‘Flaked’ Star Will Arnett Wanted To Do Something ‘A Little Bit Different’

To many, Will Arnett will always be Gob Bluth, the magician from Arrested Development, and fans often assume Arnett shares many of the same traits as the character. As Will debuts in Flaked, however, the comedian shows a darker, dryer side that he hopes will set him apart from that Arrested Development character.

Will Arnett Talks About Getting Flaked

Flaked isn’t going to be the laugh fest that long-time fans of Arnett might be expecting, and that’s okay. It was always going to be something atypical of Will Arnett’s past projects, but as Arnett serves as Flaked‘s co-writer and producer as well as star, the new Netflix series speaks very clearly with Will’s voice.

“I had this idea of this f—ed-up character and I wanted to do something stylistically that was a little bit different,” the Flaked showrunner explains. “I wanted to do a comedy that was a little bit dryer, where the jokes are much smaller.”

Also joining Flaked as executive producer is the Arrested Development series creator Mitch Hurwitz, who expresses his own pride in working with Arnett on this new series. He says that Arrested Development really underutilized Will’s acting talents, because of the limitations of working on a sitcom. Flaked will give Arnett a chance to explore a much wider range and enable him to exercise his dramatic acting skills.

Taking place in Venice, California, Flaked takes a critical look at southern California lifestyles, and while much of the behavior seen on Flaked may seem exaggerated for comedic purposes, Will says that’s not the case. The Flaked co-writer reveals that he has overheard conversations, as well as having been a part of encounters, in which people do talk the way that they do on the series.

Arnett says Flaked also takes a good, hard look at those traits, habits, and faults that we see mirrored in ourselves.

“[But] you don’t go too far down that path of criticism of others before you realize that what you don’t like in other people is what you don’t like about yourself.”

Flaked Star David Sullivan On Working With Will Arnett

Flaked stars Will Arnett as a self-help guru, who, as the series plot summary reads on IMDb, is in need of help, himself. Of course, someone like this is in need of a loyal, if not frustrated, best friend and David Sullivan fills that role in the character of Dennis.

Sullivan says he had an impression that Arnett was creating a great comedy with Flaked, but he says his first impression was off base. The Flaked actor says it’s not quite a comedy, but it’s not entirely drama either. Sullivan says the genius of Flaked is in the way it draws comedy from the drama.

“Will and I playing not necessarily likable people, and the fact that we’re aware of our flaws, it makes us human and the comedy is derivative of all the drama in our lives.”

As is typical with streaming services like Netflix, all eight episodes of Flaked‘s season 1 are available at once, making binge watching easily done. David says he forfeited sleep to binge watch all eight episodes of Flaked right after the series premiered. He adds that he’d forgotten the magic of what they had created with Flaked, because so much time had passed, since the Will Arnett series had been filmed.

Complimenting the writing and his fellow actors, Sullivan is already counting on a second season for Flaked. While the actor dismisses the reviews of critics, David says he’s much more apt to go by what the average viewer is saying and he says he’s already seeing positive reactions on social media.

“I know that there are fans out there because I have 50 more friends on Facebook this morning and 25 more Twitter followers so there are people out there that like it and that’s a bonus.”

Flaked, starring Will Arnett and David Sullivan, is available for streaming via Netflix.

[Image by Netflix]