Archer is the Middle Child of Adult Animation. I’m So Happy He’s Finally Awake.
Archer’s back. And he’s funnier than he’s been in at least five years. It’s honestly a relief to see. After three coma seasons, a mixed PI season that also involved an abrupt (and quickly forgotten) relocation to Los Angeles, and an oddly bitter return to the spy formula in Season 6; Archer in Season 11 is finally awake and (way more important) finally having fun again.
Archer, as a television show, occupies an interesting middle ground in adult animation. It came in 2009, after the initial wave in the 90s and early 2000s that created the titans of the genre like The Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park, Futurama, and King of the Hill; with important smaller titles like Space Ghost Coast to Coast and Beavis and Butt-head as well. These were the forerunners of what we know now as one of the dominant genres of television in 2020, and (unlike today, I would argue) subversiveness was inherent to the entire field of adult animation at the time.
It’s a cliché at this point to say that up until the 90s animation was generally considered something only for children, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Homer Simpson working for a relatably evil boss, with his relatable choke-able children, with his unrelatable two-story house on one lower-middle-class income was a huge change when he first appeared in 1989. The Simpsons took what had been traditionally only ground for safe and staid all-American family sitcoms like All in the Family in the 70s and started twisting it. Few sitcoms at the time were willing to acknowledge the essential soul-killing that accompanies jobs like Homer’s, but the Simpsons did. Before they became nothing but caricatures, those characters pushed adult animation to new heights of comedy, sophistication, and emotional storytelling.
That instinct to dodge or push against traditional TV expectations is easily found in all the massive animated hits that followed: from Peter’s shoulder angel shooting his shoulder devil in Family Guy to the literally hundreds of times they’ve killed Kenny in South Park to propane explosions and thousands of alleyway beers in King of the Hill (although this show is a bit of an outlier). This cynical, sophomoric, yet surprisingly thoughtful sense of humor ran essentially unchecked through both the big and small adult animation offerings of the early and mid 2000s. Anyone who grew up with occasionally hilarious-occasionally just gross shows like Drawn Together, Lil Bush, Freak Show, and the whole slate of offerings from Adult Swim at the time; will be hard pressed to disagree.
And then there’s the era of adult animation we’ve been living through for the past seven years or so, dating from the start of Rick and Morty in 2013. While close watchers of modern adult animation hits like Rick and Morty, Solar Opposites, Big Mouth, Animals, Mike Tyson Mysteries, and others will argue (correctly) that we have not abandoned that beloved form of gross and strange comedy in adult animation; I’d argue both the goals of the shows and the culture around them have changed to a significant degree. Helped by the growing popularity of both anime and children’s cartoons like Adventure Time and Regular Show, adult animation is taken more seriously now by its audience, and it’s goals at a show-level have become somewhat more serious as well.
Both Bojack Horseman and Rick and Morty want to make you laugh first and foremost, but both also handle their character’s struggles and issues in a sincere, thoughtful fashion. Bojack Horseman is an entire six season show about an anthropomorphic horse trying to overcome his depression and his own toxicity. Rick Sanchez has become both an idol of nihilism and a perfect encapsulation of the natural pitfalls of living by such a philosophy. Neither Rick and Morty nor Bojack Horseman (the two modern titans of adult animated comedy, with Big Mouth and F is for Family as runners-up, although I’d love to hear your list) could have existed in the earlier era of adult animation. In fact, they shaped the current one.
But Archer debuted in 2009. It is an adult animated show part of neither major wave of the genre. Let me put it this way, within 2008-2012, the only other adult animated programs debuting in that time that retained any staying power were: The Cleveland Show, Ugly Americans (I miss this show), and Bob’s Burgers. Of those, only Bob’s Burgers and Archer are still on air. Now you can argue all this reveals only that H. Jon Benjamin’s voice is magic (and I won’t disagree), but I see it as two shows intelligently adapting to a transitional time in their genre in two different ways. Bob’s Burgers stuck with the essential structure pioneered by The Simpsons and Family Guy, but replaced some of the gross with a lot of genuine warmth and real emotion from the new era. Archer, on the other hand, kept the subversive and raunchy edge to its comedy; but slowly allowed it’s characters to show real growth and real trauma and real loneliness and demanded its audience keep up with its obscure references to things outside the usual cartoon scope of knowledge, all things much more frequently found in the newer era of adult animation.
Archer’s growth is especially fascinating. Raptor episode notwithstanding, the first season mostly works as a very funny transporting of the normal adult animation comedy to a mid-century comics style and spy movie tropes. The storytelling grew more refined in the second season, with Woodhouse’s WW1 story, and the great (two-part) Cancer Rampage of 2011. But it wasn’t until season 3 and the Heart of Archness trilogy that audiences really started to see the full potential of this show. A three-part episode that managed to be funnier than anything they’d put out before (the first time Archer declares himself ‘pirate-king‘ is perhaps my favorite moment of the whole series), while also moving away from the formula they’d set up for themselves and showing genuine emotional and physical stakes for Archer and every character that gets caught up in his bullshit.
The rest of the third season and then the fourth only built on the new standard set by Heart of Archness. There’s Burt Reynold’s last scripted television appearance ever, the space two-parter (before the space season and better), that time H. Jon Benjamin accidentally switched shows for an episode, the fantastic snake-bite and then dog episodes in Season 4, Sea Tunts’ galore, and the wonder that is Ron Cadillac. This is when Archer, and creator Adam Reed, could seemingly do no wrong.
Then Archer Vice came out. I’ve never witnessed firsthand a season of television split a fanbase in quite the same way this one did. Personally, I liked it a lot. I like Cherlene’s country album, and the Tunt mansion, how bad the gang turned out be as gangsters compared to mediocre spies, and even the four-part palace intrigue stuff. It all worked for me. That is not the case for a large part of the fanbase. Just from anecdotal experience, this was the season where Archer started to slide. The sixth season, which returned to the spy formula, was funny and on-brand enough, but it was hard to miss the resentment creator Adam Reed seemed to have developed after Vice had been rejected. I think this explains why the final jokes of the Fantastic Voyage-inspired two-parter at the end of this season came across as more mean and dark than genuinely comedic. Then Archer moved to L.A. and became a private detective. While this season felt a little less sour than the previous one, the shine had clearly worn off the show by then. And by this point both Rick and Morty and Bojack Horseman were going along full steam.
Then the coma seasons, which, even if I was never as insulted by them as other fans of the show, are honestly best just left behind. Even the best of them, Danger Island, never made me laugh as hard as the first good joke of this new Season 11.
Because that’s the most surprising thing about this new season. It is immediately, obviously, a major improvement over the last four seasons (minimum) of the show. The first van joke is a masterpiece. There are so many jokes in the first episode alone of the new season that are plain stronger and funnier than anything in the coma seasons. It returns to it’s old formula but more than that however, the show advances the characters in unexpected and intelligent ways. Cyril has grown into an actual leader without Archer. Cheryl/Carol is the new and improved Cheryl/Carol. Ray isn’t depressed and handicapped (for the moment). Lana…well there’s a lot going on with Lana. The team as a whole has thrived in Archer’s absence, which is both interesting and makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Archer has to learn to adjust around his friends and coworkers instead of the opposite like usual. This is both smart progress for the show, and a smart adaptation to the new landscape of adult animation in which the consequences of Archer-like character’s actions have finally been given real weight.
But the show doesn’t just move forward, it also remembers the best parts of it’s past. One of the most honest and moving moments of the whole first episode is based entirely on Archer and Pam’s friendship, which is perhaps the smartest development of the show Season 4 through Coma. Archer, by the end, must learn how to adjust but also gets a little bit of his mojo back, proves that he wasn’t entirely worthless before. Which I think is a perfect metaphor for both this season of Archer, and the show as a whole. Take the best of the past and the best of the future and make something great now.
It’s been a long road to get here, both for Archer and adult animation as a whole. There’s been missteps and overreactions by both creators and fans. But now the middle child of adult animation is out of his coma and thriving once again.
That’s enough to make anyone sploosh.
If we even still say that anymore.
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