Review: Archer: 1999 “The Leftovers”
Oooh, we’re diving into the sci-fi horror genre now.
Overview:
When the crew gets attacked by scavengers, Pam fails to hold up her duties when she falls asleep. Then her sandwich comes to life in the form of an alien armadillo creature. The sandwich begins to lay eggs throughout the ship, and even worse it has eaten all of the crew’s rations.
Dr. Krieger is using the eggs to help him develop self-regenerating DNA. As the crew begins to starve, they must utilize his creation to help them make it to spaceport or opt to eat the alien eggs. As some of the team begin to eat the eggs raw, they discover that they will cause many terrible side effects, including living out your wildest desires. When Archer and Lana begin eating the eggs, they end up sleeping with each other- quite a few times. Finally, Cheryl is able to ruin everyone’s fun by getting rid of the creature and eggs.
Our Take:
I was curious when Archer: 1999 would take on the science fiction cliché of having alien cause havoc on an isolated spaceship. Turns out they decided to get it out of the way early as we are only in the third episode of the season. Of course, this is done in the fun dark humoured manner that the series is known for. The unique twists that the episode added to the long-running sci-fi theme helped to differentiate it from its inspirations. I mean, you’d never see Ripley eat a xenomorph egg in the Alien franchise.
There was some sharp humour to hit the clichés on the head. Specifically when Archer decides to gear up in a pretty badass exo-suit, to some hilarious results. Meanwhile, everyone losing their minds was another great play, especially when you have characters like Cyril and Ray allow their inhibitions to fly. Now with the series fully established in the space opera genre, the humour that has made the series a success is starting to land once again.
Speaking of characters, this episode really allowed for Cheryl’s new persona to shine through. Her negative outlook and willingness to sabotage their ship at any moment adds a lot to the show. It’s nice to see her step out from the shadows and become more prominent. But, it is the pessimistic attitude that is making her one of the highlights of 1999 thus far.
Archer and Lana hook up in the hilarious context in this episode, but that’s really nothing new or unexpected. It will be interesting to see how their dynamic plays out this season. Especially considering Lana now has a minor relationship going on with Cyril. This forming love triangle is bound to be the plot to one of this year’s episodes, so we can dive into it a little deeper then.
Overall, this was one of the most fun episodes of Archer: 1999 yet. It is these types of side adventures that I was most looking forward to with the new sci-fi genre. There is a lot of doors open with what the show can do now, and they have the ability to match it with great designs and animation. Again, this was also the funniest episode we have had yet this season, which I am hoping means things only get brighter from here. Archer is back in the groove of things, it always manages to do so quickly after these theme changes, and we couldn’t be more grateful.
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