The show exists in this strange alternate world that blends present and past. The world still runs on 60s style tape-drive computers with monochrome CRTs, but they also have modern smartphones. The actual technology level of the world is “whatever technology the scene calls for”. <\/p>\n
The thing is, I think they told all the James Bond jokes they had to tell. By the end of season 4, they were done. The James Bond tropes had been mocked. The 60s spy motif had been fully explored. In an ideal world, the show creators would then move on and make another show. They could pick a fresh genre (like 80s cop shows or detective shows) and give us a new premise with a fresh cast of characters. Instead they took the existing show and tried to jam it into those other genres. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/div>The result wasn’t horrible or anything, but it was lacking some of the magic that made the early seasons so good. The goofy superspy world didn’t lend itself to those other styles of storytelling and the existing cast of characters weren’t designed to fit into the required stereotypes. It’s like trying to make a movie where the washed-up actorsTo be clear, I’m talking about the characters in the movie, not the actors who played them.<\/span> from Galaxy Quest<\/em> have some sort of Shaun of the Dead<\/em> type zombie adventure. Sure, you can<\/em> do that, but it’s not going to work as well as either Galaxy Quest<\/em> or Shaun of the Dead<\/em>.<\/p>\n In season five the show changed to “Archer Vice”. I thought it might be some pastel-soaked satire of Miami Vice<\/em> and the various cops vs. drug dealer shows of the 80s. But instead it was a story about (spoiler) this former agency of super-spies as they try to become drug dealers. It wasn’t lampooning any particular style or genre of show. It was just a really strange, almost surreal story. It still worked in the sense that we got to hear our favorite characters do their usual shtick, but an entire dimension of the show was just gone. <\/p>\n Season six was mostly a return to the established status quo, although the original vibe of the show was still missing. They were running a spy agency again, but most episodes weren’t about what the agency was up to. Instead they were personal problems and side-adventures. <\/p>\n Season seven turned them into a detective agency. Again, I liked it and it made me laugh, but your typical Detective shows aren’t notable for mad scientist inventors (Krieger) and fussy accountants (Cyril) so once again the show wasn’t really playing around with story tropes. It was just doing the same character riffs.<\/p>\n Season eight hasn’t hit Netflix yetAt least, not in the U.S.<\/span> but I know it takes the form of a film noir thing where Archer is a gumshoe. Again, that’s a great idea for a show, but it would be better if you began with a premise and a cast of characters designed to go with it.<\/p>\n I know it sounds like I’m being really negative. The truth is, I love this show and I’ve watched every season at least twice. Even the ones that I’ve been complaining about. It’s not that I dislike the new seasons or I’m mad that they exist. It’s just that I can’t help but look at them and think of the even better show we could be getting if these creative people were allowed to wipe the slate clean and make something new. Yes, I love Archer, Ray, Mallory, Krieger, and Lana. But I could come to love new characters, too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I love Archer. Having said that, I think this show has gone on about four seasons too long. Usually fans express this sort of thing in terms of “jumping the shark” or “the writers are out of ideas”. In the case of Archer, I think it’s clear the writers have tons of ideas. The problem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[608],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}