Season 3, Episode 8
Continuing the seasons' theme of referencing and proportioning past episodes to generate laughs, “El Scandalo” is perhaps the episode that has done the greatest amount of lifting so far this season. Unsurprisingly (and perhaps a bit troubling) is the fact that this also makes it one of the strongest episodes of the seasons.
The obvious episode connection here was season one's “Killing Utne”, which also saw the whole ISIS team end up at Malory's place for a dinner party, except for the fact that that one was actually real. (The cold open also seems to have been lifted from “Dial M for Mother”, but the episode doesn't really do anything with that. I was however a good way to set the mood.)
Now, using the term “lifted” could be (and usually is) meant to be disparaging, a way to call out writers for being lazy and stealing someone else's (or even their own) work, but I don't mean for that to be the case here. Archer is not only self-aware in the fact that it's repeating old plotlines, but also makes it part of the joke. Thus seeing Archer and Lana bailing out Marlory – again – and seeing the rest of the ISIS office get sucked up into her weird shit – again – has it's own sort of meta joke about it, with the punchline being that these people never change. Of course characters that never change is usually a death knell for comedies these days, but in the world of Archer, seeing these narcissistic sociopaths stick to their harmful ways becomes funny, a cynical joke about contemporary humanity.
As for the episode's structure, I'll admit that it was surprising light, both by the standards of this show and in comparison to “Utne”. Archer and Lana come over to investigate the murder of Italy's Prime Minister, who was into some really weird sex stuff with Malory, and eventually the rest of the office becomes involved when Kreiger is asked over to dispose of the body and he invites the rest of the drones along. Kreiger does his job while everybody else distracts a police detective by throwing a fake dinner party, and when all is said and done everybody leaves with and throws out a various body part, all according to Kreiger's plan. (And hopefully they all threw their part out in a pattern that created a smiley face.)
Usually for episodes of this show, there's more contention, more conflict between various factions/groups/characters. Here in “Scandalo” there isn't so much of that; the office rallies together to get rid of a body with very few questions asked, and the only real threat was the detective. I can see where this formula could go wrong – Archer thrives with zaniness, and few things are as zany as having a bunch of unpredictable people at each other's throats – but the setup here allowed for a lot of inter-office snipping/one-liners and those are always good for some laughs.
The one flaw with the episode comes at the end, where the show tries to manufacture some conflict by “revealing” that it was in fact Malory who shot the Prime Minister. Now, the episode made sure that you saw this coming – I believe that was in fact part of the joke – and Malory's reasons for not killing the minister until now (that the sex was pretty good, until it got too weird) was good for a laugh. But something about the matter of fact nature in which this was revealed, and that face that she was getting revenge for the murder of the man who may have been Archer's father was all too serious for it to be funny, and it felt like an unnecessary interruption to the comedy of the episode. Things picked back up once Archer and Lana react to this revelation, but until then it was an unnecessary lull it what was otherwise a great episode.
Quotes and Other Thoughts:
“WD-40, mother. It costs like a nickel.”
“Yeah, do that, take that tone.”
“Why does this chair have no seat. And what...is in his ass?”
“Thanks, Holly Hindsight.”
“What's more romantic than a dildo party/murder.”
“Just the crime of murder, not the crime of sodomy by rubber eggplant.”
“We'll have to smash the chair like he was chasing you around, all rapey – which since he's Italian, shouldn't be too hard a sell.”
“Patato, pa-dildo.”
“Can I get the operation now, da?” “No son, you're gonna die.”
“A pot of coffee, just like I like my women – black, bitter, and preferably fair trade.”
“And is Krieger hard at work?” “He literally might be.” “Ew.”
“And hopefully when you look at all the drop points on a map, it will look like a smiley face.”
“I hate you all so much.” “No one care, Figgus, you're only here to round out the numbers.”
“I mean I did what I could, there's only so much you can do with a vanilla candle.”
“And remember: smiley face, and thank you.”
Now, using the term “lifted” could be (and usually is) meant to be disparaging, a way to call out writers for being lazy and stealing someone else's (or even their own) work, but I don't mean for that to be the case here. Archer is not only self-aware in the fact that it's repeating old plotlines, but also makes it part of the joke. Thus seeing Archer and Lana bailing out Marlory – again – and seeing the rest of the ISIS office get sucked up into her weird shit – again – has it's own sort of meta joke about it, with the punchline being that these people never change. Of course characters that never change is usually a death knell for comedies these days, but in the world of Archer, seeing these narcissistic sociopaths stick to their harmful ways becomes funny, a cynical joke about contemporary humanity.
As for the episode's structure, I'll admit that it was surprising light, both by the standards of this show and in comparison to “Utne”. Archer and Lana come over to investigate the murder of Italy's Prime Minister, who was into some really weird sex stuff with Malory, and eventually the rest of the office becomes involved when Kreiger is asked over to dispose of the body and he invites the rest of the drones along. Kreiger does his job while everybody else distracts a police detective by throwing a fake dinner party, and when all is said and done everybody leaves with and throws out a various body part, all according to Kreiger's plan. (And hopefully they all threw their part out in a pattern that created a smiley face.)
Usually for episodes of this show, there's more contention, more conflict between various factions/groups/characters. Here in “Scandalo” there isn't so much of that; the office rallies together to get rid of a body with very few questions asked, and the only real threat was the detective. I can see where this formula could go wrong – Archer thrives with zaniness, and few things are as zany as having a bunch of unpredictable people at each other's throats – but the setup here allowed for a lot of inter-office snipping/one-liners and those are always good for some laughs.
The one flaw with the episode comes at the end, where the show tries to manufacture some conflict by “revealing” that it was in fact Malory who shot the Prime Minister. Now, the episode made sure that you saw this coming – I believe that was in fact part of the joke – and Malory's reasons for not killing the minister until now (that the sex was pretty good, until it got too weird) was good for a laugh. But something about the matter of fact nature in which this was revealed, and that face that she was getting revenge for the murder of the man who may have been Archer's father was all too serious for it to be funny, and it felt like an unnecessary interruption to the comedy of the episode. Things picked back up once Archer and Lana react to this revelation, but until then it was an unnecessary lull it what was otherwise a great episode.
Quotes and Other Thoughts:
“WD-40, mother. It costs like a nickel.”
“Yeah, do that, take that tone.”
“Why does this chair have no seat. And what...is in his ass?”
“Thanks, Holly Hindsight.”
“What's more romantic than a dildo party/murder.”
“Just the crime of murder, not the crime of sodomy by rubber eggplant.”
“We'll have to smash the chair like he was chasing you around, all rapey – which since he's Italian, shouldn't be too hard a sell.”
“Patato, pa-dildo.”
“Can I get the operation now, da?” “No son, you're gonna die.”
“A pot of coffee, just like I like my women – black, bitter, and preferably fair trade.”
“And is Krieger hard at work?” “He literally might be.” “Ew.”
“And hopefully when you look at all the drop points on a map, it will look like a smiley face.”
“I hate you all so much.” “No one care, Figgus, you're only here to round out the numbers.”
“I mean I did what I could, there's only so much you can do with a vanilla candle.”
“And remember: smiley face, and thank you.”
“How about a slice?...God, what is with me and Italian lately?”
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