The series, narrated by Ron Howard, follows the Bluths, a formerly wealthy, dysfunctional family, who made their money from property development. The Bluth family consists of Michael, his twin sister Lindsay, his older brother Gob, his younger brother Buster, their mother Lucille and father George Sr., as well as Michael's son George Michael, and Lindsay and her husband Tobias' daughter Maeby. In the episode, Lucille feels unloved by her children and attempts to pin her car accident on an amnesiac Michael. Buster begins a relationship with Lucille Austero, and Lindsay is unpleasantly surprised when she finally visits her father in prison.
Plot
Michael (Jason Bateman), fed up with his mother Lucille's (Jessica Walter) extravagant spending, says she cannot throw a lavish birthday party for herself. But when Lindsay (Portia de Rossi), prompted by Lucille, suggests a surprise party, Michael agrees on the condition that Lindsay visit George Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor) in prison. At the prison, no one notices Lindsay, so she goes shopping for an outfit to wear for the next day's visit. Meanwhile, George Michael (Michael Cera) finally starts to overcome his crush on Maeby (Alia Shawkat) as they sneak into an R-rated movie, but a trailer plays for a French movie about love between two cousins called Les Cousins Dangereux, so he decides to get a fake ID from Gob (Will Arnett) so he and Maeby can see the movie.
Meanwhile, Michael drives Lucille to her surprise party, but nobody else shows up. Lucille is hurt, so Michael arranges a second surprise party, insisting that all his siblings be there. When no one shows up for that one either, Michael and Lucille bond, both feeling unappreciated by their family. Feeling sorry for her, Michael lets Lucille drive, even though her license has been revoked for multiple accidents and reckless driving. When Lucille sees a man riding a segway, she assumes it is Gob and decides to "give him a scare." Lucille crashes the car and drags an unconscious Michael into the driver's seat so that she won't be blamed. Michael had hit his head on the giant rock Buster (Tony Hale) had left in the backseat and suffers short-term memory loss. Worried that Michael will regain his memory of the accident, Lucille insists that he recover in her apartment and bribes their family doctor to give him fentanyl, which Lucille says is children's aspirin.
Next door, Buster, who is secretly dating Lucille Austero, also gets injured when, from Austero's balcony, he spies his mother on her own balcony and jumps through the window to get out of sight. Meanwhile, George Michael tells Gob about Michael's accident while asking for the fake IDs, and Gob decides to take the family yacht to South America for the summer. Lindsay continues to visit George Sr. in prison and grows increasingly frustrated that none of the inmates take note of her sexy outfits. On her third visit, George Sr. begs her to stop, revealing that he has been paying off the inmates with gold Krugerrands to behave in Lindsay's presence, but her repeated visits are bankrupting him. Michael remembers seeing "Gob" on the road and trying to scare him, but still thinks that he was the one behind the wheel, believing his motivation was because of his affection for Marta (Patricia Velásquez). Feeling guilty, he calls his brother and tells him he can live on the yacht. Gob realizes that Michael has been duped by Lucille and cancels his escape plans. With Gob's help, Michael remembers the truth, and they confront Lucille, who admits her guilt and says that she was afraid of losing Michael's new-found respect and admiration.
On the next Arrested Development...
George Michael and Maeby attempt to watch Les Cousins Dangereux while Buster and Lucille Austero also try to watch it, and Michael rear ends Gob.
Production
A bandaged Jason Bateman (pictured) was interviewed while on set.
"My Mother, the Car" was directed by Jay Chandrasekhar and written by supervising producer Chuck Martin.[2] It was the seventh episode of the ordered season to be filmed following the pilot.[3]
The episode was filmed sometime in early-mid October, 2003. The episode contains Liza Minnelli's fourth appearance on Arrested Development as Lucille Austero.[4] While filming a scene in a jail cell on October 26, Jason Bateman, suited with a bandage, was interviewed by SFGate's Hugh Hart. He discussed the episode's narrative at that point, and revealed he was waiting for Minelli to finish shooting her cameo scene before he would shot his own scene.[5] The episode's title references the 1960s NBC sitcom My Mother the Car, which revolves around a mother becoming reincarnated after death into a car.[6] "My Mother, the Car" was first released on home video in the United States on October 19, 2004, in the Complete First Season DVD box set.[7]
Themes and analysis
Author Judy Kutulas notes that the episode's humor revolves heavily around having a bad mother, and the audience's takeaway of it depends on their own view of motherhood; the episode doesn't focus on potentially alienating certain viewers and instead develops unconventional inclusivity for poorly-mannered mothers, something the majority of sitcoms do not do.[8] It also explores the taboo topic of sexuality in prison settings through the scenes of Lindsay flirting with the inmates while wearing scandalous outfits. It showcases how barbaric prisoners will get when being deprived of sex for so long, having to take bribes from George Sr. just to not sexually assault Lindsay; and, by having them not go through with the harassment, challenges the notion that prisoners are inherently dangerous, being able to control themselves in tempting situations.[9]
Reception
Viewers
In the United States, the episode was watched by 6.42 million viewers on its original broadcast, making it the 74th most watched broadcast of the week, behind Threat Matrix by 0.05 million, and ahead of America's Most Wanted by 0.14.[10]
Critical reception
The A.V. Club writer Noel Murray called the episode "something of an oddity for Arrested Development", but saying it's "funny enough".[11] In 2019, Brian Tallerico from Vulture ranked the episode 33rd out of the whole series, calling it the "first Arrested Development episode that isn’t utterly fantastic".[12]
Notes
↑The episode is listed as the seventh episode of the season on the DVD collection,[1] but originally aired as the eighth episode.
References
↑"DVD Talk". www.dvdtalk.com. Archived from the original on November 28, 2023. Retrieved July 7, 2024.
Schechter, Scott (2004). The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook. Kensington Publishing Corporation. ISBN9780806526119.
Ames, Melissa (2012). Time in Television Narrative: Exploring Temporality in Twenty-First Century Programming. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN9781626744509.
Kutulas, Judy (2023). Sitcom Mom: The Evolution of a Classic Television Character. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN9781666934656.
O'Donnell, Aislinn (2014). Philosophy Imprisoned: The Love of Wisdom in the Age of Mass Incarceration. Lexington Books. ISBN9780739189481.
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