Archer on FX

I think it would be better to see more than just two episodes of FX’s new animated comedy/adventure series, Archer, before making a full analysis of the show. But after only two episodes (the show premiered at 10 PM with two episodes on January 14), I find myself giving it a Season Pass status on my Tivo and looking forward to the next new episode. The show’s premise as defined at the website is “an animated, half-hour comedy set at the International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS), a spy agency where espionage and global crises are merely opportunities for its highly trained employees to confuse, undermine, betray and royally screw each other.”

The animation is incredibly rudimentary, possibly in an effort to emulate the vibe of a great many of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim shows. In fact, the show’s creator, Adam Reed (according to Wikipedia) has been an actor/writer/director/producer on Sealab 2021 and Frisky Dingo at Cartoon Network. But I could care less about the animation–the appeal to this show is partially its writing, but mostly the voice casting. Fans of 2003′s Arrested Development will be pleased to see Jessica Walters cast in the show, she plays the head of ISIS, as well as Archer’s mother. Walters plays the character almost as acerbic, witty and dysfunctional as her character on Arrested Development. As a fan long ago of Comedy Central’s Dr. Katz, I was pleasantly surprised to find that H. Jon Benjamin (best known as Ben Katz [the doctor's unambitious, quirky son]) was cast in the lead role of Archer.

In the episode’s premiere (described here), Archer is training another series cast regular, Cyril, on how to be a spy. Cyril asks if he will be taught karate as part of training, leading to my favorite bit of dialogue so far, when Archer responds: “Karate: : The Dane Cook of martial arts?”

It’s a quirky and great show so far, but be advised, to say the show features adult themes and language is an understatement.