Review: Archer “Liquid Lunch”

As we continue on with the seventh season of Archer, we’re all pretty familiar with the strengths of the show and maybe where it tends to come up short. Last week was a reminder of how an excellent show like Archer can go off the rails. Perhaps it was an indicator of what’s to come? Maybe it was just an off week? Time will tell. In the meantime the direct follow up to last week’s episode aired last night and I’m happy to say that if Archer went off the rails last week, it was only to do a sweet trick in the air and land directly back on the rails. In other words, it was a great episode. How great? Read on to find out!

Spoilers Below

Christian Slater returned to the show last night to reprise his menacing role of Slater. The CIA agent needs the help of Archer and Lana in his off the books mission, but along the way the tension between Archer and Lana reaches a boiling point. Meanwhile, Krieger bets that he can hypnotize the rest of the group. If he wins they all have to go see his racist one man show.

This was a great episode of Archer from start to finish. Slater was such a fun and dynamic character in the past, it’s fun to see him return and banter with Archer and Lana again. It’s like seeing an old friend that you thought you didn’t miss, but once you see them, you realize you may have missed them the whole time. On the surface it would appear that he was the driving force of what caused a greater divide between Lana and Archer, but unsurprisingly it was just Archer’s arrogance again. Slater is just very good at bringing that arrogance out of Archer. There is an interesting tension between the three characters while they are on their mission and the mission itself is also pretty interesting. Not sure how it will play into the rest of the season, it may not at all, but we’ll see.

Meanwhile, Krieger’s subplot of the episode was the real fun of the episode. He bets everyone else at Figgis that he can hypnotize them and of course he can’t, but how he actually pulls off the feat is quire hilarious to see unfold. There are surprises along the way and it was just a joy to watch.

The one fault I do have with the episode is that I think I’m getting a little bored of the drama between Archer and Lana. I think I’m ready for a point in the show where these two finally go their separate ways (at least romantically) and maybe move on to something else for these characters to explore.

Overall, excellent episode. It was fun at every moment and it left me wondering what we may see next week. The writing was excellent, there was some decent character development and we didn’t have to depend on an action scene to keep us captivated in what was going on. Of course I enjoy the action scenes, but this is one of the episodes that proves that Archer doesn’t always need them. In terms of quality, I would love the rest of the season to be like this episode.