Archer

[Reply #200 on:]

So, despite what I've just been saying about Archer all blending into one for me, "Vision Quest" was a rare case of a stand-out episode. That was absolutely great.

[Reply #201 on:]

New image of Bond released, waitaminute...

[Reply #202 on:]

ALIENS!

[Reply #203 on:]

Yeeeah, that episode was a bit of mess, in my opinion. There was a lot of potential, but the execution was extremely flawed (save from the cold opening, which was genuinely hilarious). For one, the Lana/Mallory interactions were really unnecessary - they could've easily gone through all the beats of that story in about half the time, or better yet, scrapped it entirely and fleshed out the Area 51 plot more thoroughly. The whole thing with the aliens was pretty mystifying, too. I'm not completely against the idea of aliens existing in the Archer universe (after all, we have how many cyborgs on the show now?), but if you're going to make a leap that far from reality, you really need to have it pay off in some sort of way that justifies it. For a second there, I thought there was going to be some sort of reveal that the characters were just hallucinating from whatever gas had been released in the plane, which frankly, would've been better than what actually happened. Better yet, Reed and co. should've just gone all out, mined the idea for all it's worth and made the thing a damn two-parter. Despite a few big laughs early on, the whole thing ultimately just left me going "... That's it?"

[Reply #204 on:]

I agree that the episode itself wasn't particularly strong (unlike the last two which I thought were both great). The alien stuff was amusing but like you said, it didn't go anywhere. That said, I'm not convinced that the after-effects of Krieger and Pam's encounter won't be part of future episodes, which would make it worth it for me. If not, then I'll concede it was pretty pointless. But for right now the idea that we'll never hear about any of it again seems like a premature assumption.

[Reply #205 on:]

I'm hopeful it will go somewhere, but highly dubious. Following through on storylines after establishing them has never been Archer's strong suit. This show's "set-up to pay-off" ratio is worse than Lost.

Granted, most people watch it for the hilarious dialogue rather than the plot, but still, Adam Reed and co. can pull off a fantastic story arc when they actually want to - so it's a little disheartening that they don't do so more often.

[Reply #206 on:]

I enjoyed it about as much as I ever enjoy Archer, but I agree that it felt much messier than usual and like something of a misfire.

I would definitely have preferred that they made a bigger deal out of the aliens. I don't need a huge two-parter dedicated to aliens in Area 51 or anything like that, but if they're going to include aliens in the show, I'd rather they spend some time on it rather than just dropping it in there and making the show slightly more wacky than it used to be.

[Reply #207 on:]

Just caught up on the last two episodes. "The Kanes" was pure awesome from beginning to end. The episode with the prince was... well, interesting. Now that Lana and Archer's relationship has come full circle, I'm hoping that it self-destructs in as amusing a manner as possible as soon as possible.

Archer is at his absolute best when trying to nail anything that seems nailable, after all.

[Reply #208 on:]

Despite this show always returning to something resembling the status quo (yes, there are permanent changes made along the way, but they're minor for the most part), the characters have shown significant development along the way. The Sterling Archer of season 6 is not the exact same Sterling Archer we saw in season 1, and that's not just due to the natural changes that occur in a show over time. Adam Reed has been making a conscious effort to turn Archer into a more mature and functional human being over the years - or, at the very least, a more emphatic one. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the Lana and Archer relationship lasted - or at least stuck for a significant amount of time. I just hope they don't go the same route as, say, Hank and Karen from Californication, and spend the rest of the show going through a monotonous cycle of "Lana gives Archer another chance, things go well for a short while, Archer does something to screw it up, Lana goes back to hating him again." Because I'd like to think this show is better than that.

Also, has everyone heard the "multiple Kriegers" theory yet? Adam Reed has been teasing, since the end of season 5, that Krieger may have been replaced with a clone of himself during that whole story arc, and since then, Krieger's been going back and forth between acting perfectly in character and acting suspiciously out of character (doing nice things occasionally, forgetting his co-worker's names, etc.). The current theory seems to be that Krieger kept at least one of his clones around and they now switch back and forth. I'm inclined to say it makes the most sense out of anything I've heard on the matter so far.

[Reply #209 on:]

Aww I saw the preview for the next episode. I know this show is super cynical and all but we can't go one episode without Lana and Archer living in happiness? Oh well. At least Katya is coming back.

[Reply #210 on:]

Does anybody feel like this show is suddenly a lot cartoonier, this season. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but a few episodes we saw space aliens, in the most recent episode there was a giant, man-eating plant and from the sounds of the name of the two-parter finale, they're going to do a parody of The Fantastic Voyage which would mean shrinking down and going inside the human body.

I know that they've dabbled in cyborgs and space adventures but they haven't really featured things you wouldn't be able to find in a James Bond movie until this season. It just feels a bit weird to have the world of Archer starting to feel similar to the world of, say, American Dad! and The Venture Bros. when it had always been a lot more grounded, previously.

[Reply #211 on:]

I really enjoyed "Reignition Sequence" too, actually. That episode along with "Vision Quest" are positioning season 6 as a contender for my favourite to date.

Also, I'm re-watching Archer: Vice at the moment, following on from seasons 1-4 and, now that I don't have to wait a week between each episode, it's much stronger than I remember. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it's pretty much on par with the other 4 seasons and the experiment did, prior to what I've said in the past, work.

[Reply #212 on:]

Archer: Vice works much better when marathoned, as opposed to being viewed on a week-to-week basis. My vote's still for season 4 as the weakest of the show's run so far.

And yeah, Reignition Sequence was pretty good, despite the predictable ending. Though it pretty much validated everything I'd said previously about Archer maturing as a person, so I was quite chuffed with that.

[Reply #213 on:]

"Drastic Voyage: Part 1" was some of the most blatant, inexcusable filler I think I've ever seen. It contained maybe three minutes of story and absolutely loads of padding to turn the thing into a two-parter for no real reason.

"Part 2" was pretty good, though.

[Reply #214 on:]

I've seen the first 5 seasons now. Season 6 isn't on Netflix so that's as far as I'm going for now.

Season 5 ended up being better than I expected. I was put off by the shark-jump at first but eventually warmed up to the more serialised approach.

The best parts were Ray pretending to be crippled so Archer would carry him and the revelation of Lana having no idea what Danger Zone is.

The worst? Pam. Holy shit, what a ridiculously fucking annoying character.

[Reply #215 on:]

"Pam the Coke Addict" definitely got old fast, but generally she's one of my favourite characters on the show. I'd say the Archer/Pam friendship is pretty much the only relationship I'm still invested in at this point.

[Reply #216 on:]

Once again, a show I watched 1-2 episodes of back in the day and passed over... has come back with a vengeance In the case of Archer, I didn't pass it over because I thought it was just meh at the time; I intended to watch it later but simply never got around to it. Because I'm lazy.

So I had the season one disc gathering dust in the corner for a long time, perhaps two years? Then a couple of weeks ago I was shopping for a new truss and some denture cream on Amazon and saw all seven seasons on sale for $35 from a marketplace seller, and snapped them up. And I've never laughed so much at a show in my life!

Binged season 1 Monday and Tuesday night after work, and I'm several episodes into season 2. I'll probably watch some more this weekend, but I do have a couple of movies I've been saving: Wonder Woman and Blade Runner 2049. Yes, I'm nearly always terribly late getting into things.


P.S. There were a few times that the dialog was indistinct, so I rewound and enabled the subtitles. Interestingly, I find the show funnier with subtitles than without. So I've been watching with the subtitles on and it's even more of a riot.

[Reply #217 on:]

I just binged season 8 in a single sitting. So now, my #1 question is...

What the fuck happened to this show? It's turned into complete shark-jumping bullshit.

I laughed a couple of times but all-round it's a shadow of its former self. Probably won't even bother watching the rest when it ends up on Netflix...

[Reply #218 on:]

Disappointing to hear. I paused my watching partway through season 3, and will for sure get back into it someday. But thanks for the caution: I'll finish discs 1-7 before considering ordering anything more recent.

[Reply #219 on:]

I just binged season 8 in a single sitting. So now, my #1 question is...

What the fuck happened to this show? It's turned into complete shark-jumping bullshit.

I laughed a couple of times but all-round it's a shadow of its former self. Probably won't even bother watching the rest when it ends up on Netflix...

Note to Tachy: Spoilers ahead!

Many months late on this score, but I just watched Dreamland and I have to say, I really, really liked it. In fact, it may be my favorite season since season 4--and, at the very least, it was miles ahead of Vice. I was definitely skeptical for the first episode or two--it's a big tonal shift, and the style of humor (not the timing or the patter itself, but the actual content of the jokes) is obviously a huge departure--but it won me over some time after Charlotte Vandertunt enters the scene (I find Cheryl pretty exhausting in the canon episodes, but her ax-crazy heiress shtick actually works well for a 1940's period piece).

I appreciated seeing Archer as a bit of the straight man here, and though the pathos of Dreamland Archer is, you know, manufactured, it still spoke to the pathos of the comatose Archer in a way that I found compelling. Then again, I'm a real sucker for that Freudian dream sequence bullshit (see: my abiding love for "The Sting," i.e. one of the best half-hours of television ever), so perhaps my opinion can't be trusted here. But in general I appreciate those episodes that treat Archer's interior life (and associated trauma) with sincerity and care, and that was pretty much all of Dreamland.

All that said, I have yet to see Danger Island (it doesn't drop on Hulu until late next month), and my guess is my patience for comatose adventures will run out sooner rather than later. I don't have high hopes for it--but, then again, I didn't have high hopes for season 8, either, and it pleasantly surprised me. Fingers crossed, I suppose.

As for season 10...I'm going to be annoyed if it doesn't even bother to resolve the question of whether or not Archer wakes up from his coma, but that's a problem for another day...

[Reply #220 on:]

Thank you for the spoiler warning, Gorks!

[Reply #221 on:]

Don't mention it, my friend! Have you gotten around to watching past season 3? (I hadn't realized until my most recent watch-through that most of my favorite episodes of this show fall between seasons 3 and 4--to name a few, "Lo Scandalo," "Bloody Ferlin," "The Wind Cries Mary," "Live and Let Dine," and "Un Chien Tangerine.")

[Reply #222 on:]

No, I'd completely spaced it out after S3, and realized only the other night that I had several seasons remaining to be watched. I should have watched some episodes while I've been cooped up at home these past couple of days, but it would have been difficult to relax and concentrate on the show with my mind wandering to the work being done outside my house by some contractors I hired.

I think I'll get back into the habit of catching an ep or two in the evenings, after work...unless the Star Trek reruns that night are especially compelling.