Arrested Development Trolls the Internet with “Showstealer Pro Trial Version”

Arrested Development clips with the Showstealer Trial Version watermark

Series 4 of Arrested Development is probably the most highly anticipated television series in history after 20th Century Fox cut the show off before its time back in 2006. Netflix picked up the rights to produce another series in 2011, and today they released all the episodes to subscribers for streaming. But as people began to watch the episodes, the internet lit up with questions about the “Showstealer Pro Trial Version” watermarks that were appearing at times.

Noticing that the watermarks were only showing up on clips from the previous three series, some people thought that Netflix had been too cheap to pay for the rights

ah! any actual scenes from the original show come up "scene stealer pro trial version" cuz they don't "own" the rights?

— Jason Robinson (@videocrime) May 26, 2013

Whilst others were just straight up confused

Wtf. Show stealer pro trial version?????

— Blair's ADD (@blairs_add) May 26, 2013

https://twitter.com/phonicpod/statuses/338576960911470592

And the real reason why the new episodes of Arrested Development are showing the watermark on past clips? Trolling. Yes the folks behind Arrested Development are taking a swipe at the internet pirates amongst us all that have seen webrips of shows using software that adds watermarks to video if the ripper doesn’t pay for the “Pro” version. And being as Arrested Development found such a large new audience over the years form people watching pirated episodes of the show online, this is just about perfect.

As for the series itself, it is exactly what fans have been calling for for the last few years, it may appear and comically dense and filled with impenetrable in-jokes to newcomers, but for those willing to spend the time and commit to the series, the team is right back to its playful best.