Archer: "Movie Star"

It's a been a pretty big week over here at the blog, what with achieving 1,000+ page views, and (including this writing) publishing 100 posts. So once I through myself a low-key, one man party, I'll offer up a review of tonight's Archer, after the jump....

I think it's telling that up until last week's episode, Archer hadn't really brought in any outside characters to play a large role in the proceeding. Sure, we had the German dignitary and his daughter in “Swiss Miss,” and the return of Barry and Trinette in “Blood Test,” yet these characters were brought in/back to reflect on the regular cast of characters, not to be the impetus of a storyline. Yet even last week, despite the large role that George Spelvin ended up playing, at least his presence served the main purpose of furthering the development of Cyril. (The fact that that development fell flat is besides the point.)

This is long way of saying that – as you probably guessed – I wasn't particularly pleased with the appearance of Rona Thorne, a standard Hollywood actress stereotype. I don't want to say that her presence was bad – indeed, a lot of funny things happened because of her – but the character herself, despite some very funny line-readings from actress Rachel Harris, wasn't particularly original nor humorous.

Another thing that this episode had in common with last week's episode was that, like Spelvin, Thorne was meant to bring out some self-reflection in one of the characters – this time, it was Lana. (Unlike Spelvin, this wasn't her main purpose so much as a side-effect.) Again, this is an admirable goal, yet once again, the effect kind of fell flat. Yet unlike with Cyril, we can't blame the failing this time on the main character; Lana isn't a schlub, but this idea of Throne helping Lana to become a more self-possessed woman is quite tired. Archer usually mines it humor from new, slightly surreal situations, so it's disappointing when the show tries to create jokes out of clichéd situations.

And the ending twist – that Thorne was actually a Russian sleeper agent – was so out of the blue as to be completely unearned and distracting. Now, Archer has pulled off these kind of endings before (specifically back in “Mole Hunt”), but at those times the reveal was so ridiculous and so bizarre as to be hilarious; here is made some sort of sense, but there was no setup or clues to point to this truth, so it felt neither earned nor funny. I liked part of this reveal – specifically that Thorne killed the dignitary in order to gain directing rights, not out of a sense of patriotism – and that the episode ended with the shot of Archer slumped over, his face in Lana's lap, but for the most part it felt like the high point of a plot that hadn't really gone anywhere in the first place.

Everything else, however, was top-notch, and only highlighted the mediocrity of the main Throne plot. (All of tonight's subplots of course kind of spun off of Thorne's presence, but I'm pretty sure you catch my meaning.) Archer's attempts to both bed Thorne and show up Lana (goals which sometimes overlapped) were quite funny, as were his attempts to shake off his temporary deafness (and the looks the other ISIS peons gave him due to his hearing impairment). Equally funny was the Cyril/Malory subplot, which played off of the idea of tired spy movie clichés (and thus took on the role of a slight form of meta-commentary) to hilarious effect. And the ending, with Cyril and Malory getting busy? Not only was it hilariously disgusting, but if last season is any indication, then this development will play a hilarious role in a least one future episode, and most likely more.

The last subplot, with Pam, Carol, and Ray dealing with the stolen diary (and their own perverse desires to probe into Thorne's personal life) was a equally funny as the other two, and gave the series some much needed screen time for Carol. Yet despite all of the hilarious anecdotes and faux-legal loopholes, the plot didn't actually have an conclusion, so much as it just ended, perhaps only to make room for the end of the main Throne plot. It bugs me to see a plot line with such great potential not reach its tallest possible height, and it bugs me even more that it didn't do so in order to make way for some sub-par storytelling.

What did everybody else think?


Additional Thoughts:

All of that signature faux-retro feel tonight, starting with the title card for the Hollywood Access-type show, and ending with the idea that the assassination of a Russian dignitary would start World War III.

“I was 'WOOOOOOOAAAAAAHHHH!'”

“...dead.” “Dammit!”

“What part of 'highly classified' do you not understand.” “All of it.”

“A-MAAAAAAZING!”

“Since you seem unclear on the concept...that was sarcasm.”

“Guess that Tunisian man would still be alive.” “He was German.”

“I shouldn't have started you off on a fully-auto.”

“Aw, I meant to make a frowny face.”

“Speaking of your body...and my body... and stiffness...”

“Did you think it was meat?”

“And now who's laughing, Mr. Hooks-for-hands.”

For Pam, deaf people are gross. People with hook for hands, not so much.

“She's gonna wish I was never born.” “You're just going to softball it in like that?”

“Racist overtones aside, it really limits your casting options.”

“Or turtles, or roll around in his clothes, or whatever...”

“You do realize there's a finite supply of Vaseline in the universe?”

“Who am I, Kissinger? Broad strokes.”

“I don't have cock-porn just lying around. But sometimes, you just leave it in the VCR.”

“To what? Mandingo 2?...Wait. Hold on. Anybody doing a Mandango sequel?”

“What voice is that from, Bullwinkle?”

“YOU'RE NOT MY SUPERVISOR!”

“Oh, fun. I never get to tell this.”