Aisha Tyler Official Website

News

• 

  January 7, 2010

  Media Reviews for Media People: FX's 'Archer'

  by Larry Dobrow

  [excerpt]
  Impressively, FX sustains its hot funny streak with "Archer", an animated riff on a boorish, Baldwin-dense, mommy-obsessed superspy. Think James Bond minus 225 points of IQ and with caviar runoff dribbling down his lapel.
  
  In lesser hands, "Archer" might've been another "Family Guy" -- a rat-a-tat series of pop-culture putdowns that confuses volume and velocity with wit. Anyone paying attention, though, will recognize the intelligence and keen eye for detail that bubbles just beneath the show's strenuously anti-PC surface.

  Sure, there are dolphin puppets and de rigeur jabs at Dane Cook (enough already. The guy sucks. We get it). One character changes her name every time an officemate misremembers it; another is described in the show's press materials as "a sturdy, blond lesbian who enjoys using hand puppets as a means to resolve inter-office employee conflicts." Still, "Archer" interweaves smart nods to O. Henry and keen visual gags (weaponry bins labeled "hammers" and "tap and die") amid this glib silliness. It's all wickedly imaginative, and it's all a hoot.
  
  The show's genius lies in its reimagining of an elite spy agency as a hotbed of office politics, one in which professional duty and password protection take a backseat to petty vendettas. Yes, every being on "Archer" is literally a cartoon, but somehow they come across as more multidimensional than their counterparts on "real" shows. Credit here should probably go to the actors who voice them, especially "Arrested Development" vet Jessica Walter (as the agency's boss/matriarch) and Aisha Tyler (as a voluptuous, harpoon-gun-toting agent).
  
  Sure, there are dolphin puppets and de rigeur jabs at Dane Cook (enough already. The guy sucks. We get it). One character changes her name every time an officemate misremembers it; another is described in the show's press materials as "a sturdy, blond lesbian who enjoys using hand puppets as a means to resolve inter-office employee conflicts." Still, "Archer" interweaves smart nods to O. Henry and keen visual gags (weaponry bins labeled "hammers" and "tap and die") amid this glib silliness. It's all wickedly imaginative, and it's all a hoot.
  
  The show's genius lies in its reimagining of an elite spy agency as a hotbed of office politics, one in which professional duty and password protection take a backseat to petty vendettas. Yes, every being on "Archer" is literally a cartoon, but somehow they come across as more multidimensional than their counterparts on "real" shows. Credit here should probably go to the actors who voice them, especially "Arrested Development" vet Jessica Walter (as the agency's boss/matriarch) and Aisha Tyler (as a voluptuous, harpoon-gun-toting agent).

  Source: AdAge.com

  < Go Back