The Last Double Cross of ‘Archer’

Archer, like FX’s other very-long-running comedy It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, survived so long that it’s been easy to forget it’s still there. When it debuted way back in 2009, audiences and critics both enjoyed the raunchy-but-stylish animated series. It had great writing, and a deep bench of superb voice actors (H. Jon Benjamin, Aisha Tyler, and Jessica Walter for starters) with a look that set it far apart from Family Guy, Simpsons, and other mature, but less-sophisticated-looking ‘toons.

It went on. And on. And on. For a few seasons, perhaps bored with the story of office politics and geopolitical adventure within a a spy agency full of misfits and miscreants, Archer took a multi-season detour into “Dreamland.” Seasons 8 through 10 of the series all took place while the lead character, Sterling Archer (Benjamin) was in a coma. That gave series creator Adam Reed and his longtime collaborators Matt Thompson and Casey Willis leeway to explore a season in space, a season in the 1940s and one in…a tropical jungle inspired by Tales of the Gold Monkey?

I’ll be honest, by that point, like a lot of Archer viewers, I’d checked out. The dream seasons, where the voice actors and their animated counterparts took on completely different roles that would be reset at the end of each season just didn’t appeal to me. And when the show returned to its roots as a show about funny spies led by a hapless, alcoholic agent and his overbearing mother (Walter), I only returned sporadically.

But despite all this, the news that the show’s current 14^th season would be its last made me nostalgic for Archer, and critics seemed to have returned to the fold by praising the tail end of this long run. The biggest change, if you’re coming back to the show, is that the passing of Jessica Walter in 2021 meant that the agency gave her character Malory Archer a kind retirement from the agency but later the show acknowledged that her character died as well.

Now, Archer’s former romantic partner and frequent foil Lana Kane (Tyler) is head of the agency and that works wonders for keeping the series fresh in the home stretch. Add to that the addition of Natalie Dew as Interpol agent Zara Khan and Season 14 ended up crackling with nice twists on the old formula.

But the biggest twist came at the end of the season’s promised eight episodes: an abrupt ending to that supposed season finale, “Breaking Fabian” left a lot of questions unanswered and the jeopardy of the characters and the agency up in the air. Of course, this was by design. The very next day, the network announced a three-part “Finale Event” will actually wrap up the show. “Archer: Into the Cold” debuts on December 17^th.

Will Archer and Lana, who along the way had a child together named AbbieJean Kane-Archer, get back together? Does the agency survive? Will Sterling Archer, who found out he’s beset with a lot of health problems from decades of hard living, actually still be alive by the end of the run?

Season 14 has been a return to form for a show that maybe never really lost its core mojo. Archer came after two other brilliant series from the same creators: Adult Swim’s Hanna-Barbera recycled-animation project Sealab: 2021 and the legendary Frisky Dingo, one of the funniest animated series ever made for television.

A big movie-style TV event for a show like Archer sounds about right after years and years and years of consistently good work.