Arrested Development: Season 1, Episode 15 "Staff Infection"

Arrested Development: Season 1, Episode 15 "Staff Infection"

March 14, 2004


This fifteenth episode in the first season of Arrested Development, while not a classic, remains a very funny and engaging episode. There is much to enjoy here in the episode. The two character standouts are Buster and Tobias. Buster basically is given work at the construction site for the Bluth Company and is amazed by all the men cursing around him. Plus we learn in a very satisfying flashback that Buster is afraid of sheep due to a terrifying incident in Catalina. Tobias, on the other hand, decides to check himself in a prison for acting research-the same prison as George Sr’s. It’s a funny thing that sheep plays to the overall theme of the episode. In addition to Buster’s childhood fright, Buster is called Bob which sounds like “baa”, the workers of the Bluth Company are herded around like sheep by a person of authority, and their company bus is named “The Good Shepherd.” It’s an interesting theme and one that I think can be a little overbearing at times.



In this episode, “Staff Infection,” the main story has Michael being angry that the entire Bluth family has earnings from the company, but no work to show for it. So he decides to have his family work for the money. He has Lindsay as his new secretary and puts both GOB and Buster on the construction site. Tobias, in his research for the role of frightened inmate number two, heads to the same prison as George Sr.



Other good things to mention are Michael’s cruelty to his employees (“take a three, not a five”), Lindsay creating dissension among the staff, GOB and Buster’s continued sibling rivalry (that famed chicken dance), Lucille taking a membership where she receives a bunch of bulk goods but has no one to help her so she has to look up past employees, and Tobias tries to have sex with Lindsay as a way to frighten him. Oh, and we get James Lipton as the prison warden! The episode is not as memorable as previous episodes, but this is still a fine episode.



My Grade: A-

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