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Undercover with Archer on FX
by Reg Seeton
After giving fans an early look at Archer back
in September, FX rolls out the new animated comedy,
Archer, behind It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
at 10pm on Thursday, January 14. Although Archer
had to take a back seat to The League before FX
decided to premiere the new animated spy series
in January, the new Adam Reed (Sealab 2021, Frisky
Dingo) created half-hour toon is poised to inject
a healthy dose of laughter into the FX schedule.
Fans of Adult Swim style comedy should welcome
Archer with open arms since Archer is filled with
stylishly crafted pop-culture humor that ranges
from improper and esoteric to sexually shocking
and bluntly deadpan.
Starring H. Jon Benjamin in the voice role of suave but bumbling ISIS secret agent, Sterling Archer, the new animated FX comedy takes us back to the days of the Cold War when the KGB and covert spies of America were at loggerheads. Are the two countries really at odds in Archer? Perhaps, but that's where Reed weaves in "backdoor" humor as mystery with well-timed comedic payoffs.
In the Archer premiere, "The Mole Hunt", Sterling Archer (code name, Duchess) is on a mission to flush out a mole in the ISIS headquarters, which is secretly located and fortified underneath a local laundromat. The "Mole Hunt" begins with Archer undergoing a simulated torture interrogation but soon switches to Archer in bed with a naked airline stewardess, which introduces fans to Archer's all-too-forward bedside manner.
Although the ISIS agents are on the same team, we soon learn the womanizing and hard-partying Archer is at odds with almost everyone around him. From his ex-girlfriend and secret agent, Lana Kane (Aisha Tyler), a covert spy into interracial porn who's now dating ISIS account manager, Cyril Figgis (Chris Parnell), to his domineering mother Malory (Jessica Walter), a former spy herself now the head of ISIS, Sterling Archer has just as many run-ins with his co-workers from a past of burned bridges as he does with international spies. However, behind the walls of his own retro pad, Archer has the ear of his personal butler, Woodhouse (George Coe) who serves the same Batman capacity as Alfred to Bruce Wayne.
 As
a character, Sterling Archer is James Bond meets
Austin Powers, Don Draper and Stifler from American
Pie as a spy with mommy issues. Archer's flair
for paying "just the tip" during a lunch date
with his mother's gossipy secretary, Cheryl,
is a perfect example of the shocking but hilarious
double-barreled writing of creator Adam Reed.
With an animated visual style reminiscent of
secret agent shows of the '60s, Archer gives
the FX schedule a perfect balance to offset
weekly drama. Although the animated TV market
is a tough nut to crack, FX has taken a step
in the right direction to lighten up the line-up.
For FX, Archer is hilarious covert animation. The best way I can think of planting an Archer seed in your mind is a quote from secret agent Archer himself, "Hey, you geeks want to smell something?"
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