Meh, Michael was never really that sane or responsible. He's always been just as selfish, cruel and incompetent as the rest of the family. He's a really bad father, he lies as often as the rest of the family, he stole his brother's girlfriend, and let's remember his first acts upon becoming president of the Bluth were buying a box full of whistles and a worthless lemon grove. Season 4 Michael is just the natural progression of his character when he no longer has the sense of superiority that comes from thinking he's taking care of his family.
Yea, you're right. I suppose I didn't put it correctly. I'm not sure what it is but his characterization doesn't feel right to me. I still had some sense that in the first three seasons he was the "straight man" character to the rest of the family, as much of an ass as he might have been.
And while I do think the individualized episodes ultimately worked pretty well, one of the series' original strengths was the chemistry and interplay between all the characters, which there's a lot less of this season. Hopefully if they do a season 5 they'll be able to schedule it better so that all the actors can take part together.
I agree, although from what I gather this is the last "season" and they plan on making a movie to cap it off. The chemistry and ability of the actors to work off each other really was what made it work.
I'd be interested to see how these storylines would work re-edited into conventional episodes out of curiosity. Obviously a lot would be lost but it would be interesting.
