Formative Performances: Jessica Walter in “Arrested Development”

[Women’s History Month, Day 8]

I can’t believe it’s taken me eight days to acknowledge one of the best female villains in television history. She’s a villain of a comic nature, the worst human being on a show filled with terrible human beings, and so fabulous that I kind of want to be her when I grow up, even though she represents so many things that I hate. Let’s give a round of applause for Jessica Walter as Lucille Bluth on Arrested Development.

I don’t really know what to write about her performance. It’s the kind of comic acting that almost defies description. She deserves all the Emmys for everything ever. When I watch Jessica Walter, I can tell she’s just having a blast playing such a fabulously awful person, and I appreciate that, while she occasionally shows a glimpse of humanity in Lucille, those moments are few and far between. The role as written is something that any actress would give her left arm to play, and she’s so good that you forget her dialogue is written by a team of writers at all. That’s one of the highest compliments I can give to an actor, and she deserves it.