Arrested Development was clearly ahead of its time in terms of meta humor. Whether you like the style or not, it’s brand of meta (and lampshading) has really caught on in the 2010s, with show concepts as whole as Community owing it for paving the way, and other shows just adopting their methods.
But it was (obviously) an outlier. More often than not shows that were quintessential 2000s shows–like Gilmore Girls or Gossip Girl–or 90s shows that carried over avoided it almost completely. Save for a few choice throwaway jokes, shows in the aughts often ignored the real life narrative around their shows, sometimes to a detriment. Gilmore Girls, for instance, has a number of plot holes and retcons littered about that aren’t even so much as alluded to at a certain point. They chose to just gloss over the inconsistencies in the narrative (why was Liz supposedly a mess? Where the hell is Lane’s dad?) and never address anything that fell off the map. Friends similarly had a few choice jokes about how they never seem to hang out with other people or go to work, but nothing on the weird shifting timelines of the characters.
Zosha Millman 