Archer
Archer just finished its second season on FX, and it’s kind of difficult to cover. Some episodes play into the typical spy conventions, using double agents and really poor shooting by guards. Other times, the show actively subverts those expectations. Cyril mentions that the spy genre has to be worn out, doesn’t it? In season two, we’ve seen a lot of character development episodes, often featuring short flashbacks. Other times, it settles into typical office comedy, playing off the relationships that develop during the flashback episodes and never leaving the office. Then there’s the stock sitcom plot episodes, like when Archer gets cancer.
But the constant is: it’s really funny.
I watched all 23 episodes in a week, and while that partly has something to say about my courseload, it also says a great deal about how the show works. The first five episodes of season one were primarily standalone, keeping the characters consistent but not using too many callbacks. By the season two finale, Krieger’s hologram anime girlfriend popped up multiple times without explanation. Little clues were being dropped in the background, like seeing Brett wheel around after being shot in the stomach the previous episode.
Major arcs continued to swirl in the background, like Archer’s father, which has been stewing since season one. At this point, it’s almost a little frustrating, since the same question has been sitting for so long without any real development. Trexler, voiced by Jeffrey Tambor, is my bet, just so I can hear some more Lucille and George Sr. banter. Jackoff, the KGB head, has been in a lot of episodes, but hasn’t had a whole lot of substantial character moments like almost everyone else has, including some minor characters, like the Hobbit. I’d like to see this plotline wrapped up quickly in the show’s 16-episode third season, but it seems like a what-is-The-Island question that could permeate for some time and frustrate everyone eventually.
Even if it does, the success of the show isn’t dependent on that. It’s the propensity for one-liners, mostly, and the jokes come extremely quickly. Something the show picked up on in the second half of season one is quick conversations between a large group of characters, burying some hilarious lines under other more obvious ones, and these lines promise to pay off on later watchings (Cheryl’s “choke me” when Lana is on top of her comes to mind). Also, editing which has different scenes in conversations with each other is an Archer staple now, and this is simply using all of the tricks the television toolbox has to offer.
As an English major, I feel I have to mention the sometimes obscure references, which create a surprisingly intellectual web of jokes. Sometimes it feels like the show is getting a little too referency and rewatchable, if that’s possible, using small tidbits which require multiple Google searches to understand the joke. This reminds me of David Foster Wallace, who would get a little too showy in his fiction and just blast the reader back with his $10 words and literary tricks. It’s a tough note to hit, clever but not too clever, and most of the time the show hits it. (It’s somewhere in between Krieger’s Planet of the Apes diatribe and the bit about 1800s inventors, but then again I loved the obscure Melville reference, so it depends on who you are, I guess.)
Where the show really changed between its first and second season was its character development, usually nonexistent in animated, mostly standalone comedies. ISIS is now a real place in a real world, as opposed to season one where it was a spy agency. Krieger’s Chokebot is funny every time it pops up, of course, but it really expands and creates a consistent world for the characters to live in. When the backstories for the ISIS employees work (like Krieger’s and Cheryl’s), it helps every subsequent time that character is on screen. When those stories don’t work (Cyril’s), well, the episode is usually funny enough to make it worthwhile.
Some things, like Wee Baby Seamus and cancer, have popped up here and again as smaller arcs, and (I’d expect) they will come up again. Archer’s continued terrible parenting works hilariously, and it takes a specific type of audience to enjoy a baby getting a tattoo of his father’s name or used as a prop in battle. (Adam Reed said in an interview he originally scripted Archer throwing the baby at Woodhouse’s comrade in “The Double Deuce,” knocking the gun away, but the network wasn’t too fond of that.)
One natural obstacle the show has had to come over is the constant assholery of Archer, voiced to yelling perfection by H. Jon Benjamin. It’s not an obstacle in terms of comedy, as Archer is undoubtedly a hilarious character, but the audience often needs something to latch on to. (A constant criticism of Arrested Development’s low numbers was that there were no likable characters, and I’m not sure Archer has many good people, except for Lana, I suppose.) In season two, Reed developed this a whole lot better, giving Archer subtle moments (“That’s a lot of scalps!”) as well as larger flashbacks (“Why was I wearing a Hitler costume?”). The Ruth flashbacks in “Placebo Effect” weren’t as good or important, because they weren’t all that funny.
Everything I think about Archer comes back to that simple notion: the show is just really funny. Not every comedy is like this, but not every comedy has so many consistently quotable lines and good characters to play off of. I’m not sure this is the funniest show on television, but it’s close.
