ARCHER: THE COMPLETE SEASON THREEDVD Review
(not rated)
MOVIE: **** (out of 5)
DVD EXPERIENCE: ***1/2 (out of 5)
BY KEVIN CARR
Over recent years, I have become a real fan of the shows being produced for FX. Comedies like “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and “The League” draw me in every week, and the dramas like “Sons of Anarchy” are pretty solid as well.
Sometimes forgotten is the animated adult gem “Archer.” FX’s main broadcast arm Fox is more well known for its animated content (with series like “The Simpsons,” “Family Guy” and “Bob’s Burgers”), but “Archer” is easily as entertaining as any of these series.
In the third season, Sterling Archer has gone missing after his fiancée was killed during their wedding. Mallory Archer pulls out all the stops to find him, sending a bounty hunter after him that lands them all in a pirate fortress. Soon, we get back to the normal bumbling spy ways, and the season reaches bigger heights with guest stars like Burt Reynolds, David Cross and Seth Rogen. The stories get bigger than previous seasons, taking the spy spoof to Roger Moore levels of espionage, including a trip to space and danger on a high-speed train.
“Archer” hasn’t lost its touch. The characters are as extreme as ever, starting to become caricatures of themselves. However, once an audience becomes familiar with comedy characters like this, it’s the natural place to go. Archer has worked his way through all the women to eventually reach Pam, and Cheryl has become possibly more twisted than her.
Upturns in the show include a better use of Cyril, and that means a lot coming from a guy who doesn’t particularly like Chris Parnell. However, the series has moved him out of the accountant’s office enough and integrated his character into the field pretty well.
It’s easy to burn through an entire series of “Archer” in a day or so, considering it’s a half-hour show with only 13 episodes. It left me wanting more, which is the sign of a great show.
The third season DVD comes with commentaries on three episodes on the first disc. The second disc includes the featurettes and other bonus content, including an enhanced version of the season premier trilogy episode. Short featurettes include the in-character spots “Book-on-Tape Fail,” “Cooking with Archer,” “Gator 2 Trailer” and “Archer Season 3 at Comic-Con 2012.”