Analysis

                   Laughter Is The Best Medicine

   Archer is a hilarious series that could cheer up most people’s spirits after the first minute or two. To give a brief summery: Archer is an animated series about a spy agency with the star, and also the deadliest spy in the world, being a lucky misogynist drunk named Sterling Archer. His mother runs the spy agency and there are other non-stereotypical characters, all with dysfunctions that make the show funny when they encounter personal and work issues. Episode one of series one is a great comical start to a fantastic series because of its humor of its: interesting characters, the constant sexual references from the mother son relationship of the Archers, and unusual circumstances due to the work environment that always ends with Sterling’s favor.

            Firstly, Sterling Archer the deadliest spy in the world; and only because he accidentally kills many terrorists at a time, also the second best spy at the agency saves his behind time after time with her intelligence. Archer drinks often and sleeps with many women, and the second scene demonstrates that when Sterling awakes with a hangover and a lady friend in bed. There are also at least two inner work relationships that are referenced in the first episode. The Archers are both borderline alcoholics, but only Sterling’s mother Malory constantly drinks during work. Malory is almost always seen pouring or has a drink in her hands; which is perplexing because the boss shouldn’t be drinking during work at all. Also she has a sexual relationship with the head of the KGB. Considering the Americans and Russians are rivals, it is unexpected. This is shown when we first see Malory master-bating to a phone call, which we towards the end of the episode discover was the head of the KGB.

            The second best field agent, Lana Kane, is a strong confident half African American woman. Lana dated Sterling for a lengthy period of time, but they broke up because of Sterling’s repeated cheating and his unhealthy relationship with his mother. Generally strong independent women are able to resist returning to mistakes; but Lana after beginning a relationship with another coworker, still finds her ex-boyfriend attractive and lies several times about how she is over him. This is displayed when we first see her and she explains why she doesn’t want to talk to Sterling because he was basically a bad partner; but she then later in the episode reacts as if she still has feelings for Sterling when he is in danger, and when their past relationship affects her current one. There is also her current boyfriend Cyril, who is an accountant at their agency. Usually, Cyril is the voice of reason and the suspected role model, but has his moments of sex addiction problems. That is shown first when he is tucking in his shirt from having sex in his work place. Cyril progresses very shortly through the first few episodes to not be as respectable as he is presents himself for the first time.

            There are also two other important women that make the show extremely funny; they are Pam the human resources director, and Cheryl the receptionist. Pam is the Human resource director and she is supposed to keep workers information and gossip confidential, but she always gives up everyone’s personal problems. This was clear when everyone heard the rumor created by Sterling, that there was a mole within their agency. Pam was on several occasions indicated as the rumor spreader; therefore, everyone hates her because she always tells everyone about the littlest of gossip. Pam funnily enough, also contributes sexual harassment comments and doesn’t seem to do her job at all, unless it involves other non-major characters in the series. Cheryl is the receptionist to Malory and has many problems. She has some kind of mental abnormality, but is unclear on what she specifically has. Cheryl, like some women, becomes delusional when it comes to relationships. She thinks she is in a relationship with Sterling, but it shows Sterling has no interest in her and refuses to end her fantasy. We understand why Sterling doesn’t end her confusion of their relationship when they meet for lunch and he tries to take advantage of her workplace access to break into the agency later that night. The first we see of her is when she asks why Sterling “stood” her up the previous night and Sterling tries to apologize with a lame excuse that he didn’t fully develop.

            The weird part about this show is how Sterling has sexual tension with his mother. This is shown first when Lana flashes back to when they were dating and Sterling got a call from his mother after Lana and him were about to turn on interracial porn. Instead of wanting her to turn off the porn for later, he insists to keep it on claiming he could both talk to his mother while being stimulated sexually. He also is able to visualize whore-island in front of his mother when she uses it as an example. He even called out his mothers name during sex with Lana as she references randomly during the show. Then finally, when he is being told his mother will die Sterling gets a boner and explains that only half of his erection is from the image of her death and the other half would really miss her. The scenes are always amplified and made weird and laugh out loud funny.

            The first episode is about how Sterling trying to cover up his reckless “business expenses.” While he contemplates how to change his records, Sterling creates a rumor that there is a mole amongst the agency. After his surprisingly intelligent plan to sneak into the database is coming together, a fellow agent reveals he is a Russian spy and uses the opportunity to try and bring down the agency. Conveniently Sterling was right about the mole and because he made it up earlier, the other agents were already waiting for an encounter to happen so when they were notified by the alarm they were extremely quick to responded. In the end Sterling’s business expense account was wiped of evidences and he never got in trouble because the real mole was taken care of by the other agents that aided him. Sterling had his happy ending and no harm no foul.

            The interesting situations that are described in this series are very odd, but the most amusing part is how everything ends up well for all of the characters. The real fun is how they are going to insult each other based on their flaws and incompetence. The series can surly cause many to laugh if said people enjoy the typical humor of sex and violence that we idolize in many of our TV shows and movies. The characters are all very different and bring different backgrounds that can contribute to diverse show that provides humor in unexpected ways. The first episode especially makes fun of: the unusual characters first explanations of themselves, the unsettling sexual undertones the Archers have, and the interesting twist of a real mole being caught in the agency then the episode ending with Sterling’s problem solved. This series is hysterical and could cause almost any frown to turn upside down.

           

           

"Hole Hunt" Archer: Season One. Writ. Adam Reed. Dir. Mack Williams. FX, September 17, 2009. Electronic File.