In a world with 17 different shows about pawn shops and various methods of being people’s used shit for a living, it’s hard to believe that an alternative to basic cable would be so popular, but apparently it’s true. According to a new report, Netflix’s online traffic is up 35 percent since last year. My team of crack researchers have traced the bump to Kate Mara’s bewbs. …Wait, check that, it looks like they’ve just been tracing the bumps of Kate Mara’s boobs. My mistake.

Netflix continues to be the biggest hog of Internet bandwidth in North America, with its video traffic jumping more than 35% in March from a year earlier, according to a new study.
The video-subscription company accounted for roughly one-third (32.3%) of peak-period downstream traffic on fixed-line broadband networks in North America, about the same as last spring, an analysis by network equipment vendor Sandvine found.
YouTube’s video usage has surged at an even faster pace in the past year, now accounting for 17.1% of downstream Internet traffic in North America, up from 13.8% a year ago, according to Sandvine’s study.

So 13.8 up to 17.1 percent is a bigger bump than 35 percent… You know? I’m just going to assume that’s correct because I don’t want to try to remember math.

At the same time, overall average monthly consumption by broadband users in the region rose 39% year over year, to an aggregate mean of 44.7 gigabytes. That means Netflix’s overall data load increased in line with that because its share remained approximately the same and YouTube’s bandwidth growth would have exceeded that rate. (Sandvine doesn’t report data usage estimates by application in absolute terms.)

Ahhh, okay.

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Strap in, folks, we’ve got a massive haul in the poster department this week, starting with everyone’s favorite, Arrested Development. This brand new batch of AD posters features neither actors nor characters nor names of any kind, and instead cleverly focuses on the lifeblood of the Arrested Development phenomenon – insidery references to obscure plot points. Understanding them will make you feel like a part of a hip, exclusive club! Americana, minutia – call it Arrested Developmentia. I hear if you understand all the Arrested Development references in these, you can collect “bacon points” that can be redeemed for your exclusive Star Wars mash-up. #TheInternetExplained

ONLY 45 DAYS AWAY FROM THE PREMIERE OMG OMG OMG (*fans face with hand, pees pants, faints*)

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That’s right, kiddies, it’s a spy pic from the set of the Arrested Development movie/show (new episodes are set to hit Netflix in March in advance of the movie). An anonymous tipster sent in the picture, and the way the internet eats up anything (ANYTHING) AD related, I thought why not post it? Being the good internet know-it-alls you are, I’m sure you know all about the stair car and how it relates to the show, but just in case you don’t, there’s a whole goddamn wiki dedicated to Arrested Development and the stair car gets its own entry (I’d call it more of a stair truck, but what do I know).

The stair car is one of the few remaining modes of transport available to the Bluth family, and is frequently driven by Michael Bluth.

It was originally paired with the company jet, which was sold off to help deal with the company’s financial woes. It has a large Bluth Company logo on the side.

It has lead a notorious existence, knocking down homecoming banners, (“Queen for a Day“) helping inmates attempt to escape prison, (“Visiting Ours“) and letting people sneak to upstairs windows. (“Shock and Aww“).

I left part of it blurred out because it contains a possible spoiler, and one of the great ironies of the internet is that the same people who eat up every tiny morsel of information about the Arrested Development movie are the same who’d probably complain the loudest about “spoilers.” So, venture no further unless you don’t mind knowing what I imagine is a fairly minor story development. And let’s be honest, who watches a comedy show for the plot twists anyway?

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With Arrested Development set to hit Netflix this spring for 10 episodes leading up to the Arrested Development movie (I typed it twice for search purposes – CHA CHING!), the reunited cast put on some silly costumes and posed for Entertainment Weekly’s Reunions Issue. I love Arrested Development as much as the next guy, and I don’t want to dip my sweaty balls in the party punch or anything, but I’d recommend enjoying these stills and bathing in the warmth of your own nostalgia while you still can, because there’s no way the eventual movie is going to live up to eight years of internet hype. Even loving bacon gets obnoxious after a while. Ah, but we can enjoy the dream, can’t we?

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When it was officially announced last year that Arrested Development would be getting 10 new episodes set to premiere on Netflix in 2013 culminating in a movie, I fell to my knees and thanked God that I’d never have to write another “‘Sure, an Arrested Development movie sounds like a great idea,’ says actor who played minor character!” headline. Of course, if you know the internet, you know that even the massively complicated undertaking of 10 new episodes and a movie wouldn’t be enough to satisfy hardcore fans, who’ll accept nothing short of Fox traveling back in time, uncancelling the show in its prime, and returning their lost youth. The latest object of their anger? The perceived lack of Steve Holt, who was awesome because he wore a letterman jacket and constantly shouted his own name (all the cool kids do it).

Amid the clamor for the show’s fourth season, Reddit’s Arrested Development sub-group noticed that Justin Grant Wade, the actor who played Steve Holt, had not been contacted about the reprisal. While Wade played a minor character on Arrested Development, Steve Holt, the impressively well-meaning yet knuckleheaded high school jock, managed to stand out and develop a fanbase of his own. So it’s no surprise that his absence in the media blitz was noticed.

Helpful fans took a page out of Steve Holt’s student government run and started an online campaign to bring back everyone’s favorite walking catchphrase. There’s a Save Steve Holt website, blog, Facebook page, and Twitter account where the campaign is gaining some traction with the hashtag #savesteveholt. [Time via SlyOyster]

WHY WON’T YOU LET FANS WRITE YOUR SHOW FOR YOU, MITCH HURWITZ, YOU FASCIST! That said, it doesn’t seem that hard to incorporate Steve Holt back into the writing. Even if they’re already done, they could just write in something where every five minutes or so, it just cuts to Steve Holt, shouting Steve Holt! wherever happens to be at the time – Kinko’s, on the toilet, Einstein’s bagels, whatever. Or even better, that same bit, but with Abe Vigoda.

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