American sitcoms are often a drag for me. I love my comedy, and therefore I love my sitcom. But I feel as though Brits have more interesting and unique ways of making sitcoms, just take Graham Linehan's Father Ted and The IT Crowd, two shows that are so incredibly ridiculous, literal and bizarre, but still so grounded. In terms of American sitcoms, South Park and Community have always been firm favourites of mine, but that's amongst all of the crap such as The Big Bang Theory and, don't kill me, Friends. But ever so recently I discovered something else. A spontaneous pick on Netflix gave me one of the most different and maddening sitcoms out there, it's Arrested Development.

What Arrested Development does right is how it is styled. Very reminiscent to the style of Community, it's editing is something that stands out the most and does something different to your average sitcom. That's helped by the great Ron Howard who narrates the show. And it works incredibly well, he acts as if he is the laugh track of the show, the thing that tells you when to laugh, and in a good way. The meta-ness of this show is impeccable, with the long break between season's 3+4 really aged Michael Cera, and this is addressed by G.O.B in a genius way as 4 starts straight after 3, saying that George Michael's time out at sea (less than a day) really aged him. But there are plenty of laughs to have from the actual series. Running jokes are a big thing in Arrested Development and while many will not like repetition, this feels natural here. Jokes such as 'sad walk off' or the 'Mr F' soundbite is genius. Why? Because they give you the same joke, but in different contexts, spread across the series. You're bound to forget about a funny throw away joke but out of nowhere it'll come back a few episodes later totally different, and will make you ache with laugher. It's repurposing of humour, which is really different to anything sitcom or film I've seen, if really fresh and unique.

The characters themselves are all arseholes, they all have their demons, faults and selfish attributes. They betray and go behind eachother's backs all the time, but that's what makes them so loveable, Forget the Trump's, the Bluth's are the most hated family in America, and the show makes it easy for you to not like them, yet still have some sympathy for them. It makes them distinct. Buster is incredibly annoying and over exaggerated as a human being yet you really feel for him and his mother's control over him. Lindsey is a nasty piece of work and neglects her husband and daughter yet you can easily feel for her as Tobias isn't great husband material... but at the same time you really have to feel bad for Tobias for his loneliness and insecurities. As well as a comedy, Arrested Development really can hit you hard and make you appreciate your family more than you already do. Perhaps that's why Michael has to keep them altogether.

If you have Netflix, get this show watched. It's plots, comedy and unique scope really define this as one of the most revolutionary sitcoms out there. With the first half of Season 5 out now, there isn't a better time to do it. But remember, there's always money in the banana stand.