Archer: The Complete Season Three Blu-ray Review
Counter Intelligence
Reviewed by Casey Broadwater, January 16, 2013
If you haven't been watching
Archer, you've missed out on what's arguably—and I'll argue for it any day—one of the best sitcoms on
television, and almost certainly
the funniest animated sitcom. Series creator Adam Reed has called it "
James Bond meets
Arrested
Development," and you'd be hard pressed to find a better description. The super-spy workplace comedy features the voice acting talents of several
Arrested Development veterans—Judy Greer, Jessica Walter, Jeffrey Tambor—and the weird, Oedipal, momma's boy issues of its otherwise
dashing titular protagonist (H. Jon Benjamin) are straight out of Buster Bluth's set of neuroses. Pour in a little
Mad Men (in the show's 1960s
fashion affectations), shake it with bit of
Johnny Quest (in the thick-outlined animation style), and you've got the recipe for
Archer's
potent comic cocktail. If you're new to the show, check out seasons
one
and
two
first—I'd even recommend a blind buy, the show's that good—but
you'll definitely want to pick up the brilliant third season as well, a batch of thirteen episodes that are hilarious, crude, and clever, often at the same
time. For longtime series fans who perhaps haven't caught up to the third season yet, read on for a brief overview of what you can expect.
Heart of Archness, Parts I, II, and III: The third season opens with a three-part mini-movie that picks up where season two left off.
Mourning the death of Katja Kazanova, his hot Russian fiancee, Archer disappears to the South Pacific, where he bartends, grows a massive beard, and
sleeps with a bride on her honeymoon. Malory (Jessica Walter) sends seaplane-flying former ISIS agent Rip Riley to bring her son back, but Archer and
Riley end up kidnapped by a group of Malaysian pirates, necessitating a second rescue mission by agents Lana Kane (Aisha Tyler)—Archer's buxom ex—
and Ray Gillette (Adam Reed). What they don't know is that Archer has been made Pirate King and started his own island lacrosse league. Highlight?
David Cross as the voice of an enslaved anthropology doctoral candidate who can't poop when everyone is watching him.
The Man From Jupiter: This might go down as one of the best
Archer episodes ever. In a hotel bar, Archer meets his lifelong
idol Burt Reynolds—gamely guest-starring here—but it turns out that Burt is actually there on a date with Malory. Disturbed, Archer tries to break up
their nascent relationship, but he also needs Burt's help escaping a Cuban hit squad. Highlight? Either the reveal that Gillette is now confined to a
wheelchair after being shot in
Heart of Archness, or Archer pitching Reynolds on a sequel to
Gator.
El Contador: In a play on
The Most Dangerous Game—the oft-adapted and parodied short story by Richard Connell—Lana
and Archer are man-hunted by an insane Columbian drug-lord (who has unwittingly employed an undercover Cyril as his accountant). Meanwhile, back
at ISIS headquarters, Ray, Cheryl, and Pam turn to Dr. Krieger for help passing a company-mandated drug test, only to be drawn into one of his mad-
scientist experiments. Highlight? See if you can catch the call-back to the season one episode,
Honeypot.
The Limited:
The Trailer Park Boys star Robb Wells plays a guest role as Kenny Bilko, a Nova Scotian separatist/terrorist
whom the ISIS gang is extraditing back to Canada. They take the train—Malory likes to travel in style, and Cheryl is apparently the granddaughter of a
railroad tycoon—but this makes it easy for Bilko's cronies to sneak aboard disguised as Mounties. Think of this as an homage to all the great thrillers
and action movies set on trains. Highlight? Cheryl's pet ocelot makes another appearance, spraying its piss everywhere.
Drift Problem: As a surprise birthday present, Archer gets a souped-up, gadget-i-fied Dodge Challenger—with "rich Corinthian
leather!"—but when it's stolen from the ISIS parking garage, he has to venture into the world of underground street racing and take on the yakuza,
led by George Takei as "Mr. Moto." Highlight? Learning that Pam is a renowned drift racer in yakuza circles, earning her the nickname "Shiro
Kabotcha"—the "White Pumpkin."
Lo Scandalo: This deranged whodunit opens with Malory calling Archer and Lana to her apartment in the middle of the night. In her
living room, tied to a chair, wearing a latex body suit, with a large "marital aid" lodged in his rectum, Italian Prime Minister "Savio Mascalzoni" is found
dead of several gunshot wounds. Afraid of being accused of the murder, Malory stages a massive coverup—Dr. Krieger is called in to dismember the
corpse, natch—but the truth inevitably comes out. Highlight? It's hard to top Lana in a French maid outfit.
Bloody Ferlin: Gillette is probably my favorite character on the show, so I'm always excited for more Ray-centric episodes.
Bloody
Ferlin doesn't disappoint. When When a local sheriff starts harassing Ray's brother Randy—a "racist homophobic wife-swapping drug grower,"
voiced by
30 Rock's Jack McBrayer—Ray convinces Archer to come to rural West Virginia with him to help sort out the mess. The only
problem? Ray hasn't yet told his brother that he's gay, so he brings along Cheryl as his "beard."
Everything goes wrong from the second they
arrive. Highlight? The reveal that Ray has spent the last six months only
pretending to be "handi-capable."
Crossing Over: Archer gets blackout drunk and starts a depraved and top-secret sexual relationship with Pam. Meanwhile, Soviet
officer Nikolai Jakov—Archer's possible father—decides to defect to America and takes up residence in the ISIS safe house, where he's hunted down by
the android Barry, Archer's nemesis and the new head of the KGB. Highlight? Either Pam eating a waffle on the toilet, or her line, "You make me sound
like some kind of chupacabra, but for dicks."
Skin Game: Katja is alive! Well, kinda. Dr. Krieger has resurrected her as an android, but this doesn't stop Archer from falling in love
with her all over again. At least, that is, until he finds her robot vagina—which looks "like a transistor radio and a veal cutlet had a baby"—detached in
his bathroom sink. Archer manages to overcome his revulsion, but he has a new romantic rival in Barry, who's also half machine. Highlight? The spot-
on reference to
The Graduate at the end of the episode.
Space Race, Parts I and II: In the two-part season finale, the ISIS crew is contracted to stop a mutiny on the International Space
Station. What they don't know is that they're actually being lured into space by the mutineers themselves—led by a delusional flight commander
voiced by
Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston—who need more females for their half-hatched plan to terraform and populate Mars. (Cheryl
volunteers to be "Queen of the Red Planet.") Expect much discussion of Lana's boobs in zero gravity, Malory drinking isopropyl alcohol straight from the
bottle, and too many
Star Wars references to count. Highlight? Barry shows up with bottles on his fingers to do the "Come out and play-ay"
taunt from
The Warriors.
