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Netflix revs up the marketing machine with 'Arrested Development' easter eggs

Netflix revs up the marketing machine with 'Arrested Development' easter eggs

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Arrested Development 650
Arrested Development 650

Netflix recently announced that 14 new episodes of Arrested Development would be debuting this May, and the company has started several marketing campaigns worthy of the Bluth family name to help build anticipation. Searching for the word "blue" on Netflix's website will turn up a strange blue handprint on the side of the screen — a reference to the season two episode, "The One Where Michael Leaves." Clicking on the handprint will launch Netflix's video player, queued up to the exact scene in that episode where Jason Bateman's character runs into a series of the blue palm prints himself.

The new gag joins an assortment of fake streaming titles already present in Netflix's library — with titles like Les Cousins Dangereux and Families with Low Self Esteem — all of which purport to be about members of the Arrested Development cast, or are somehow connected to the program. It's a playful bit of promotion that has us thinking Netflix knows exactly what sense of humor fans of the show are looking for; we can't wait for the new episodes to find out if we're right.