Season Review: Archer Dreamland

Where should Sterling and Co. go from here?

Archer debuted in 2009 and during its tenure reworked the dynamic to foster differing environments. Season 5 saw Archer Vice which parodied Miami Vice. Season 6 reverted back to the international spy formula which underwent another alteration in season 7 which saw characters blacklisted. But season 8, Archer Dreamland, yielded the greatest change Archer has yet seen. It’s probably my favorite entry in Archer canon with a fantastic setting, character development, and new genre elements.

At the onset of Archer Dreamland, “No Good Deed” opens with a cliffhanger from season 7. This reveals that Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin) has been in a coma for three months. Yet he’s trapped in a 1940 noir realm, Dreamland. In Dreamland, Archer is a private investigator intent on solving the murder of his friend Woodhouse.

In the process, Archer becomes entangled in the seedy, wacky, and dysfunctional Dreamland underbelly. Early on, Archer discovers police corruption when he and Det. Poovey (Amber Nash) thwart Det. Figgis (Chris Parnell) and Barry “Dutch” Dylan (Dave Willis), and rescue Len Trexler’s (Jeffrey Tambor) Chinese sex slaves.

What began as a simple investigation quickly spiraled into a sort of Chinatown style mess of seemingly unrelated plot threads. Charlotte Vandertunt (Judy Greer), the heir to the legendary Vandertunt fortune, arrives requesting that Archer fake her death. Mother (Jessica Walter) hires Archer in her competition with Trexler, Dr. Krieger (Lucky Yates) is revealed as the Dreamland bartender as well as former Nazi scientist, and Lana (Aisha Tyler), is a lounge singer by night and undercover treasury agent by day. And a night on occasion.

Archer Dreamland started off incredibly strong. Its first few episodes featured taut dialogue and multiple concurrent subplots that appeared separate yet suggested a convergence. Additionally, as per the Archer formula, a smorgasbord of pop culture references abounded. These ranged from a Weekend at Bernie’s gag to The Big Lebowski throwback with its severed toe or in this case finger, plot.

But while the first third of the season was a tour de force with the final third matching in equal gusto, the second act noticeably dragged. That’s not to say it’s boring. Rather, it’s muddled. The second act feels decidedly directionless with a bunch of seemingly separate plot threads. Moreover, “Sleepers Wake” felt as though Archer was spinning its wheels.
But with the final leg of Archer Dreamland in “Waxing Gibbous,” “Gramercy, Halbred,” and “Auflösung,Archer ushered in a radical shift. Macabre themes peppered the show, and the series, and characters, assumed refreshing depth. In “Gramercy, Halbred” Archer suffers a breakdown. Throughout the majority of the previous 7 seasons, Archer emerges from situations unscathed emotionally and physically. This feels unrealistic, and it’s pleasantly surprising to witness Sterling so vulnerable.

Similarly, there’s a lot to dissect with Mother as the controlling figure in Dreamland, and Archer’s real-world nemesis Dutch as the primary antagonist in Dreamland as well. Recalling past Archer lore including the “Bionic Barry,”storyline, Dreamland incorporates Archer past plot. It’s a nice touch.

I appreciate how Dreamland has its own running gags. Poovey, a female in non-Dreamland plays a male in Dreamland. There’s a badum-tish after jokes often from the Dreamland drummer. It’s even acknowledged once with a shout of “Diminishing returns!”

Additionally, at the finale, Archer gets pretty meta. “She [Lana] got shot seven times, and no one could survive that,” Archer bellows at Poovey. “Not even in a parallel universe!” he continues. The last episode,”Aauflösung,” means “resolution,” in German. It’s appropriate but also misleading. Whereas the main plot threads are wrapped up, including a surprise twist with a totally anticlimactic reveal, there’s no indication that Archer plans to emerge from Dreamland. Plus, the finale is about as depressing as South Park episode “You’re Getting Old.”

I have no clue where Archer plan to proceed for seasons 9 and 10. In June 2016, the series was renewed for seasons 8-10, as well as moved to its new home on FXX. I hope season 9 resumes in Dreamland as I loved the reverse Dallas scenario wherein it’s known Archer is in a dream world. An admitted sucker for noir, I quite appreciated the serious and lampooned genre elements.

Sure, Archer Dreamland dragged in the middle. But ultimately Dreamland arrived as possibly the series’ strongest season thus far and ends on a note of ambiguity for where the show goes from here.

SCORE
8.5/10