Created By Adam Reed (SeaLab 2021, Frisky Dingo)
Starring H. Jon Benjamin, Aisha Tyler, Chris Parnell, Judy Greer and Jessica Walter
Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin) is the world’s most dangerous secret agent. Like James Bond before him, he’s suave, stylish and a serial womaniser. He’s also as brash, narcissistic, immature and irresponsible as they come, with a penchant for bleeding the company accounts dry to pay for hookers and a complete disregard for the lives of his workmates, family and the public at large. While he’s a crack agent in the field, he’s less adept at dealing with the stresses of the workplace, chief among them his boozy, domineering mother (and boss) Malory Archer (Jessica Walter), abrasive ex-girlfriend and fellow superspy Lana Kane (Aisha Tyler), her new boyfriend – hen-pecked nerd Cyril Figgis (Chris Parnell) – and the sex-crazed women of human resources.
As you can tell, Archer has the spy genre firmly in its sights for spoofing, but this isn’t the safe, low-brow jokery of Austin Powers. With recurring gags surrounding Archer’s habitual hooker hook-ups and the apparent ease of their death, his “indiscretions” with the maid and the frequent nonchalant abortions that follow, and the darkly hilarious disregard for human life that runs throughout the show, it’s a distinctly adult comedy that often plays its jokes pretty close to the bone. It’s an acquired taste that sometimes calls for a dark sense of humour, but the comedic palate of Archer is also a varied and refined one. The spy spoofery is sharp, the raunchy humour is frequently funny and the sublime streak of rapid-fire wit and delightfully absurd left-field gags puts the show closer to Adult Swim’s stable of shows than Fox’s animated line-up.
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Archer isn’t content to just poke fun at Bond-style spy movies, though; a hefty handful of Arrested Development alumni show up in the voice cast in major and minor roles, which feels pretty fitting as the sense of humour in the two shows often overlap. Jessica Walter plays a more promiscuous version of booze-soaked, controlling mother Lucille Bluth, a role she essayed to perfection much like she does here. Misusing her position as head of ISIS to get one over on her high-society rivals and sleeping with a rival agency boss (Arrested Development’s George Bluth Sr. himself, Jeffrey Tambor) and the head of the KGB, she’s exactly how you’d expect her Arrested Development character to be if she had the resources of a Bond villain. Toss in Archer’s Oedipus complex and their twistedly dysfunctional family dynamic is an hilarious one.
H. Jon Benjamin and the rest of the cast are equally fantastic, too. When the show isn’t juggling spy spoofery and dysfunctional family comedy, it’s taking a smart, funny stab at being a workplace comedy in the vein of The Office as it spends time focusing on the mundane day-to-day events of spy life and the incestuous office politics of ISIS headquarters – a layer of laughs made even more effective by the amazing ensemble of actors. Judy Greer plays the slightly unhinged, masochistic Carol/Cheryl (who changed her name to suit the one Archer kept mistakenly and ignorantly calling her), while Chris Parnell (SNL regular and 30 Rock’s Dr. Spaceman) is perfect as ISIS’s accountant and Lana’s clingy, nerdy rebound boyfriend. The ensemble is filled with well-developed scene-stealing characters and a cast that really make the sharp office comedy and biting, witty dialogue really sizzle.
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Smart, raunchy and often deliciously dark, Archer might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you like your comedy with a twist of biting, rapid-fire wit, gleefully absurd gags and brazenly risqué humour, then you’ll love it. Equal parts James Bond, Arrested Development and The Office, it’s an absolutely hilarious show, and quite possibly the greatest animated series currently on TV.
Fox Home Entertainment’s DVD release of the 10 episode first season looks and sounds fantastic and really does justice to the show’s crisp, stylish visuals.
The special features are few, but fun, most notably an “unaired pilot” features a priceless surprise change of actors which I won’t spoil here. Twenty minutes worth of ‘Making Of’ features provide an interesting look at the art direction and animation process for the show. Rounding out the set are an unaired network promo and a few deleted scenes.
The Film:
The DVD:
Archer: The Complete Season One is out on DVD in the UK now.
Click here to order the DVD from Amazon.co.uk.