Review: Archer “The Big Con”

Overview:

Sterling Archer and the rest of The Agency’s top brass find themselves facing one of their tallest tasks yet: a lavish spy convention. The latest Clandesti-con pushes The Agency crew to put their best feet forward with the greater reputation of IIA on the line. Amid the endless barrage of free swag, comped drinks, and autograph sessions, Sterling Archer competes for public approval while Fabian Kingsworth mulls over who’s best to fill an important opening at Agency.

Phrasing.

Our Take: 

Archer is one of the extremely rare examples of a television series that’s been around for 13 seasons. Even the laziest of series that are around for a decade-and-change are going to change in some shape of form, but Archer has gotten especially adventurous in this regard and even completely turned its back on its original premise for season-long flights of fancy. Oddly, season 13 of Archer is faced with some of the biggest changes that it’s ever seen courtesy of the real-life passing of Jessica Walter and the corresponding departure of Malory Archer. Malory is irreplaceable and her absence doesn’t affect anyone more than it does Sterling Archer. 

“The Big Con” suffers from a clunky plot where Fabian implores The Agency to pretend that they’re independent from IIA, while they continue to work for them, all as a way to prove a broader point about independence. This is all expressed through IIA’s involvement with a lavish spy convention–”Clandesti-con”–where Archer needs to prove Agency’s worth to IIA through a series of competitions. This is all quite convoluted, shallow, and most of the episode’s action occurs off-screen while the characters bounce off of each other to help process the many changes that are afoot in their professional and personal lives. The grander point of all of this is to find a replacement to fill Malory’s former position, which doesn’t conjure nearly as much suspense as it should. 

Much of “The Big Con” turns its subtext into text as Archer has a drunken chat with a former special agent whose level of success and fame isn’t indifferent to his own (right down to the fact that this random agent is also voiced by Jon H. Benjamin). It forces him to actually face a potential version of himself who doesn’t properly internalize this change in his life. This is all to say that the most exciting change for the series is for Sterling to replace Malory, which makes it a disappointment when the job ultimately goes to Ray. Ray’s promotion is fine, but also feels pretty inconsequential. Maybe it’s not the best idea to immediately give Archer so much power, but watching how he handles that and rises to the occasion would be the real way of respecting Malory’s legacy. This might have felt like too drastic of a shift, but it still makes for the most interesting turn and it’s hopefully something that’s still on the table or the plan for the end of the series (if that ever happens).

The big changes that Sterling needs to recognize dominate “The Big Con,” but he’s not the only character who faces a difficult turning point. Lana and Robert’s marital strife still feels incredibly tired. It’s never been a source of conflict that’s particularly worked for me. There was initially excitement in the prospect of Archer and Lana finally going down separate paths and not perpetually in a state of “will they/won’t they.” However, Lana’s relationship with Robert has managed to only become less interesting and more regressive. The fact that this is still going on and appears to be stemming into a painful custody battle for A.J. doesn’t have me too hopeful towards Lana’s arc for the season. Here’s hoping that it’s emotionally satisfying, takes an unexpected path, or ends up resolved in a matter of episodes.

“The Big Con” is a perfectly average season premiere that’s likely to entertain the hardcore fans, which are realistically the only ones who are still watching at this point. It’s a decent episode that isn’t overly exciting, but it’s also still fun to be around these characters. The series’ sharp writing and bizarre esoteric non-sequiturs are still in strong supply. There’s an affable energy that drives the storytelling forward, which is more than what most series can claim 13 seasons in. For point of reference, “The Big Con” isn’t stronger than the season 13 premieres for South Park or American Dad, but it still tops the season 13 premieres of Family Guy and The Simpsons. These are high standards in some cases, but it’s at least proof that there’s still a little life in this plucky international spy agency.

Oh, and Kermit the Frog definitely enjoys being roughed up by Miss Piggy. No two ways about it. Ta-boom.