For three seasons, a comedy called Arrested Development ran on Fox. It was funny, innovative and featured a prodigiously talented cast — transforming Jason Bateman’s career and launching those of Michael Cera and Alia Shawkat. After its 2006 cancellation, it returned with two seasons on Netflix — one airing in 2013 and one airing beginning in 2018 — which were not as well-received.
Now, Arrested Development is making another departure — this time from Netflix. And, as Variety reports, this won’t just cover the three seasons that debuted on Fox. All five seasons will be made unavailable on the service, before presumably winding up somewhere else before long. That’s set to take place on March 15 of this year.
What’s especially notable about this decision, Variety notes, is that this would be the first time Netflix followed the lead of other streamers and took down seasons of a show that it had produced. Its rights to the first three seasons of Arrested Development are not exclusive — you can also see those episodes on Hulu. The complete series, however, has only been available in one place.
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The streaming service lost 200,000 subscribers in Q1 this yearThe fact that the fourth season of Arrested Development debuted in the spring of 2013 — which is a mind-boggling thing to type — might have something to do with the timing of this. Until then, however, fans of the show will be keeping track of the final countdown until it leaves the service.
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