Thursday must watch: FX's ARCHER

There have been so many shows over the years on FX that I fall head over heels in love with, and can’t get enough of – THE SHIELD was one, RESCUE ME continues to be one, DAMAGES, IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA, NIP/TUCK in the early years.  SONS OF ANARCHY is the best thing on TV these days.  But they’ve also had their share of shows that I could do without, so I was worried when I heard about their newest show – an animated spy adventure series starring H Jon Benjamin as the voice of ARCHER.

ARCHER is an animated, half-hour comedy set at the International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS), a spy agency where espionage and global crises are merely opportunities for its highly trained employees to confuse, undermine, betray and royally screw each other. The series features the voices of H. Jon Benjamin as suave master spy “Sterling Archer,” whose less-than-masculine code name is “Duchess”; Jessica Walter as his domineering mother and boss, “Malory”; Aisha Tyler as his ex-girlfriend, “Agent Lana Kane”; George Coe as his aging-but-loyal butler, “Woodhouse”; Chris Parnell as ISIS comptroller and Lana’s new love interest, “Cyril Figgis”; and Judy Greer as Malory’s lovesick secretary, “Cheryl.”

I cannot say enough about how much I love this show.  Sterling is offensive and crass but in such a bold and unapologetic way.  He’s incredibly charming, and the rest of the characters all follow along in his little crazy world.  Judy Greer and Jessica Walter get some of the best lines as Cheryl (who is constantly going by some other name) and Sterling’s mom, Malory.

At 10PM tonight, Archer needs to train Cyril Figgis how to be a field agent [spoiler alert: the training involves a hooker].  Chris Parnell is at his worrisome best in this episode, as he fears for his life and what being a field agent means for his relationship with Lana.  The second episode (which originally aired in November following an episode of IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA), follows Archer as he sets out to pretend there’s a mole at ISIS to deflect questions about his expense account.

The show has a very 60’s Spy Thriller feel to it.  Smart, and funny; fast paced and way off-color.  The animation is great, and voice cast is beyond compare.  Follow the jump for some previews of the series, and do yourself a favor and check the show out tonight on FX at 10PM!

One comment

  • Andrew

    Archer is one of my favorite shows. It gets me laughing so hard it hurts. I wish they’d change the timeslot though. I never seem to be home. Luckily though DISH Network has the DISH online website (you can find it here: http://bit.ly/dJzWgo) where they stream a ton of programming and a lot of it is available to customers and non customers alike. So with all the latest episodes of Archer there, I can catch up when I need to. One more reason I’m glad to be a subscriber and employee of DISH.