Arrested Development Metatextual Elements

 

Arrested Development has several elements of metatextuality. The first element is the narration style. The narrator is Ron Howard, also known for The Andy Griffith Show, Curious George and The Twilight Zone, to name a few. The narrator explains to the audience what's going on in the show, discusses each family member's role in the family as well as their feelings, and even comments on his own role in the show. In the episode "Spring Breakout" the narrator comments on narration that is not his own, and calls it "real shoddy narrating," as compared to his own narrating. The clip for this part is labeled as the narration clip.

Another element of metatextuality is that the characters occasionally address the audience itself, recognizing themselves as characters in a show. There is a moment in the pilot episode where the mother looks directly at the camera and talks to the audience. There is also a clip for this under "I don't care for Gob." The eye contact in Arrested Development is quite different from eye contact in other mockumentaries. There is no typical interview room where the characters address the cameras directly because they're supposed to. The audience gets very little interaction between the cameras and the characters. This makes it that much more noticeable when the characters do address the cameras. The use of the camera in this show is also very metatextual, and also uses the style we recognize as most often used for mockumentaries. The cameras follow the characters very closely, the characters talk to the cameras, and it's not as smooth as normal tv show or movie filming technique.