Archer

2000s tv comedy series

Sterling Archer is a super spy. At least in his mind, in reality he is immature womanizer with drinking problem. But what can you expect - his mother is his boss and his codename is Duchess.

Sterling Archer is a secret agent in ISIS, the International Secret Intelligence Services agency, actually ran by his mother Malory. Together with his former lover Lana Kane he takes part in secret and dangerous missions around the world, at least when he is sober enough. Yes, he has his flaws, he is immature, irresponsible, can’t be trusted with money, women or alcohol, but he doesn’t really stand out around the ISIS employees - the agency is a collection of odd characters that would hardly find a job anywhere else - Lana Kane is beautiful, intelligent, tough and has very short temper, Cheryl is oversexed secretary with dark secrets, Pam is HR director with even darker secrets, Cyril is geeky accountant and general push-over, while doctor Krieger is mad scientist (literally mad, but he is not literally a doctor).

Archer from the beginning was unique series, bold, fast paced with unusual humour and characters out of this world. The style of the stories and jokes are wide selection that appeal to different tastes (with emphasis on non-family-friendly areas). The idea for the show was very good, once you get hooked it is hard to just switch off, but as it often is with long-running shows the formula began to dry out somewhere in season 4 or 5. It is never a good sign when celebrity cameos begin in comedy series and that’s what was introduced around that time - from Burt Reynolds to Christian Slater. During that time the show began to switch to different style and different ideas (with switching Archer Vice in season 5).

From that point the series went down with several different approaches to revamp the show, but none of it actually worked - the good jokes were repeats from earlier seasons, some of the characters lost their appeal (especially Pam and Cheryl just became annoyance) and the idea of switching to different era in season 8 was just a disaster. While Archer is in coma he becomes a private detective in 1930s and meet all the characters from his life, but in different roles - idea so bad that it made me wish I was in coma. Adam Reed plans to make 10 seasons, but at the state the show is right now it is rather a wishful thinking.

Overall a great show that got lost during the experiments with the format and became a faded copy of its previous glory.

Rating	6.8
Funny	7 / 10
Entertaining	4 / 5
Characters	3 / 5
Nonrepetitive	3 / 5