Review – Archer

Archer – FX – 10:00pm Thursday – USA

Archer is a brand new animated comedy on FX from the mind of Adam Reed. Reed, as you may or may not be aware, brought the world the surreal and sometimes hilarious Frisky Dingo. FX, as you may or may not be aware, brought the world It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia and The League. If you thought that maybe Archer would break away from the odd pop culture referencing nerd humour of Frisky Dingo whilst also leaping in the opposite direction of the ‘nothing is off limits’ bro-comedy of It’s Always Sunny and The League well then you’re sorely mistaken.

Archer is straight up and down Frisky Dingo as poured through the It’s Always Sunny FX comedy filter. Now I know there are some of you out there who probably think that’s the most amazing combination of all time and I don’t hate you for that but I’m just over it. I get Frisky Dingo; I sometimes find the show to be quite amusing. Which is also exactly how I feel about It’s Always Sunny, but at some point I actually like to care about the shows I’m watching. Just like those shows Archer presents us with a series of characters that we’re not supposed to give a shit about, in fact it’s probably best if we outright loath most of these folks.

They’re not here for any real storytelling purpose anyway. They’re here to lead us from one joke to the next. Sterling Archer is our would be hero; a secret agent who’s a complete dick. He picks up his shirt from the Indian dry cleaners and complains about the curry smell “This shit smells like Indira Ghandi’s thong.” he quips. We’re supposed to laugh because we find it funny, and because it’s just that offensive. Archer continues the tiring trend of laughing because it ‘went there’, wherever there is.

The joke is that Archer is an asshole. The joke is that he has a creepy overly sexual relationship with his mother, who’s the M like head of ISIS (International Secret Intelligence Service). We get jokes about masturbation, anal jokes, spanking jokes, screwing a dog jokes, more of the same FX comedy crap. Personally after seeing Dennis attend an abortion rally to pick up women on It’s Always Sunny I laughed, but I think maybe I knew deep down that I’d had enough of this ‘don’t go there!’ comedy.

Archer also borrows the same style of jokes you got A LOT of on Frisky Dingo. You know how they go; they’re filled with lots of awkward silences and mumbling. Somebody would talk to Archer and say something like “Look Archer, if you’re going to put the mail in the slot you have to shove it in hard.” “I bet you’d like that… (silence)… because… (silence) because, because, ah, because,  you’re gay… (awkward silence)… the slot would be your ass.” “I GET IT!” “I just wasn’t sure you would… (sigh)… because you’re so goddamn gay.”

If you’re into the sort of dodgy animation bro-nerd comedy of Adult Swim, and you’re well aware of who you are, you’re more than likely going to enjoy this addition to the collective family. For me though, I’m just over it, it’s not crappy like Outer Space Astronauts, because Archer is at least aware of what a joke should sound like, it’s just that I can’t be bothered with this sort of show anymore.

Good, Alright, Bad Or Ugly?
Bad