Posted on: January 24, 2012 Posted by: John B. Moore Comments: 0

Arrested Development, though admittedly an amazingly creative TV show that lasted a surprising three season on a network not exactly known for embracing originality, may have created far larger a hurdle for its stars that they ever could have imagine. Since the show went off the air, creator Mitch Hurwitz and his actors, separately and together, have failed to come up with a formula even remotely as successful as Arrested Development. Running Wilde; Sit Down, Shut Up; Better Off Ted… and now The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret have been very degrees of funny (ok, maybe not Sit Down, Shut Up), but simply wilt in comparison to Arrested Development.

The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret follows milquetoast Todd Margaret (Arrested Development’s David Cross) as an office temp who is mistakenly taken for a ball buster by his boss (played by yet another Arrested Development alum Will Arnett) and sent to London to run a two-man office selling a questionable energy drink. Margaret, having already built his new job on a lie, continues to collect more and more, until he is eventually charged with rape, child endangerment, desecrating a British war memorial and on and on.

Written and created by Cross the show definitely has its moments, but at times seems like it’s simply trying too hard to be odd and edgy. Season one was only six episodes long, so maybe it will grow into itself now that season two has already started to play out on IFC. If not, Cross, Arnett and everyone else from Arrested Development still have the soon-to-be filmed movie and additional episodes to look forward to.

The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret –Series 1/255 mins./MPI Home Video/2011

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