Archer Season 11

[Small Man Big Horse]

After being delayed by the pandemic this is finally due to hit our screens on September 16th, and a trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_btcnSs9zn4

Trailer's are notoriously awful but that doesn't look too bad to me, though with creator Adam Reed only contributing the one script it'll be interesting to see how it all pans out. Whatever the case I'm glad we're finally out of the coma era, as boy did that get old quickly.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Ah, marvellous. I thought it had finished.

[Marner and Me]

Still not watched series 10 I thought up until Vice had finished it was decent. May need a good re watch though.

[backdrifter]

Unless you're dying for more I'd skip 9 and 10 entirely. And I say that as someone who LOVED this show at it's peak.

I don't have much hope for season 11 but maybe a new crew it exactly what they need. I feel Adam has just run out of ideas to keep it fresh.

[Mister Six]

Are 9 and 10 both coma seasons? I got bored a bit into Dreamland and dropped it.

[H-O-W-L]

I think the later series (6-7 especially) are legitimately frustrating because Archer starts to better himself as a person and take on more overall responsibilty and be less of a dickend, and then the plot contrives to make him back into a dickend, or make him fail horribly anyway. The ending of that shit one with the shrunken submarine (a Fantastic Voyage parody is literally the nadir of any comedy series anyway) was just the fucking worst, because it went out of its way to make the ISIS gang fail despite them actually doing their fucking jobs.

[letsgobrian]

Are 9 and 10 both coma seasons? I got bored a bit into Dreamland and dropped it.

They are. If you have fond memories of flop 80s adventure series Tales of The Gold Monkey, then you should watch season 9, as the whole season is a loving homage to it. Season 10 is uneven and I while recall liking some of it, even those bits weren't strong enough for me to remember what those bits consisted of.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Are 9 and 10 both coma seasons? I got bored a bit into Dreamland and dropped it.

Yeah, season 9 is set on an island in the pacific in 1938 (and is apparently partially a tribute to Tales of the Gold Monkey), while season 10 is Archer in Space. Both seasons have a couple of great episodes in them, but also some really weak ones too.

[Mister Six]

Cheers. I'll skip those, I think. It might sound daft, but the knowledge that it's not happening to the "real" Archer and co robs me of my interest in those seasons, and I'm so used to the rhythm and style of the show that it feels overly familiar despite the changes in setting. If 11 means we're back in the real world, I'll jump in here.

[Ferris]

I really liked the first 5 or 6 seasons but dropped off during the coma seasons (midway through the island I think). As a one-off, it's a really bold and funny idea to just take the characters and put them in a completely different setting for a season and just have fun with it. 3 seasons in a row seems like they've run out of ideas to do anything except that.

The Wikipedia articles aren't very good, can someone give me a quick précis or how the coma stuff ends? Spoiler tags if possible!

[Small Man Big Horse]

I really liked the first 5 or 6 seasons but dropped off during the coma seasons (midway through the island I think). As a one-off, it's a really bold and funny idea to just take the characters and put them in a completely different setting for a season and just have fun with it. 3 seasons in a row seems like they've run out of ideas to do anything except that.

The Wikipedia articles aren't very good, can someone give me a quick précis or how the coma stuff ends? Spoiler tags if possible!

He wakes up.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Ahem, sorry, being a twat there. And I can't actually remember as it was so weak a season.

[Ferris]

Ahem, sorry, being a twat there. And I can't actually remember as it was so weak a season.

To be honest, that is basically what all the stuff online says and I thought "well there must be more to it than that!"

The clip is on YouTube, there really isn't that much more to it than that.

[madhair60]

this show is just uglier than fuck

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

The new season may inject some fresh blood, but let's not forget that Sealab 2021 became unwatchable when Harry Goz died and Adam Reed stopped being the main writer. And, similarly, The Xtacles, where Reed wasn't involved, was canceled after just two episodes.

[NoSleep]

This show is all about the banter between the characters and has always been at least co-scripted by Reed. Some of the Reed-less episodes in season 10 were dire on that count.

[Small Man Big Horse]

To be honest, that is basically what all the stuff online says and I thought "well there must be more to it than that!"

The clip is on YouTube, there really isn't that much more to it than that.

I'd completely forgotten that I'd reviewed the episode too so it's partially that the episode was weak but also that my brain is fucked seemingly. But the long and the short of it was that after being being on trial for almost murdering Lana (while hallucinating, admittedly, but the sequence was still fucking horrible) they're attacked by a robotic Barry and the spaceship they're in explodes, cue a long and pointless selection of clips that makes for a best of the previous 10 seasons package, and then Archer wakes up, and it's revealed that he was in a coma for three years, and Mallory's been by his bedside the whole time. She suggests that this whole thing has always been a love story between the two characters, and Archer is mildly disgusted.

[MojoJojo]

Hmmm, season 10 completely passed me by. I'll give it a go, although yeah it has felt like the idea's run  out of steam awhile ago. Season 9 was better than 8, at least.

[NoSleep]

To be honest, that is basically what all the stuff online says and I thought "well there must be more to it than that!"

The clip is on YouTube, there really isn't that much more to it than that.

There isn't much more to say about him waking up, if that's what you mean. It concludes season 10.

[thr0b]

To be fair on the Sealab thing - by the final season they'd entirely run out of old footage and episodes to hack up, meaning it was just a badly animated parody of what it used to be a well-done parody of.

[thr0b]

There isn't much more to say about him waking up, if that's what you mean. It concludes season 10.

Yep. It was there to finish the series if they decided to do no more, and left it open to do more if they wished. Wasn't much more to it than that.

[Mister Six]

Sort of hoping 11 is the last one, to be honest.

[spaghetamine]

Always hated this show, it seemed hollow and lacking in any joy, way too reliant on the fact it was a cartoon but *gasp* there's jokes about SEX

[chveik]

Always hated this show, it seemed hollow and lacking in any joy, way too reliant on the fact it was a cartoon but *gasp* there's jokes about SEX

first season is fine but the joke wears thin very quickly

[Mister Six]

Always hated this show, it seemed hollow and lacking in any joy, way too reliant on the fact it was a cartoon but *gasp* there's jokes about SEX

You haven't actually seen it, have you?

EDIT: Or actually any adult cartoons for the past 20 years except the stuff that's on prime time network TV.

[backdrifter]

this show is just uglier than fuck

This is crazy! I think it's probably the best looking animated show ever.

Having said that I HATE the look (and content) of anime so we probably just have completely different tastes.

[H-O-W-L]

I think Season 8 (Dreamland?) was really strong. Probably the strongest of the seasons post 5, if I'm honest, but not particularly very "Archery". It reminded me a lot of LA Noire, especially with the flashbacks to Archer's war antics, and the heavy lean toward seriouser stuff was pretty good too. Infact if they'd done it entirely seriously without any jokes (and had an actual fucking ending) it probably would've been one of the best seasons.

This should just be the last fucking season. Draw a line under it and end it with Archer stood in Malory's office with a glass of scotch. He takes a sip, then laughs, and mutters "Balls." and Malory just goes "What?" then Archer lets out that quiet raspy laugh he does when he's really tickled. End. Smash credits. Loud trumpets. That'd do me. I'd give that a standing ovation. Nice little "Oh well, we're back to old Archer Antics" deal, but with no actual future Archer Antics.

[NoSleep]

this show is just uglier than fuck

Did you not get past the first season, as that is graphically kind of rough around the edges? But they tweak it successfully for season 2 and it keeps gradually improving from there.

[spaghetamine]

You haven't actually seen it, have you?

EDIT: Or actually any adult cartoons for the past 20 years except the stuff that's on prime time network TV.

I watched the first two seasons as I had friends into it and would sit through it with them, I think the cast is great but I can remember strongly disliking the writing and overall tone. Of course I have seen many non-prime time adult cartoons, Archer just didn't do it for me.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Did you not get past the first season, as that is graphically kind of rough around the edges? But they tweak it successfully for season 2 and it keeps gradually improving from there.

It really is an odd criticism that I don't understand, and like you say can only presume that he only watched the first season, as I think it's a show which often looks pretty stunning.