Les Cousins Dangereux

Les Cousins Dangereux (a.k.a Dangerous Cousins) is a fictitious film that appears in the television series Arrested Development.

Originally a French film by Francois and Gerard Sasterne, it is about two cousins forced to hide their incestuous love for one another because it is forbidden. The film was later remade by Maeby Fünke as Almost Cousins for American audiences. While the original received great critical praise (Tim Goodman is quoted on its poster as calling it "a ‘relative’ masterpiece of complex eroticism"), the remake proved to not be as inspired, trying to circumvent controversy by explaining that the lead actors might not be cousins. This action proved to cause the film to lose much of the complex eroticism of the original and was cut down to a length of only 52 minutes. It did, however, receive some commercial success when religious groups protesting the film's themes inadvertently drew curious viewers into the theater.

The movie first appears in the episode "My Mother, The Car" as Maeby and George Michael watch the trailer. George Michael and Maeby go to see the movie (and are subsequently ejected from the theatre for being underage) in the episode Pier Pressure. George Michael also mentions his affinity for the film in Pier Pressure, in a conversation about obtaining fake passports from Gob to see the entire movie. George Michael wants his passport to be French because he "likes the way they think". Maeby's remake is featured in "Righteous Brothers" (season two) and George Michael's obsession with it is once again referred to in the third season (the episode "Mr. F") when his "Fun and Failure" poster is torn down to reveal a poster for the film.

The trailer introduces the movie with the voiceover "It was a love between two cousins that the world thought was wrong, but it was the world that was wrong..." and snippets of dialogue can be heard in the background while George Michael and Maeby are being ejected from the theatre:

Because of this movie, George Michael often notes that he "like the way think," referring to perceived loose morals with regards to incest in the French mindset.

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