Archer—Nothing is sacred for a new generation of cynics
- Shruti Sundar Ray
- Mar 5, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: May 2, 2020
The adult animated comedy series thrives on its shamelessly despicable characters, the zany scenarios it brings to life and its own clever brand of playing it dirty
“Read a book,” says Sterling Archer, the titular character of FX’s adult animated sitcom Archer, with insecure affectedness, whenever people around him fail to understand his obscure pop culture references. Running jokes, such as this, are the lifeblood of Archer, which has been on the air since 2009.
Ostensibly, it is a series about the antics of Sterling Archer, dubbed in-show as the world’s most dangerous spy, who is a “globetrotting, womanising boozehound” à la James Bond. But it is a parody. With a personality “akin to the loudest person at a fraternity party”, Archer inexpertly navigates through the bureaucratic mundanities of the espionage business—filing expense reports, attending mandated HR mediation sessions, making 401(k) contributions, and the like. The office premise allows for a segue into an equally frustrating array of dysfunctional supporting characters who serve as Archer’s colleagues—head of the spy organisation and Archer’s “emasculating, hard-drinking mother” Malory Archer, “an infinitely more capable spy than Archer” and Archer’s on-again-off-again ex-girlfriend Lana Kane, the human resources director and “overweight, pot-smoking gossip” Pam Poovey, and others. In sum, the series takes the familiar spy trope and inverts it into a workplace comedy for the real world.
Except, Archer, with all the perks of being an animated series, is not set in the real world. It is as fantastical as it gets. Forests, deserts, tropical islands, underwater in the deep sea, space, extra-terrestrial planets, even the inside of the human body—Archer leaves no whimsical terrain unexplored.
This odd combination of real-world dynamics, ridiculous anachronistic settings and of course, the dark, no-holds-barred, unabashedly politically incorrect, truly filthy yet culturally grounded and geekily-smart humour make for the show’s USP. A reviewer for The New Yorker describes the show as epitomising a “rising breed of what one might term ‘dirtbag sitcoms’: crass, confident comedies that feature idiotic characters but are not themselves idiotic”.
Nothing is sacred, when it comes to Archer’s jokes. “Those cannot be your only shoes. What am I saying? It’s Russia. People probably come from miles around just to get their picture taken in those,” says Archer in an episode set in Soviet Russia. “I swear to God you could drown a toddler in my panties right now,” says Pam in response to her co-worker’s question of “How hot is he?” in another episode. Describing Archer as “a show that can make anything, even cancer, funny”, one reviewer writes, “it[’]s elastic enough to continue the absurd spy spoofery while taking an honest look at cancer too.”
While Archer could easily live under the same umbrella as other adult animated sitcoms like South Park or The Simpsons, its differentiating feature is its unique take on complex character relationships. “Where much of South Park’s alleged humo[u]r revolves around the straightforward way its spoiled children take advantage of their doting, and mostly unseen, parents, Archer and Malory’s interactions are fraught, laden with Oedipal innuendo, memories of unforgiven slights, and the needy fears that accompany codependence,” observes a reviewer.
Archer, which has won three Primetime Emmy Awards and four Critics’ Choice Television Awards, has run for ten seasons with the eleventh scheduled to premiere in May 2020. “Archer had a relatively modest start and has blossomed into FX’s top-rated comedy. Its strength is among adult men under 35: It attracted just over 1.1 million young dudes during its most recent season, surging a whopping 55 percent versus the show’s third season…And so far this year, the only scripted comedy or drama on basic cable that has done better among young men than Archer is AMC’s The Walking Dead,” said an analyst in 2013.
Warner Bros. Entertainment’s Adult Swim is an obvious competitor to 20th Century Fox’s FX programming (owned by the Walt Disney Company since March 2019). According to one reviewer, “Even with snark galore, wouldn’t Adult Swim be the de facto first choice for the target audience? How was Archer, a kind of twisted James Bond-style premise, going to work? As it turns out, by being insanely funny.”
The show rewards this demographic with its pop-culture-reference-heavy, often meta, jokes. “I bet he wishes he had Bilbo’s Coat of Dwarven Mithril,” says one of the technical support staff ‘drones’ in an early episode after a troop transport is blown up during “Operation Frodo”, making a reference to the Lord of the Rings franchise. Even the A-rated humour is smart. “Sex jokes don’t have to be dumbed down, and [Archer] turns it into an advanced art form,” note some authors for IndieWire, speaking of “phrasing”, a running gag on the show that alludes to sexual word play. They rank Archer the 5th best FX series of all time.
The self-referential meta humour also lends to merchandising, that plays well with its target demographic, including a companion book titled ‘How to Archer: The Ultimate Guide to Espionage and Style and Women and Also Cocktails Ever Written’ and of course, T-shirts, mugs, posters and action figures.
The now-available-on-Netflix show’s appeal can perhaps be understood from the reasons why one reviewer dislikes the show: “On Archer, compassion is sorely lacking…everyone is so flippant that whatever emotional turn the show might take, it always seems to respond with a simple, [‘so what?’].”
Another reviewer, who describes the characters as having “core attributes that never change — lasciviousness, self-absorption, unfashionable biases of all sorts”, writes, “In the age of correctness, everything about these characters is incorrect, a caustic brand of humor that isn’t for everybody but that has brought the show a dedicated fan base.”
As Archer creator and showrunner Adam Reed remarks about the show’s characters in an interview with The Guardian, “I wouldn’t want them to be my real-life friends, but I enjoy spending time with them living in my computer.”
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