I subscribe to my cousin James’s blog. It called Stylish. I get a lot out of it and appreciate his take on life. He is a much more prolific blogger than I am. I especially appreciate this quality in his blogging practice.
Sometimes, I have a tendency to overthink the things I want to write about before I publish. This can keep me from writing about things that I am passionate about.
Sometimes when find a new interest, be it a book, a television show, or a new hobby, I get very passionate about it. I have been known to have rabid fandoms of various things. As a teen, I was very into the X-Files. I have also rabidly been into: practicing the trumpet, The Counting Crows, The Dave Matthews Band, The Bare Naked Ladies, Camp Sequanota, Frost Valley YMCA, David Gray’s album White Ladder, NBC’s Community, 30 Rock, Margaret Atwood, the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, and the television show American Dad.
I am pretty into the FXX show Archer. I watch it on Hulu since we do not get FXX. Since we have Hulu I have access to all of the episodes over all 14 seasons. This post is about the television show Archer in case you were wondering.
While I won’t say that my fandom of the television show Archer is quite at the same level as say for example my X-Files obsession was in the 1990’s, it would be correct to say that I am into the show.
The show debuted in September of 2009 on the FX network. It had a 145 episode run over 14 seasons. The last episode aired on December 17, 2023 on the FXX network, where it moved in 2017.
Archer is workplace comedy about a spy agency. It is told through a cartoon medium and has an anachronistic timeline. The characters dress like it is the 1960’s and 1970’s and some aspects of the show seem to be modeling themselves after James Bond type situations. There are villains and characters the seem to be straight out of the cold war but the characters also use cell phones and drones for surveillance. While it is told through a cartoon medium, this is definitely a show for adults. The characters find themselves in adult situations and use adult language.
The main character on the show is an egotistical but handsome James Bond type named Sterling Archer. He is voiced by H. Jon Benjamin. He works at a spy agency run by his mother, Malory Archer. She is voiced by Jessica Walter, who passed away before the show’s conclusion.
I began watching Archer accidently. Mr. Katie told me in the fall of 2010 that he had an interest in watching it. I was not interested at the time. Then one day at the end of 2010, while I baking Christmas cookies, I was half watching a different show on repeat with the with the on-demand feature of our DVR. I was too busy to turn off the television when my show was over and I accidently watched a preview episode from the second season on Archer.
I didn’t like it at first, but I rarely like new things. So I turned on the other show that I had been watching again, and again I didn’t shut the DVR off when it was over because my hands had cookie dough on them. I ended up watching that same preview episode maybe three times by accident because I had dirty hands.
Like a worm, the first episode of the second season of Archer burrowed itself into my brain. I remember telling Mr. Katie afterward that we should watch this new spy show and he looked at me funny because I so adamantly didn’t want to watch it when he first mentioned it.
After enjoying it so much initially, I almost quit watching Archer in the last few years. Archer has been on the air for 14 years. That’s a long time to stick with a show. I lost interest for a while somewhere between seasons 7 and season 11.
During season’s 8-10, the main character, know mostly by his last name, Archer, is in a coma. These seasons take place in his imagination and do not follow the timeline or characterizations that define the rest of the show. For example, one of the seasons takes place in a jazz club, noir, mob land setting and another called Archer 1999 takes place in space where the gang has science fiction adventures.
Currently, Mr. Katie and I are finishing the 14th and final season. I can honestly say that I am not 100 percent into season 14. I am however, very glad that I have returned to my Archer fandom this year. Mr. Katie and I had not watched all of seasons 11, 12, 13, and now 14. Even this late in its run, there have been some good episodes. I truly enjoyed Dingo, Baby et Cetera from season 12.
One of the reasons I like Archer as a program is because it is funny but at the same time the characters still deal with real issues. In the season 12 finale episode, the gang deals with the retirement and abandonment of Mallory Archer after the death of the Jessica Walter who voiced that character. In subsequent episodes Archer begins therapy to deal with his feelings after his mother’s abandonment.
Archer is a funny, fun show, that I definitely did not recommend to my parents because I don’t think they would have appreciated its brand of humor. However, if you like quick dialogue, inside jokes, and a 21st century humor you might appreciate this show.
What have you been watching this summer?
I watch old shows.
Love old shows