Archer – It’s the best worst workplace ever!

Honestly, if I had to work with these characters, I’d probably shoot myself — if one of them didn’t accidentally shoot me first (Cyril, I’m looking at you). From top to bottom, they’re all at least strange and self-centered, if not outright disturbed and sometimes incompetent. In season two alone, here’s what we’ve learned: our titular hero (voiced by the incomparable H. Jon Benjamin) was described by his own mother as a drunk and a manwhore. His mom and boss Malory (Jessica Walter) seems to have a collection of sex tapes. Lana (Aisha Tyler) used to be an environmental activist with a ridiculous afro that made her look like Luke Cage. Lana’s ex Cyril (Chris Parnell) is a sex addict who has a child with a prostitute. Pam (Amber Nash) knows some gang members. Cheryl/Carol (Judy Greer) is worth a ton of money but has no idea what cancer is. Ray (Adam Reed) is openly homosexual yet ironically still a licensed minister. Krieger (Lucky Yates) is related to Nazis. Oh, and Woodhouse (George Coe) is still getting abused.

They’re people so outrageous that you could only find them on cable TV. At least I hope so. Yet that’s where the humor comes from: while I wouldn’t want their shenanigans happening to me, they’re hilarious when they’re happening to someone who is not me. Cruel, perhaps, but true.

Therein lies the beauty of Archer. As a late-night animated series on a cable network, it’s pretty much got the freedom to be as outrageous and outlandish as it wants to be. Adam Reed has taken full advantage of that. Between this week’s “Double Trouble” and last week’s “White Nights,” Archer has traveled to Russia, gotten shot at a couple hundred times, come back with an ex-KGB girlfriend, and gotten strangled by his rival Barry, who is now a cyborg. Would half of that be able to happen on a live-action TV show? Or one on a major network? I think not. Censors would cry, set designers would get headaches, and someone would complain about the cost of that many bullets. And “White Nights” is the only time I’ve ever heard the phrase “nesting dolls of my penis.” Ever.

What has made the show one of my favorite series, though, is that it’s much more than its R-rated humor. I’m a fairly regular watcher of Family Guy, but that show sometimes relies too much on cutaways and crude jokes, and doesn’t always establish much of a story as a result. Archer, on the other hand, has a plot going on and its humor doesn’t depend on being adult. See “Pipeline Fever,” where Archer scares the heck out of everyone on an airplane by flashing his gun. Or the picture above, which is from the end of “Movie Star,” where Pam, Cheryl/Carol and Ray get caught breaking into an actress’s apartment. It’s all hilarious. Moreso because I can just imagine how insane it would be to have to deal with these people on a daily basis.

I’m not a good enough person to even attempt that. Yet I take no small amount of glee in watching the mayhem and madness every Thursday night. I would never work with these lunatics, but damned if I don’t miss them already.

Clacked by Brittany Frederick
on Apr 21, 2011 @ 22:13 EST5EDT