Spoilers Below

And that’s a wrap! Archer Season 4 is in the books and man, what a season it was. Paulie Von Doom here. I had to set the Way-Back Machine to 2013 to write this review because the BlabberBoss wanted my take on the Spy-Comedy series, but before we dive in, a little preamble.

There are really only four shows I watch on a weekly basis. I know, I’m boring. Certain shows on TV right now just don’t do it for me. The world is saturated with pesky crime dramas, horrific reality shows, sports (with I loathe to watch unless I need a sleep aid,) and a ton of crap I won’t get into here. It seems as if basic cable is doomed to mediocrity forever, however there are a few shining stars that make me hope for better days, and better storytelling. I said I watch four shows religiously, that is, I try my best to catch the new episode on its airing date. Those shows are Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, and Archer.

But PVonD, why would you lump Archer, a cartoon, a comedy cartoon no less, in with such esteemed shows? Two reasons. 1) It’s writing is slick, the animation finally caught up with itself, I love H. John Benjamin’s manic deadpan humor, and 2) I write for a site dedicated to cartoons so shut up and read my article, fool!

Season 4 completely outdid itself, in my opinion. It stands as a testament to the cleverness of the show’s creators and includes a few in-jokes that are so out that even a casual watcher will get them and still be amazed, like the Archer/ Bob’s Burgers crossover that started the season. Basically it set the stage for something truly special. I love crossovers because I, like Doctor Strange, believe in a Multiverse theory of existence. Nothing truly lives outside itself, not even worlds of fiction.

That said, the season was solid, filled with amazing action and lots of that slick character interplay we’ve come to expect from the show. While some of the B plots in each episode were uninteresting, the A plots kept me laughing until I needed to wipe the laugh-tears being excreted from my eye sockets. I think a special mention should be made to the episode where Archer and Lana pose as newlyweds to stop a sale of nuclear materials. The action scenes were worthy of a major summer blockbuster and you didn’t even have to pay eleven bucks to see it and that dreadful Tom Cruise wasn’t involved.

We also got hints of a potential Archer/Lana reconciliation. I don’t know about you, but I have a feeling about those two, and just who the hell is the father of *spoiler alert* Lana’s baby?

Anyway, I stated before that the B plots were sometimes uninteresting and I stand by that. I know you need a B plot to keep the A plot interesting, but it seemed like the agents and employees of ISIS were there just to remind the audience they were still on the show. Did they have funny lines? Of course. This is Archer we’re talking about. However, I feel the show does best when the ISIS family is together, like when they’re on the helicopter heading towards a certain SEA LABoratory. A dysfunctional family does best when they’re together, in my opinion.

I guess you can call this season the Season of the Crossover because it happens twice in season four. It bookends with Bob’s Burgers in Episode 1, and culminates in the return of that other amazingly slick-as-greased-owl-shit show SeaLab 2021, though none of the characters from SeaLab show up, which was mildly disappointing. There was so much potential for ISIS and the SeaLab crew to go at it, but I
suppose something like that could be a season unto itself.

Again, as a believer in the Multiverse, I can tell you, I was left completely satisfied (though the Paulie Von Doom from Universe 67582 was completely unimpressed, but fuck that guy, he writes for a legitimate news website called The Daily Hornblower. Daily Man-Blower is more like it. AmIRight?) This is why I rate Archer Season 4: Quantum of Mediocrity

Until next season, Pigglies!

Paulie Von Doom.

 

8.5 out of 10