The dust appears to have finally settled on season 4 of Arrested Development following its Memorial Day release (at 12:01 O.C. time, naturally). The Anns have been hogged, the Queen Mary’s sunk and the chicken dances have been danced (though not really in season 4).

A little over a week out, now would be a good time for everyone to take a deep breath and finally share their thoughts. But of course, everyone has already shared their thoughts. Most reviews have already been written and pop culture has collectively moved “on to the next one” (ZOMG “RAINS OF CASTAMERE”). Something that Mitchell Hurtwitz and company spent years and years fighting into existence, working on and fine-tuning was released in one clump of episodes, immediately consumed by a rabid audience who had watched a show that pays dividends on rewatches just once over a hectic Memorial Day and dubbed it a “disappointment.”

The all-at-once streaming format of season 4 of Arrested Development is the most convincing example yet that television is moving in a new and exciting, if somewhat frightening, direction. And the reviews of seasion 4 are pretty convincing examples themselves that we might not be ready for it.

Seasons 1 through 3 of Arrested Development existed in a vacuum that seems almost impossible to comprehend just under a decade later in 2013. It wasn’t that it was unheralded or even unwatched. Critics obviously raved about the show but consider that the pilot episode received a 7.98 in the Nielsen Ratings. For comparisons’ sake, the most-watched episode of Game of Thrones thus far yielded a 5.50 rating.

This isn’t to say that Arrested Development upon its first release was the cultural juggernaut that Game of Thrones currently is – far from it. It means that the way we assess success on television in 2013 is fundamentally different from the way we did in 2003. A healthy chunk of people watched Arrested Development in 2003 but it did not feel like a large group at all. FOX certainly didn’t think so, canceling the series after its third season in 2006.

The next seven years played out in a very familiar way to those accustomed to being “nerds” in the Netflix age. Arrested Development caught fire on streaming services such as Netflix, syndication on IFC and DVD sales. Anyone who has ever seen the same episode of Arrested Development more than once could tell you why: they’re so damn rewatchable. The show isn’t constructed as television so much as it was an elaborate riddle that could still reveal new interpretations and secrets on the seventh rewatch*.

*My personal favorite will always be the name of Gob’s boat (“The Seaward”) and Lucille’s assumption that it’s referring to her. Took me about six viewings of “The One Where They Build a House” to get that one.

Arrested Development was unique, and when the fourth season was finally announced in 2012, we as a viewing audience assumed that it was going to maintain its unique, labyrinthine plot in 2013. Sure, there would be some differences at its surface, some by necessity, some by choice. Due to the cast’s window of involvement, each episode would focus on one particular character rather than the whole ensemble. The episode count would be slightly shorter at 15, the episodes themselves would be a touch longer and every episode would be available at once. But everything else? Just vintage Arrested Development.

That’s why it’s so unfortunate that most critical reviews have cried “disappointment,” citing the areas that are different without citing the areas that are the same. Disappointment is a legitimate human emotion, but is very rarely a legitimate criticism of art. Art doesn’t exist in a vacuum, sure, but a critic should give his or her best effort to pretend that it does. Because, at the end of the day, “disappointment,” reveals more about the disappointed’s expectations than the art itself. Undoubtedly, there are legitimate reasons to be less than enthused with the fourth season of Arrested Development. The episodes rarely need to be as long as they are and a few are even largely devoid of laughs. But as part of a larger mosaic, it’s hard to call it anything but a compelling puzzle where almost all the pieces fit perfectly.

And if I may borrow the term “disappointed” for my own use, it’s disappointing that so many reviews, despite already having a healthy expectation for what Arrested Development is, still somehow fault it for what it isn’t. As previously stated, Arrested Development became enormously popular and culturally relevant during the seven years it was off air. The reason for this is that IT SPENT SEVEN YEARS OFF THE AIR. That’s seven years of rewatching episodes, discovering new plot points and jokes and sharing them on the internet. To expect to create a cogent argument regarding season 4’s quality in an instant is just hubris.

Here are a few examples. The Seattle PI admits to being taken aback by the “new format” despite the fact that there is so little about the season that’s new. Mitchell Hurtwitz couldn’t even bring himself to cut out ad breaks for a medium without advertisements, for Pete’s sake. There’s even a link in the review to “14 things we want to see on Arrested Development.”

The Huffington Post acknowledges that the new season is in a “no-win” situation culturally due to high expectations and then declares it a loss anyway. Well then what was the point of watching?

And The New York Times? Oh, the New York Times. Declaring that the “Internet killed Arrested Development” in a review would be the most embarrassing thing the New York Times has ever said about television if it hadn’t already misinterpreted the Lost finale, misinterpreted The Killing season 1 finale (and for some reason doubled-down even after the showrunner herself clarified what really happened) and dismissed Game of Thrones as boorish fanboy escapism in consecutive seasons.

The nature of the Internet beast demands instant reaction for instant page views. But season 4 of Arrested Development, while maybe not as innovative or Earth-shattering as the first three seasons but still well done, desperately needed something that Internet critic culture was woefully unequipped to give it: time.