Tuesday January 24, 2006 arts. michigandaily. com artseditor@michigandaily.com RETSichigattilg A 8 STRONG AND FEISTY Please save our Bluths 4 it's a little too early to bemoan the probable fate of the brilliant com- edy "Arrested Development," but its demise looks imminent. Nine episodes were cut, it was held from airing during sweeps and Fox is burning off the four last episodes on a random Friday night in February. But unlike nearly everyone else, I don't think the network is CANADIAN ARTIST BRINGS INDIE ROCK TO THE BLIND PIG By Lloyd Cargo Daily Arts Editor CONCERT P R EV e bEW Leslie Feist has never been the type to stay in one completely to blame. Sure, Fox failed to put full promotional muscle behind the show at first or give it the best time slots. And yes, its episode order was cut two seasons running. But that's not the whole story. Let's get this out of the way. "Arrested Develop- ment" is great. It completely eschewed the sitcom for- mula and created something ADi ROTTE place for very long. She's per- formed everything from punk to folk all while touring con- stantly in her native Canada, the United States and Europe. Tonight at the Blind Pig she begins the stateside leg of her North American tour, support- Feist with Jason Collett Tuesday at 8 p.m. At the Blind Pig ed by Broken Social Scene bandmate and fellow Toronto scenester Jason Collett. Feist, a Calgary native, got her start playing in punk-rock group Placebo (not the British alt-rock group). True to her D.I.Y. spirit she spent almost five years touring nonstop, straining her voice to the point where she was told she might never sing another note. Subsequently, Feist moved to Toronto to play guitar for By Divine Right, where she met future Broken Social Scene member Brendan Canning. In her downtime between opening for some of Canada's leading bands with By Divine Right, she found time to record her first solo album and move in with electroclash/trash queen Peaches. She con- tributed vocals to Peaches' debut album Teaches of Peaches, and not long after joined the burgeon- ing supergroup Broken Social Scene just in time for their acclaimed sophomore effort, You Forgot It in People. Riding the wave of attention lapped onto the Toronto indie-rock scene exposed by Broken Social Scene, Feist released her own critically-hailed sophomore effort, Let it Die, in 2004, and com- pleted her transformation from punk rocker to indie chanteuse. Collett hasn't enjoyed quite the same level of success as Feist, but Broken Social Scene has Courtesy of Arts & Crafts truly original. It even gets better with each viewing as its quick-wit- ted humor can often be quite subtle and awfully self-referential. After paltry ratings in its first season, Fox could have given the series the axe. But it stood behind one of its few critical successes, ordering a full second season. Midway through that second year, when it was clear that "Arrested" couldn't increase viewership in spite of rave reviews and a shiny Emmy for Best Comedy Series, Fox decided to cut its losses and trimmed the number of episodes by four. Things looked bleak for the series, and rightfully so. Fox had already given the show a reprieve once. Why should they do it again? But Fox brought "Arrested" back a third time - and even gave it a full sea- son pickup. This newfound support would be short-lived, however, as the ratings on its new Monday timeslot were putrid at best. So now Fox cuts episodes again, leaves the show in limbo and chooses to air the remaining episodes after sweeps. Despite well-deserved critical acclaim and numerous awards, the show still can't. find an audience. Simply, no one watches it - at least not in the numbers that would warrant network support. Television is a business and Fox loses money by invest- ing in "Arrested Development." If you watched it, Fox would keep airing it. But that doesn't mean things are defi- nitely over for the show. Showtime and ABC have both expressed interest in pick- ing it up - and it's not like Fox was the right place for a bright, witty sitcom. After all, this is the network associated with drivel like "Joe Millionaire," rather than Emmy-winning comedies. Showtime could really use the show's critical clout to bolster subscriptions and ABC is in dire need of a comedy hit not named "Accord- ing to Jim" (sorry, "Desperate House- wives" is NOT a comedy). OK, I've defended Fox enough. This is the same net- work that has destroyed more good shows than I care to recount. With the exception of "The Simpsons" and "24," Fox has done little to cultivate innovative programming. It simply searches for the lowest common denominator and exploits it. What is it replac- AM ing "Arrested Development" NBERG with during its hiatus? Why, "Skating with Celebrities." If you're unfamiliar with the concept, Fox is attempting to rip off ABC's success- ful "Dancing with the Stars" by putting it on ice. Hire some D-list "celebrities" and you've got a hit, and if that's what you want, so be it. But don't come crying when your network gets completely overlooked come awards season. I still think Fox should have given "Arrested" yet another chance. I know many people who only recently discov- ered it, thanks to the DVD box sets. The series is almost syndication-ready at 53 episodes (100 used to be the magic num- ber, but now it's closer to 80), which means more potential revenue. Another season and it's practically there. Even "Seinfeld" struggled to garner ratings in its early years, only taking off after NBC moved it to Thursdays with monster-hit "Cheers." Fox's only show with ratings anywhere near Seinfeld is "American Idol" Regardless, Fox should rethink its "Arrested Development" strategy. At the very least, it should keep the show sim- ply to help repair its image. Show Fox how wrong it is by watching those final four episodes on Feb. 10.I urge you to try and "Save our Bluths" as the last new epi- sode so eloquently stated. Any show that can poke fun at its own network standing deserves to be saved. -Rottenberg has Tivo'd every episode of "Skating with Celebrities." Share his love atarotten@umich.edu. Indie chick - the hot version. similarly provided him a platform for his solo musings. His third effort, Idols of Exile, already released in Canada, comes out stateside Feb. 2, and finds the singer-songwriter collaborating with his famous friends, including members of Broken Social Scene (Brendan Canning, Kevin Drew, and Justin Peroff,) Metric (Emily Haines and James Shaw,) Stars (Amy Millian and Evan Cranley,) Apostle of Hustle (Andrew Whiteman and Julian Brown) Do Make Say Think (Charles Spearin) and Feist herself. "It's all sort of part of the family that is the Bro- ken Social Scene," Collett said. "It's a scene that some musical release started because so many of us turned our backs on the industry and stopped trying to calculate how to get a record deal and just started to make music for each other." "I think all the best art always gets created that way because what happens is by accident and without intention," Collett said. "So it was only natural for me to ask my friends to come play on my record." Collett also looks forward to touring with Feist again. "Leslie is a spit-fire. I've known her for a long time and she's just great to play with," he said. Expect a raucous set where the line between opener and headliner is blurred. "In typical Toronto fashion she, and her band, play all over my set and me," Collett explained, "and my band will play all over hers." m . _ .,