Featured TV on DVD Review: Archer: Season Nine
April 7, 2019
Archer: Season Nine - Buy from Amazon: DVD
I have reviewed the first four seasons of Archer and loved them. In fact, the show has been a contender for Pick of the Week multiple times. On the other hand, this is a relatively high-concept show and high-concept shows tend to not last long before jumping the shark. Is that the case here? Or is Season Nine still going strong?
Archer is a cartoon about a private spy agency called ISIS run by Malory Archer, who was a very accomplished spy in her day. Now the number one spy at her agency is Sterling Archer, who is also her son. While he’s the number one spy, Lana Kane is inarguably more talented, but nepotism keeps Archer on top. The other two spies are Cyril Figgis, who is much less confident that Sterling, which makes him a target for Sterling’s abuse, and Ray Gillette (voiced by series creator Adam Reed), who is much cooler under pressure. Also working for the company is Pam Poovey, the H.R. Director; Cheryl, Malory Archer’s secretary; and finally Dr. Krieger, the mad scientist.
Got all of that? Great. Now ignore it, because the writers have for the past few seasons.
Season five was more of a Miami Vice parody, and while they went back to spying in season six, starting in season seven, they’ve abandoned the premise for a 1970s private eye story, a 1940s Film Noir season, and for this season...
Season Nine takes place on Danger Island and is a homage to treasure hunting serials of the 1930s—the kind that inspired Indiana Jones. Here Sterling Archer is a pilot for a failing airline that he runs, with his mother, Malory Archer, being his only investor and the person who runs the hotel where he stays for free. Pam Poovey is his co-pilot and the one that has to put up with his crap the most. Fortunately for her, she can dish it out just as much as Archer can. Also, Krieger’s there as a talking parrot called Crackers.
The season starts with Archer in bed with Cheryl, a.k.a., Charlotte Stratton, a New York City socialite. As a result, her husband leaves her stranded on the island. Malory Archer offers to hire her as a courtesan, well, threatens really, because, without any money, she will be arrested for vagrancy by Ray Gillette, a.k.a. Capitaine Reynaud. The plot begins when Princess Lanaluakalani arrives with Siegbert Fuchs, who has come to the island to start a breadfruit plantation, or at least that’s their cover story. We find out at the end of episode two that they are actually after an idol. We don’t find out what the idol is until much later.
I’m not going to tell you what it is, because that would be a spoiler.
As I’ve said before, high-concept shows tend to have a short lifespan. There are exceptions, but this is usually the case, because once a concept is used up, there’s little left to keep audiences interested. In order to avoid this, sometimes desperate measures have to be taken. Completely ignoring your original premise and instead doing one new parody / homage to a different genre each is one way to do that. And it works. The season is only eight episodes long, which means you can marathon the full thing in one evening, and the pacing is so great that you will want to do just that. Additionally, the writing is great and the cast know these characters so well that they can truly elevate the material.
On the downside, I really did like the spy elements of the show and I miss that. Also, while the treasure hunters genre has a lot of elements that would be ripe to parody, we don’t get a lot of that in this season. There are more of the Nazi-punching elements of Indiana Jones than figuring out how to avoid traps. I still really liked the season; it just felt like a missed opportunity here.
There are two extras. Firstly, a four-part 14-minute long making-of featurette. Secondly is Crackers’ Costumed Playings, which is three and a half minutes of Crackers cosplaying.
Season Nine doesn’t fully take advantage of the new setting, but its rapid-fire pace and the cast help keep the show engaging. There are few extras on the DVD, but the quality of the show is still more than enough for this to be worth picking up.
Video on Demand
The Show
The Extras
The Verdict
Filed under: Video Review, Aisha Tyler, Jessica Walter