Spoofing spies and espionage is not a new thing. In the mid 1960’s “Get Smart” riffed on James Bond with the air of a Mel Brook’s comedy, to great effect. In the late 80’s, along with the surge of blockbuster action films, we got “The Naked Gun” series, showing another bumbling, undercover agent. Now, in the age of Jason Bourne and Daniel Craig’s Bond, America was ready for another spy spoof, and in 2009 audiences got what they had been waiting for, in the form of an offensive, dryly written, wonderfully cast animated show called “Archer.”
Recognizing that the general public had become bored with bumbling, incompetent spies, series creator Adam Reed gave us Sterling Archer, the show’s titular protagonist, who is a talented and competent spy. Yet more importantly, he is also an insolent, misogynistic bastard, and you can’t help but love him for it. As an antidote to the 2000’s obsessive political correctness, Archer draws out deep belly laughs with dialogue that you just shouldn’t laugh at. When trying to bribe his way past a heavyset secretary Archer says “If you let me into the mainframe, I'll drop these donuts. And then you can pretend you're a hungry hungry ... hungry hippo.” Or when berating his ever loyal, British butler for not buying milk “I'm gonna pain you dearly Woodhouse, when I peel all your skin off with a knife, sew it into Woodhouse-pajamas, and then set those pajamas on fire!”
Beyond the sardonic humor and upsettingly lovable lead, “Archer” has also managed to assemble a wonderful ensemble voice cast, including Jessica Walter as Archer’s condescending, drunk of a mother, Aisha Tyler as a powerful female spy who acts as Archer’s foil for much of the episode, and SNL alumni Chris Parnell as the ISIS comptroller and consummate nerd. The cast plays together so well and delivers the crude jokes with such finesse; it’s easy to imagine that they have been working together for years.
“Archer” only runs into problems when it attempts to get serious, which it (thankfully) does very little. It’s easy to imagine a bigwig at FX becoming worried that the series doesn’t connect emotionally with viewers, and trying to strong-arm in a serious plotline here or there. The thing is, we don’t need those in “Archer.” The audience is expecting silly and offensive and the show does best when it sticks in those boundaries. The nasty humor and their ability to spoof most everything is what make “Archer” so refreshing. When a show has as little respect for common decency as this one does, there is something genuine and liberating that rushes forth, making the 21 minutes of nonstop jokes and awkward pauses a total, if guilty, joy.
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