Review: Archer ‘Nellis’

Spoilers Below:

I feel like when it was announced that Archer would ditch the coke smuggling plotlines and team with the CIA that it would be a return to form. And I wasn’t alone; the show’s bread and butter had been spy missions for four seasons before last year’s ginormous plot twist, so the idea of the ex-ISIS crewmembers going on “missions” again resulted in a serious case of déjà vu. It sure started out that way with the first three episode set in Japan, Argentina, and the Alps – with all three trips occurring on CIA orders. But since then we’ve seen a wedding in Wisconsin, a show set almost entirely in an elevator, and a fake babysitting gig that turned out to be an elaborate parenting test. And here we are again, with an episode that featured Sterling, Pam, Cyril, Cheryl, Ray, and Krieger engaging in shenanigans they initiated, and operating completely outside of the CIA realm. Well, sort of.

It all started when Sterling called the office in need of transportation home after a wild, unexplained trip. Since he ended up on both the no-fly and no-train lists, the gang had to send a plane, and themselves, to him. While flying too close to Area-51, their plane was shot down and they were forced to land at the base. Once inside, Pam and Krieger ran off while chasing aliens, and the Air Force soldiers went after the whole group in response. Eventually they beat some guys up, stole some uniforms, and “borrowed” a new plane to fly home.

Meanwhile, Malory guilt-tripped Lana into changing Abijean’s middle name to Malory, and gave her $22,500 to do so (plus another $5,000 if she gets christened in a white church).

In Case You Missed It:

1) “I want to fly the train!”

2) The weird hooker that harassed Archer in the phone booth had a shirt that read: “Pobody’s Nerfect.”

3) “No, but seriously, Cyril: cut some limes. Like six.”

4) “What am I, this map?”

5) Nice alignment of the words “brain” and “freeze.” Archer has always had a knack for dialogue flow like that, but it’s usually during a scene change. Such as the scene change immediately after the brain freeze part.

6) Why does Krieger have anal technology at all? Though I guess the brown note thing from earlier this season kind of fits here.

7) Babies are not bowl games.

8) Was that an X-Files reference at the end?

9) Does anyone else get angry that basically everyone other than Pam is in fantastic shape? I never thought a cartoon would make me ashamed of my body.

For the fourth week in a row, Archer has gotten away from official mission-based plotlines. Still, the gang found themselves in yet another crazy and dangerous situation, with the CIA thing at least playing some part. Interestingly, this time the only use of the CIA name was Sterling posing as Slater in order to avoid further trouble with the Air Force. This ended up being short-lived though, as their cover story of agents escorting prisoners went awry as soon as Pam and Kriger made chase of the extraterrestrials.

Since this episode was very open-ended from the beginning, it made for a more unpredictable time than usual, adding more fun to the viewing. It’s not just: mission is given, mission is completed. Not that it’s ever that easy or without its complications, but the end goal was always there. I suppose this week the target was “get home,” but it seemed like Sterling was fucking around to begin with, so the gang could have easily fucked around in Branson for the entire installment, or something.

By the way, was anyone a bit disappointed that we didn’t get more information about where Sterling was prior to the episode’s beginning? I get that Archer leaves some elements purposely ambiguous or secret (like Sterling’s bender in the premiere – but at least we knew the reason behind that one), just for funsies, but I was kind of hoping for a Hangover-like show this week in which Sterling spent the entire time attempting to reconstruct the previous evening (evenings?) to solve some sort of mystery. Oh well, it was still fun. And funny as well, with plenty of humor occurring anytime the gang (or at least the ones featured last night) is stuck in close quarters and/or in dicey situations together. Seeing Pam and Krieger, a duo not usually paired together, was an added bonus. If it were any other members (save maybe Cheryl) people wouldn’t have acted so incredulous & dismissive toward their alien experience story. It worked.

Although on the other hand, I thought the Lana/Malory storyline was pretty lame. It wasn’t particularly funny (with the only real laugh coming at the very end) and could have easily been eliminated entirely. Perhaps the producers were setting up a future episode and I’ll stand corrected, but until then I stand by my comments. And even if that happens, I probably still will, because it wasn’t very entertaining in the meantime.

The main plot was, however, and that’s what saved this episode. It was just the right amount of insanity, unlawfulness, and absurdity, so “Nellis” as a whole didn’t suffer very much.