Why is archer so good

Pretty satisfying action. Samuel S. Dec 03, I'm sorry, guys. I know this show has a lot of fans but the writing just isn't my cup of tea. Maybe I'm a simpleton who doesn't understand just how smart the writing really is but I couldn't get invested in the first season of Archer. Sure, the art style's unique rather than going for the generic Seth MacFarlane one that other adult animated shows use, the voice actors do such a good job that I couldn't imagine anybody else in these roles, there were a few funny moments which, tellingly, tended to not be dialogue-based and the action scenes are okay.

But I don't find the protagonist very funny, the episode premises let me down and the sense of humour didn't tickle my funnybones which makes me feel confused when Archer says a line of dialogue and I hear everybody laugh at what he's saying.

Has BoJack Horseman affected me in a way that now every adult animated show I see is inevitably going to be compared to that amazing show? I'm really not happy that I found myself not getting invested in these characters as much as I wanted to but sorry but I don't think I'll be bothering with the rest of the series.

Who knows? Maybe I'll look at this show a few years later and it'll become vindicated in my mind. Jacob B. Nov 28, I do not really understand that much the succes this series has. Despite the visuals which are great, i had hard time conecting with the hummor of the first episodes of this series. Emir R.

Oct 16, While season one of Archer did not exactly make me fall in love with the show or its characters, it was enjoyable enough that I am continuing to watch its second season. The season is not bad at all but the characters just are not likable at all. The standout characters would have to be Archer, Lana and Malory but there is a scientist character that also has some funny moments.

This season was odd but in a good way, the actor that plays Archer is a perfect casting the voice talent is all great but that was a standout. The main plots of the season revolve around Lana and Cyril's relationship and Archers attempts to sabotage it out of jealousy but he will never admit to that. Archer also is dealing with his unhealthy relationship with his mother who lacks empathy for the way she parented him which makes Archer a more interesting character as well as Malory.

Malory is trying to beat her rival and ex lover from rival agency ODIN throughout the season while being in a relationship with possibly Archers father the head of the KGB. There is also a receptionist character who is blackmailing Cyril because he cheated on her with the receptionist. Lana is just trying to live her life as a spy but is constantly dealing with everyone's insanity making her the designated observation humor provider which is somewhat problematic for her character because even though it is important she has yet to come into her own as a character.

A lot is going on in these ten episodes and there is a lot more details but ultimately the first season is funny at times and is pleasant to watch, hopefully it can become something special in latter seasons. Jayson B. Jan 10, Hilarious throughout the season.

With a diverse ensemble of witty and zany characters, excellent writing and consistently great voice acting, Archer is among the greats of adult animation. On top of this, the best looking animated show in recent memory. Graeme H. Dec 14, Quick and witty comedy, full of references to popular culture, as well as great voice acting is what the show embodies -match that with a creative direction that explores an entirely new premise and dynamic between the characters every season after season 4, and a great show is born.

Thomas A. Sep 15, If you're easily turned off by excessive sex humour, don't let the first ten minutes of the first episode episode make you turn off the show, it gets so much better than that. The characters only get funnier and more interesting as the show progresses, and the animation style, though I didn't like it at first, soon grew on me in a sort of parodic or self-aware pulpy way.

If you're an easily offended person I probably wouldn't recommend this to you, but for me the show is just so fast-paced and filled with hilarious dialogue that none of it really bothers me. Charles L. Sep 03, Milo S. Jan 02, Entertaining and outrageously funny. And that finally gets Archer the anger to kill him. Even though the ending was a complete parody of Magnum PI, it definitely had heart. Thanks, Archer Defender. I think the difference with Seinfeld was I could appreciate the relationships that the characters had with each other I never liked Curb Your Enthusiasm for this very reason, I think.

Something about the whole dynamic of the show is kind of off to me. The only person who can kind of make me laugh in the show is Malory. Thanks for the comment, Qusai. I know that I may be a few months late to this discussion but I just have to throw in my 2 cents as Archer is my all-time favorite TV show. I think what sets Archer apart from other comedies is the depth of the humor.

For those of us who are wired a certain way, Archer is pure genius, and for those who are wired differently it will simply never strike the right chords. Thanks so much, Jack, for your comment and for reading. I never got Family Guy, either, but willfully avoided that show.

For some reason I keep going back to Archer. Thanks for your comment! I had Archer recommended to me so I gave it a shot. Thanks for the comment, Dave.

My girlfriend absolutely loves it. So does my dad even. Not even a small chuckle. I think for me, plain and simple, I enjoy shows comedies specifically that I can relate to and that seem realistic. Mostly that I can relate to. Not one bit of Archer is relatable to me. I enjoy RC but only a few episodes every couple months if nothing else is on. I also enjoy getting attached to a character or characters and their relationships.

I totally agree with the aquired taste comment. Thanks for reading and commenting, Matt. I think you are on to something with your theory about sarcastic humor on Archer. I think it is great that most of the commenters here have been so passionate and smart about the show one way or another.

Thanks for doing that. Same with the folks that like the show. That hit the nail on the head. I do jump to conclusions on occasion, so I often reassess such hasty decisions and give things another round with the right motivation.

It changed nothing. I went through a sarcastic stage, and have known some very sarcastic people. I think I may have just had my fill. I paused for a few moments. That is, if you had the attention span and vocabulary with which it could be viewed and somewhat understood, and uderstanding those words is far more simple than the concepts they form.

A greater number of people that have watched it enjoy it. You are insinuating that there are more intelligent people than unintelligent people. That is demonstrably false. Using that observation, I too could make an irrational assertion about the intellectual condition of the fans of the show, but neither of us wants to go there. Do we? Needless to say, that shut him up. I merely used that as a tool to demonstrate that two can play at that game.

Just got home from the bar where the tv show archer was brought up by a few friends. My best friend feels the same, we have pretty similar tastes. I asked 3 of my friends to try to explain why they like it or why I should watch it.

I even asked them to maybe tell me what shows are comparable or explain what type of comedy it is. No such luck. Hell, when I asked them to name 4 other favorite comedies we tended to agree. So I came home and took my search to Google and found this blog.

Thank you for spelling it out for me. Archer the show is funny because Archer the character is incredibly absurd. The whole world of Archer is absurd. The characters on the show tend to operate with a year-old-boy mentality. Some episodes are obviously based around one single joke, but others make the plot actually necessary. There is a lot of detail put into the show, if you look for it. Even the opening titles and theme I really appreciate as very well done.

The dialog can come at you pretty fast, so you need to pay constant attention if you want to catch all of it. All of this, while at the same time giving a nod and a kick to the groin of the James Bond franchise. Except Bond has never had a Pam Poovey around. I disagree that the employees of ISIS are blanket cold and calculating. But it does pop up from time to time, often subtly. The way their minds work is so pathetic it is funny. It might require someone to have a little of that in them to be able to laugh at all the jokes.

It could be hard for some people to just not take Archer so seriously. I happen to think that Archer can even show us in an extreme manner that no matter how bad life seems, it can always be laughed at.

Everyone deserves a respite from the hassles of life and responsibility, and Archer the show is mine. Thank you so much for your eloquent comment, Jovet. I agree, that the show is extremely complex and, this season, feels like it is trying to top that complexity and what you call childishness with Archer: Vice which I think is a brilliant shift.

The first years of the show have been, by far, the best. Lately, the magic seems to be gone. But, it is what it is. I would like to add that getting many of the jokes revolves around having a grasp of some particular pop culture.

The show especially early on is full of pop culture references, many surely from before many viewers were even born. Thanks so, so much for writing this entry. I saw exactly where the jokes were supposed to be, but I found the humor forced and sophomoric. Vacuous and predictable humor over and over…. Fewer were the episodes where the family had loving, forgiving moments. Greater were the episodes that they name-called, and pointlessly insulted one another for the audience to find funny?

I find, if Archer had been written, even half as well as Arrested Development, it would be pure gold. Pathetic, and typical of modern tv…. Thanks, Lunchie. I think your point about being able to see where the jokes should be but not finding them funny is entirely accurate to my viewing of Archer, too. There just seems for me to be too much emphasis on cold, forced, snarky, violent humor, as if that was all that is needed to be funny.

Thanks for reading and for commenting, Paligap. I think your comment about the show being cold and leaving you cold is what bugs me about it, too. Thanks for reading and defending the show, Luci! Archer is try-hard humour in contrast…. Archer is a rather cute attempt at intelligent, sexy comedy… Alas, the almighty void of subjectivity…. Thanks for your comment, Anon, and thanks for reading. This theme is textual and subtextual, it is constant and continuous. Creator Adam Reed, his creative team, and the other voice actors found that identity long ago.

His begrudging growth, or fleeting moments of clarity, made him likeable as a character, if not a person. The show, or its creators, seem bored, lacking either creative ambition or adequate space to grow.

The reference-filled adult spy cartoon comedy has changed its settings and its adversaries while its characters mostly maintain the same modus operandi. During that time its seasons have grown shorter, going from a episode premiere season to five straight episode seasons, winding back down to 10, and has now had five straight seasons with eight or nine episodes.

Eight episodes is not enough to dig into these characters and this setting the way Archer used to, especially with episodes only running between 19 and 24 minutes. Just don't say I didn't warn you! Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote. Mr-Fusion 30 September ARCHER is a brilliant combination spy show and workplace sitcom, with all the quirky and messed-up characters therein. You could go blind from the heightened dose of smartassery and the dialogue zings back and forth like flying bullets.

It's insanely quotable and packs obscene replay value. Seriously, it goes down like candy. And I love that they made Archer's spy car a '70 Dodge Challenger. Bonus points, right there. This show's a personal favorite.

StrictlyConfidential 8 October In its first 3 seasons I found "Archer" to be a fairly entertaining secret agent spoof where its title character, Sterling Archer though something of a crybaby and an annoying pushover hadn't yet gotten around to the point of totally degrading himself and, with that, undermining the masculinity of the American male.

This irksome embarrassment of Archer's weak character traits came about fast and furious as this TV series moved on into its 4th season. And, it continued at full force to be that way right on through to its 11th season. The earlier seasons are better than the last seasons where they change the era, but they were OK. Overall the fun is when Archer makes himself look like an idiot. Sure, one could easily dismiss "Archer" as being nothing more than trite, immature rubbish that doesn't deserve even the slightest bit of notice - But, with that said, I found that, throughout all of its bickering, bitching and back-stabbing, this rather peculiar TV show actually did contain a semblance of what I'd call "entertainment value" Well, at least it did from my somewhat twisted point of view.

Though far from being considered in any way "intellectual" viewing, "Archer" with its hit'n'miss humor, its gory violence, its sexual innuendo and its numerous pop culture references was, in a sense, so bad that it was actually good. Presented as something of a "James Bond" parody, with plenty of "Get Smart"-type shenanigans thrown in for good measure, this animated TV series stars character Sterling Archer, a handsome, shallow, self-loving secret agent from ISIS who, in all of his incompetent bungling, loves to whine and point fingers whenever an all-important assignment gets royally buggered up which happens more often than you'd think.

Created by Adam Reed, "Archer's" all-color, all-animated episodes each had a running time of approx. This has some of the absurdist, insane feel of 'Sealab' or 'Venture Brothers', but also grounds it in richer characters. By nature this kind of wild, raunchy, ribald, gross, un-PC, very clever joke a second romp is going to be a hit or miss affair, but the batting average in 'Archer' is surprisingly high, and a lot of the wordplay is really sharp.

The show grows each season, getting ever funnier, and having the characters and situations branch out in some great unexpected ways. From what started out in season 1 feeling like it would be a one joke idea that would quickly wear out, this somehow found a way to transcend and use the audience familiarity with the characters not to just repeat the same jokes, but to walk a great tightrope of giving what is expected, but then finding a way to just push it one step further.

Another big plus here is the voice acting. The whole cast is terrific, as are the many guest stars that show up. The fun they all seem to be having doing the show is infectious, and they manage to give their characters a surprising amount of range.

Special credit has to be given to H. Jon Benjamin, along with the writers, for making the egotistical idiot of a lead not only very funny, but somehow also likable enough that he never wears out his welcome.

If you like animated insanity, this is very much worth checking out to see if it's for you, and hanging in past some of the slightly weaker early episodes where the show was just finding its way.

Let me start by saying that not only am I a big fan of "adult" cartoons but I am also a long time fan of H. Jon Benjamin. Katz, ATHF. So after saying all that, I'm sure you don't understand how I can't like this show. I get it, it doesn't make any sense to not like this. But I don't. Not only do I not like it, I don't even understand it. Archer is some James Bond type character who works for his mom, I think. I have seen dozens of episodes and I have no clue who the characters are or what they are doing.

The only thing that is close to funny is having Christian Slater in the show. It's amazing that this is the H. Jon Benjamin show that has lasted the longest. I give it 4 thumbs down. Archer Watched The Lot Twice The quality of the script writing its inventiveness and shear individuality is truly astounding. What is so refreshing is it's mostly total ability to insult everyone equally and it's total lack of political correctness when the thought police are everywhere.

This could be summed up when Mallory is being told she is a racist and she says "I am rude to all the servants equally, at best I could be described as an elitist! A must see for those into adult cartoons and a classic of our time! Johnny-the-Film-Sentinel 28 April Archer is James Bond in sitcom form. Unlike Bond, Archer's mother is the head of the secret service agency he works for.

And this mother and son couple do not get along at all. This show is incredibly entertaining, and while the animation is impressive in detail it feels weird to watch at times because it doesn't have the same 'flow' as cel-animation. Very good stuff, and guarantees your full attention and enjoyment. Fantastic comedy jellyneckr 19 January The original "Archer" pilot is one of the funniest pilots that I have ever seen.