Now that's more like it.
After a few weeks with slow starts, Archer kick into top gear faster than an airboat tonight, by giving us a cold open that was quickly hilarious, swift to introduce tonight's main plot. (I wonder if there's a relationship between the quality of an Archer episode and the throw away nature of their cold opens. I should look into that.)
From there, we spent most of the time with Lana and Archer, as the two personalities bounced off of one another while they tried to prevent an eco-terrorist from blowing up a gas pipline. As funny as this was, and I am NOT complaining here, this does kind of fly in the face of the types of storyies and comedy Archer has been dealing with in the past three episode.
First off, the best best moments of the night weren't singular line, quotes that people could use without context. While there were a good deal of funny lines tonight (just look at all those quotes!), the funniest material derived from the rapid back-and-forth, escalating dialogue, the persnickety conversations of two people who have had enough of each other. I for one prefer this kind of humor, as I believe that this is the best way to maintain sustained laughs, as opposed to the more punctuated laughter that derives from singular lives. There is a longer shelf-life to the conversational humor, as its laughs are based more on the escalating tension, rather than surprise, which is a form of humor with diminishing returns.
I also find this type of humor is more based in character, since in order for a show to effectively write an argument between two people, it needs to sound like something that those two people would say. We even got small character based moments tonight, as we looked at Lana's more rebellious days, and we learned Archer's three greatest fears (alligators, crocodiles, and brain aneurysms). While I wouldn't say that this means that the show is fleshing out these characters (this isn't that kind of show) it is giving them more individualized banks of jokes that the show can callback to, and build upon, in the future. (Callbacks: another great form of humor.)
Second, by keeping Archer and Lana in their own plotline, and leaving the rest of the ISIS flunkies back in the office, the show took a pause from building its ranks of secondary players. Whether this bothered you is a manner of personal opinion (I was was okay with it, since the laughs were still there), but I commend the show for varying up the kind of stories it was telling. (The last three all essentially kept the office population in one place.) The ISIS subplot, which was slight though still very funny, could perhaps have been expanded some more, but then that would have taken away from Lana and Archer.
But this is just a minor quibble, so who cares? This, ladies and gentlemen, was Archer at its finest.
What did everybody else think?
Additional Thoughts:
“His name is Gandalf? And he's not a hippy?”
“An airboat, Lana. Just like Burt Reynolds in White Lightening!”
“So for the love of God, woman, go make me a fresh batch of hurricanes!”
“Wetland, profits, whatever.”
“I have waited my entire life to say this phrase: 'I'm commandeering this boat.'”
“This must be what it's like to have sex with me.” “How can an airboat be selfish?”
“Try clearing your throat about a gajillion more times, Lana, see if that helps.”
“Whichever Hepburn. She was the African Queen.”
“Pretty sure Tonto was a Jew.”
“Everything out here either wants to eat me or give me malaria.”
“Look at me c hopping ice for a Tom Collins like a field hand.”
Those Kreeger bodies? Disturbing yet funny.
“...also yes.”
“One lazy lornax.”
“Since I can't catch beer...”
“Yes, ruiner of explanations, I was building to that.”
“Because of the things that come out of your body.”
“Shattered dreams.” “Smells like rotten meat.” “Also yes.”
“Suck it, Samwise.”
“If you like the collar, you're gonna love the cuffs.”
Next week: A Whodehouse backstory. Boo-yah!
“His name is Gandalf? And he's not a hippy?”
“An airboat, Lana. Just like Burt Reynolds in White Lightening!”
“So for the love of God, woman, go make me a fresh batch of hurricanes!”
“Wetland, profits, whatever.”
“I have waited my entire life to say this phrase: 'I'm commandeering this boat.'”
“This must be what it's like to have sex with me.” “How can an airboat be selfish?”
“Try clearing your throat about a gajillion more times, Lana, see if that helps.”
“Whichever Hepburn. She was the African Queen.”
“Pretty sure Tonto was a Jew.”
“Everything out here either wants to eat me or give me malaria.”
“Look at me c hopping ice for a Tom Collins like a field hand.”
Those Kreeger bodies? Disturbing yet funny.
“...also yes.”
“One lazy lornax.”
“Since I can't catch beer...”
“Yes, ruiner of explanations, I was building to that.”
“Because of the things that come out of your body.”
“Shattered dreams.” “Smells like rotten meat.” “Also yes.”
“Suck it, Samwise.”
“If you like the collar, you're gonna love the cuffs.”
Next week: A Whodehouse backstory. Boo-yah!
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