Stan was this guy who drove his car off a cliff because he couldn’t take it anymore. Well, he was an imaginary guy that rapper Eminem dreamed up, in a song called ‘Stan’ (2000). It alternates in perspective between Eminem, the celebrity and Stan, the obsessive fan. Anyway, today the word “stan” has its own official meaning: an overzealous or obsessive fan of a particular celebrity. Stan culture is a real thing.
Well, it’s always been; fans have since forever been obsessive and nutty. But the Internet gives them a voice. It lets them articulate the very special relationship that exists between the creator of a work and the people that admire it. It lets them vent, it lets them air their concerns when something seems off. And, most recently, it lets them alter the course of history.
See, Arrested Development is back. It used to be an American sitcom about a feckless, privileged, dysfunctional family: the Bluths. I used to love it. It was a show for intelligent people — self-professed, anyway. The kind of people who suffer from a superiority complex; the kind that smirk at what the so-called masses enjoy; the kind that gets just a bit fanatical about something they enjoy. In its original three-season run on U.S. TV beginning 2003, the show had a cult following and was adored by critics. It had callbacks, self-referential jokes, complicated wordplay, gag after gag crammed in the 22-minute format. And it did it really well. There was a lot of what you’d call mature, intelligent humour. And just as much goofy slapstick. There are scores of websites dedicated to unboxing even the tiniest visual gag or joke the show made. But it didn’t do well commercially, so it was abruptly cancelled.
For years, its fans begged anyone who’d listen to bring the show back. And someone did listen. In 2013, Arrested Development returned in a new format on Netflix: 15 episodes released together. It drifted from its original plot, choosing instead to focus each episode on one cast member, returning to plot points and events through multiple perspectives, jumping back and forth in time. The reaction was mixed (code for: people hated it). It was ambitious and often exquisite, but it strayed from the stylings that had defined the first three seasons.
The show has always had a strong connect with its manic supporter base; the earlier seasons had considerable fan service, to the point where new viewers would almost be lost if they joined in late. And last week, creator Mitchell Hurwitz put out a statement that there was a fifth season on the way, one that would return to its original roots.
That’s not all. He wrote that he’s also been working on a re-edited version of the fourth season. Called Remix , he announced that it would release on May 4 on Netflix, and would follow a chronological structure and be more familiar to past viewers. (I haven’t watched it yet because — obviously — it’s not out in India yet.)
When’s the end?
This begs a loaded question: When is a work of art finished? Is it ever? Or is it always a work in progress? These days, just about everything has an online version. And the Internet is a fluid operation. Anything can appear or disappear with a click. Anyone can course-correct and modify their past works just because they’re in a different place now. This is something I’ve been tortured with for a while. Musicians have the option of reworking songs they don’t like on streaming platforms. A lot of websites alter bits and pieces of old articles to capitalise on a hot-button topic, sometimes without even a disclosure. And now, one of my favourite TV show creators has decided that he doesn’t like an entire season he made, so he’s changed it around. I don’t exactly mind it, but it does make me question ideas I previously thought were set in stone.
Not worth it
There’s another angle: the fans. Clearly the opinion of the fans has affected the creators to the point where they were left questioning their past works. I for one didn’t hate the fourth season enough to want to erase it from my memory. But many did. And they’re getting their wish. I feel I’d much rather artists moved forward instead of reevaluating and revising existing works. Arrested Development has always come from a point of firm conviction and complete self-confidence, so it doesn’t really apply here, but what of less self-assured artists who get swayed by what fans have to say? It’s a slippery slope.
But again, that’s not my call to make; the motivations and drive of an artist are truly her own. And hey, at least it’s not like in India, aka Opposite World, where we fight and moan and beat up people to get a movie pulled off the screen, instead of the reverse.
