 4:04 PM, Apr 30, 2013
and last updated 2013-04-30 18:04:39-04

By Breeanna Hare, CNN.

(CNN) — At the premiere of the new “Arrested Development” season on Monday, the mood was so festive that star Jeffrey Tambor joked, “I’m like at my own bar mitzvah.”

“We have not seen each other for a while, and when this group gets together, they get very excited,” the actor told CNN, and it was true – Jessica Walter stopped mid-sentence to embrace co-star Tony Hale, later explaining after they’d caught up a bit, “I love my Tony.”

The cast behaves as though it’s still 2006, and in a way, that’s what the new show feels like as well, Walter said.

“It’s thrilling, because the writing has been so brilliant, and it’s as if seven years never went by – which is nice, when you’re my age,” she joked. “It was surreal, the first time we got back together. I think fans are going to be thrilled. When I read the scripts – about which we can’t say anything – I was blown away.”

Portia de Rossi agreed, saying that “it feels like time has kind of collapsed … I was surprised at how similar [the Netflix episodes] looked and felt, and although we’re all older we just kind of fell right in step and it looks the same.”

“Arrested Development,” she continued, “was such an amazing show to be a part of back then, and because there’s been so much interest and there’s a huge fan-base, I’m just happy to make more episodes for the fans. … It’s most likely going to be funny, and kind of brilliant.”

All 15 new episodes will be available on Netflix on May 26, and star Jason Bateman said fans should still hold out hope for a movie.

“The movie is not written nor is there a deal yet for it, but [creator] Mitch [Hurwitz] has a whole story worked out,” Bateman said. “It’s a three-act story that was too big to put in the feature, so we put the first act in these episodes and the movie would be act two and three.”

CNN’s Tresha Lindo contributed to this report.
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