Within the past decade or so, the amount of animated shows for mature audiences has been on the rise. Shows like Family Guy, Futurama, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Space Ghost: Coast to Coast have gained much popularity for pushing the envelope from what people are normally use to seeing and experiencing in animated tv series. It helps that Cartoon Network developed their own sub-channel, Adult Swim, dedicated entirely to such adult programming. Adam Reed who got his start working for Adult Swim and Williams Street creating and writing such shows as SeaLab 2021, Frisky Dingo and the aforementioned Space Ghost: Coast to Coast captured people’s attentions with his fast paced, Arrested Development style writing and brand of off-beat quirky humor and quickly gained himself a small cult following of fans for it. His newest show, Archer, continues in his previous shows footsteps and yet greatly surpasses all of them in numerous ways. Now you can own Archer Season 1 on DVD!

Archer is an animated spy parody workplace sitcom starring Sterling Archer (voiced amazingly by H. Jon Benjamin previously of Home Movies fame) as possibly the worst secret agent you will ever meet. The only reason why he is a secret agent is because his mother Malory (Jessica Walter) is head of one of the world’s most elite top secret spy agencies ISIS, and thus is a tad more forgiving. As if that wasn’t enough, Sterling works along side his previous ex-girlfriend Lana Kane (Aisha Tyler), who may or may not still hold romantic feelings for Archer despite currently dating ISIS’s hopeless yet lovable geeky cubical monkey, Cyril Figgis, (voiced by Saturday Night Live’s Chris Parnell) who attempts to show Lana he is just as amazing as Archer. Throw in a pair of annoying co-workers (Judy Greer and Amber Nash) and you have a prime recipe for all sorts of comedic antics.
Really, the spy setting of the show is just used to give out main characters new and exciting situations to bicker in and screw up spy-jobs due to their various relationships and petty arguments getting in the way of things constantly. The dialogue is all amazingly fast paced and the jokes (which range from the extremely low brow to the highly intelligent and everything in between) will never cease to make you chuckle.

Unlike most animated comedy shows, Archer has an ongoing plot that builds throughout the entire season. The continuity is very surprising and refreshing bringing back fond memories of Arrested Development, which three of the voice actors in Archer were also involved with. Archer is not afraid to constantly bring back running gags such as Sterling always being shot in the foot (Mostly by one of his co-workers instead of any adversaries) and Cheryl/Carol’s constantly changing names throughout the season. The amount of plot threads that seem to keep popping up which you think are just going to be used for one off gags (Such as Malory’s relationships with various rival spy factions or constant mentions of the ODIN team being better than ISIS) is quite surprising and adds much depth to the series. Adam Reed has really outdone himself this time!

Episode Highlights:
“Honeypot”: Guest starring the amazing Ron Perlman, Archer is sent to seduce a gay Cuban rogue agent who plans on leaking information about his mother (Which just so happens to be a sex tape of her making love to the head of Russian intelligence).

“Diversity Hire”: A new agent Conway Stern is hired at ISIS HQ in order to help diversify the staff and ends up impressing everyone… except Sterling Archer who believes Conway is just a bit TOO good and sets out to prove it and regain his imaginary status of Top ISIS Agent.

“Mole Hunt”: After his mother figures out that Archer has been using ISIS funds for his own little vacations, Archer sets off to cover his own tracks by setting into motion the rumor that ISIS has a mole in their ranks, completely unaware about how true that rumor really is.

Special Features:
-The Original Un-Aired Archer Pilot (Totally not a joke… totally… I swear its not the first episode only with a Raptor in place of Sterling Archer… that would be just plain silly and amazing.)

-The Making of Archer

-Deleted Scenes

-Bonus pilot episodes of other FX shows The League and Louie

Overall:
The first season of Archer is a very strong start to what will hopefully be a very long and ongoing series. The characters are very memorable and the writing is insanely witty keeping the show constantly entertaining. If Get Smart were to sleep with Arrested Development, their baby still wouldn’t be anywhere near as refreshing as what Archer brings to the table. Its really nice to see Adam Reed able to break away from Adult Swim (Especially after how fast Frisky Dingo was canceled) and do something a bit more ambitious such as Archer. The all-star voice cast is great and never manages to miss a beat with their comedic timing and inflection. In a day and age when both The Simpsons and Family Guy have become worn out and overdone, Archer really brings something new and fresh to the adult animated sitcom genre!

ComicsOnline gives Archer Season 1 on DVD 4 out of 5 Arrested Development actors!

Get your copy of Archer Season 1 at Amazon.

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