Archer - "Heart of Archness, Part 1"

Season 3, Episode 1

A three parter???

“I’m not going to be a pirate. I’m going to be a pirate king.”

-Archer

There were two elements that had me worried going into these three new episodes. The first was the events of the then-finale back in April. As I said back when “Double Trouble” aired, I wasn't all that wild about the show taking yet another weird left turn into pathos (as it had done in “Tragical History” and “Stage Two”), as it didn’t jive with the show’s overall cynical attitude towards its characters. At the end, the sour note of Katya’s death and Archer’s apparent descent into depression was a weird direction for the show to head in, and I wasn’t exactly sure what this meant for future episodes; Archer may do recurring gags well, but continuity not so much.

So then let’s talk about the second weird thing that hung over tonight’s proceedings: I’m not exactly sure why FX decided to give the show an extra three episodes to round out its second season, as well as the normal 13 episode order for a third season. I mean, I understand that the network is trying to drum up more interest for the show by airing a few episodes after It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (and watching the two together tonight, they do have a similar quick-paced, tit-for-tat comedic exchanges), but for a network that normally gives its creators a wide berth, this move runs against that ethos. While I’m sure Adam Reed appreciates the extra work, to limit him to three episodes in which to bring in new viewers must be creatively taxing on the guy, and not all showrunners react well to being back into such a corner.

But Reed must get credit for what he decided to do with these extra three episodes. Creating a three-parter is a bold move that I wasn’t sure that the show could do, but it actually turned out better than I expected. But that doesn’t mean that the episode was as good as I have come to expect from Archer. While I appreciate the long form narrative that the show is going for, and am in fact psyched to see what Archer does as pirate king, and where Lana and Ray roles as his reluctant rescuers leads, that didn’t change the fact that most of this episode was setup, and thus it wasn’t as gleefully funny as I know the show is capable of being.

Yet from a comedy angle, there was still a lot to love about tonight’s episode. All of the scenes that had Archer and Rip Riley (Patrick Warburton) play off of each other was a great example of the fast-paced comedy that the show can do so well, and while the rest of the ISIS agents didn’t get a whole lot to do, the fact that their jobs become easier – and boring – without Archer around was a nice touch. But even in the non-comedy bits, the show shined, especially with the long, silent section where Archer saved Rip from the crashed plane, and then shot a shark in the face. It felt like a weird throwback to the silent cartoons of old, and yet somehow in fit into the episode perfectly.

Where the show goes from here is still up in the air – I’m still not entirely confident in Reed’s long-term storytelling skills – but I’m just glad to have Archer back. Besides, it will all add up in two weeks’ time anyways, right?

Next Week: The fun continues with “Heart of Archness, Part 2”

Quotes, Etc:

Other things I loved: Bionic Barry, Cheryl’s belief that she has psychokinetic powers,  and David Cross appearing as Noah. I hope we get a lot more from him next week.

“BAAAAAARRRRYYY!”

“Is that how you crash a wedding? Yes it is, Bionic Barry, yes it is.”

“With his millions in cash.” “Tending bar.” “Or maybe not.”

“Yeah, got to give him the sploosh.” “And the equivalent of whatever my sploosh is. Which I guess is sploosh. With the semen.”

“A, rhetorical and B, what?”

“A seaplane. Looks like a boat had a baby with a plane.”

“Sky Captain of yesteryear!”

“Call you back 1930s, and hey, look out for that Adolph Hitler, he’s a bad egg.”

“You’re so hot for him, I could rehear this chili in your cooch.”

“So…are we going to make some cooch chilli or not?”

“Wooooh! Two personal records: for breath-holding, and the number of sharks shot in the face!”

“You can forget about getting Carvel.” “Awww, Cookie Pus.”

“Sorry I ate so much food.” “Yeah, that was a pretty dick move.” “If it makes you feel better, I threw most of it up.”

“Those might be pirates.” “Well, they’ll have to do until we find some cowboys and Indians.”

“Planks…now I’m done.”

“Then send me to fat camp, and pray that I don’t eat those fat, delicious chiggrets. Because I will eat them up.”

“Yeah crazy rich. She invited the splash-less urinal cake.”

“Not now, Jerkins.”

“What the hell, dumb guy.”

“And Riley, do I have kill everyone myself.”

“‘Dickhead’ was the go-word.”

“You just killed like ten pirates.” “Wow, if five-year-old me knew that, he’d get a huge boner…I don’t know why I said that.”