a little more juju

I feel like Justine Bateman’s Nellie is my favorite guest star because of how apropos and meta her casting was, just a pristine example of the type of comedy that Arrested Development was known for: obviously she’s actually Jason Bateman’s IRL sister (although not Michael Bluth’s), and she starred in a 1980s sitcom, Family Ties (from which the title of this season 3 episode comes). It also doesn’t hurt that Bateman’s performance was absolutely perfect and hilarious.

Usually comedic situations based on misunderstandings are pretty hit-or-miss for me, but in this case, I loved watching Michael be completely unaware that Nellie was actually a prostitute – despite all the signs – while everyone else was reaping the “benefits” of having a conslutant on staff at the Bluth Company. The best part, though, is the reveal that she couldn’t be a Bluth because she was actually an honest person, taking money to pay the employees she’d been servicing for however long.

It’s characters like these, even if they’re one-shots, that kept bringing me back to Arrested Development. The concepts were witty, and the actors hired to play them were often inspired (see: Mae Whitman as Ann, Carl Weathers as Himself, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Maggie Lizer, and so many others) – and Justine Bateman is definitely the best of these.