Television Archer S14 - The Final Season

[Greatoneshere]

1 hour ago, Kal-El814 said:

I'm watching it, I just don't have much to say.

 

The show still makes me chuckle, but it's suffering from Simpsons syndrome; it used to be a parody of spy schtick, then it pivoted to other genres, now it's just lampooning itself. Lots of people have regressed back to their early season selves. Archer doesn't have a disability anymore, Cyril is an insecure wimp again, Pam is in love (this is fine of course, but she hasn't been insecure about being worthy of love since season 1). The bait and switch with Ray's loyalty didn't work at all. Archer in therapy could have been interesting but ultimately kinda fizzled. Etc.

 

I get that not every episode can be Stage 2, but it's still a shadow of itself.

 

I don't disagree - but a shadow of Archer is still a lot better than most other adult animated comedy shows. The chemistry amongst the cast is next level. The jokes still land, even if they are less frequent. The animation and action scenes have improved considerably. But I am ready to have the show end and have the team make something new.

[Kal-El814]

27 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

I don't disagree - but a shadow of Archer is still a lot better than most other shows. The chemistry amongst the cast is next level. The jokes still land, even if they are less frequent. The animation and action scenes have improved considerably. But I am ready to have the show end and have the team make something new.

 

Yeah, the animation has really come a long way. It was always stylish but they've really upped it.

[Greatoneshere]

The upcoming season 14 of Archer has been announced to be the show's last. I think it's time, and I think it's great they know ahead of time so they can hopefully wrap it all up and go out on a high note. Curious what Adam Reed and company will do next, he must be wanting to write a new show with new characters pretty badly at this point. 

 

Archer’s superspy adventures are finally coming to an end after the series’ 14th season

WWW.POLYGON.COM

---

There’s no word yet on how the series may end

 

[Greatoneshere]

Just a reminder that the final season of Archer, season 14, started airing yesterday. It was a two-episode premiere (it's a two-parter) with one episode releasing every Wednesday following for a total of the usual 8 episodes a season. I just watched it and it's good! It's a lot of setup since they add a new character to the team now that Lana is Mallory, Archer needs a new Lana, but I enjoyed a number of the lines even if exposition and story building take priority. The A.V. Club is pretty bullish on the final season, reviewing it they gave it a full A for the season, so hopefully the final season ends strong. If someone could update the OP to reflect this is now season 14, the final season, that'd be awesome. Anyone else watching the final season? I can't believe it's been 14 years since the first season aired in 2009.

 

@Kal-El814

@Chairslinger

@Spork3245

@Mr.Vic20

@silentbob

@TheLeon

@chakoo

 

Archer season 14 review: The best the show has been in years

WWW.AVCLUB.COM

---

The addition of Natalie Dew's super-spy Zara for the FXX comedy's final season is exactly the shake-up the series needed

 

[chakoo]

I've been reading good impressions on it. I might have to check it out (need to find out which streaming platform has it in canada).

 

[Greatoneshere]

36 minutes ago, chakoo said:

I've been reading good impressions on it. I might have to check it out (need to find out which streaming platform has it in canada).

 

 

A quick Google search said Hulu, but I'm not Canadian, there could be caveats.

[TheLeon]

I'm still multiple seasons behind. They aren't particularly long seasons, so I could get caught up for the end, but I've got a lot on my TV plate.

 

And yeah, it's a little crazy to realize this show has been on for nearly my entire adult life (it premiered just after I turned 19).

[Jason]

8 minutes ago, TheLeon said:

I'm still multiple seasons behind. They aren't particularly long seasons, so I could get caught up for the end, but I've got a lot on my TV plate.

 

It feels sort of stupid but one of the things that discourages me from trying to jump back in is at this point I have no idea where I was in the show before I drifted off from it.

[dualhunter]

3 hours ago, chakoo said:

I've been reading good impressions on it. I might have to check it out (need to find out which streaming platform has it in canada).

 

 

Netflix has 13 seasons, Prime 5.

 

Use this whenever you want to figure out what service has a show or movie

https://www.justwatch.com/ca

[Greatoneshere]

Well, we're now halfway through the season and the show is pretty solid this season. There aren't as many huge laugh out loud jokes but the episodes are at least fun and breezy. It was nice to see Ray back for episode 4 after not appearing in episode 3 and we got Barry back again (I assume one last time, unless they put good Barry into a robot body that then joins the team). The season isn't treating itself like it's the final season of the show, and with just 4 episodes left I'm curious when a plotline leading to a final ending is gonna show up. It would be very Archer for the show to simply not care and everyone just keeps doing their thing at the agency right through the series finale. 

[Greatoneshere]

Second to last episode aired last night. The penultimate episode of the entire series was pretty funny! I especially liked: "Cyril, do you hear that? That's you killing the joke". But it played out like just another episode of the show. I'm now wondering if the writers knew the show was ending with season 14 because FX didn't announce season 14 was the end until the beginning of May and Archer started airing at the beginning of September. For an animated production, where longer term planning is required, wouldn't most of the scripts have been written and animated by 4 months until airing? My hope/assumption is FX told the writers earlier than May 2023, but with only one more episode left for the entire show I guess they're going with: "and the cast just continued their shenanigans" type ending. I do miss some of the serialized storytelling and growth of the characters we were getting, even in the post-coma seasons. But to not even really bring back any of that for the final season has seemed strange (other than Archer's age, getting older). 

 

For anyone left caring about the show, the very final episode of the show after 14 years on the air is next Wednesday. Whether the finale is good or not it will be bittersweet seeing this show finally end for good.

[Greatoneshere]

Okay so I know I'm the only one really watching and posting at this point but may as well keep it going now that the series finale has aired. So the season ends on a semi-cliffhanger, which could be the end given how Adam Reed's show before Frisky Dingo, Sealab 2021 ended on a cliffhanger as a joke as well. The season and series finale played out like it was just another season of fun times with Archer, which I didn't mind but didn't carry the weight of the story and characters that the end of season 13 (last season) did. The Archer subreddit is speculating that Archer has said they are going to announce something tomorrow at NYCC and many are thinking, especially given this cliffhanger ending and episodic season of the show being the final season is leading into a movie (or something like it) written by Adam Reed to wrap things up and bring the long term character stories to a close.

 

This makes some sense given it took FX awhile to renew Archer for season 14 and then hit the show with the series finale tag just 4 months before airing so part of me thinks they made this season knowing it was going to end with a movie or TV special or something. I'd absolutely be down for a movie given how this season played out, especially written by Adam Reed. But if we get nothing, this was a fine season of the show and it ending with just the show being more episodic adventures rather than more serialized storytelling is fine. A great show that will be remembered, particularly for its first 7 seasons (though Archer Vice - season 4 was probably the weakest of the early seasons). 

[Chris-]

6 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

A great show that will be remembered, particularly for its first 7 seasons (though Archer Vice - season 4 was probably the weakest of the early seasons). 

 

Other than The Simpsons or Futurama, I don't think there is a show with better one-liners than the first seven seasons of Archer. I still laugh anytime I think of, 'Babou, serpentine!' 

[Kal-El814]

I haven’t seen the finale, but I’m watching!

 

I like the season even though I think it’s a shame that.a lot of characters regressed to earlier season vibes for the sake of familiar jokes. It seems pretty obvious that the coma inspired “theme seasons” were in part due to there being only so many times you can do spy shit and keep things moving.

[Greatoneshere]

17 minutes ago, Chris- said:

 

Other than The Simpsons or Futurama, I don't think there is a show with better one-liners than the first seven seasons of Archer. I still laugh anytime I think of, 'Babou, serpentine!' 

 

Agreed - the dialogue exchanges in Archer are next level, something akin to a smart, well-written ensemble adult comedy movie. 

 

15 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

I haven’t seen the finale, but I’m watching!

 

I like the season even though I think it’s a shame that.a lot of characters regressed to earlier season vibes for the sake of familiar jokes. It seems pretty obvious that the coma inspired “theme seasons” were in part due to there being only so many times you can do spy shit and keep things moving.

 

Yeah I agree. Like a lot of comedy shows in their later years (It's Always Sunny notwithstanding), the characters fell into their stock types while forgetting a lot of the character work done over the seasons, like Woodhouse dying, Pam and Archer hooking up, Archer's kid, Archer and Lana (which has been addressed well in the past), etc. Even Adam Reed was struggling to make the coma seasons compelling, with none of them reaching the heights of the first 7 seasons. I actually thought the first two seasons after the coma seasons without Adam Reed were better than the coma seasons. 

[Chairslinger]

I have had my eye on the show, but with a few exceptions I like to just let the season air and binge it at the end. I got Archer, Futurama, Asohka, and both seasons of Wheel of Time on deck.

[Chairslinger]

5 hours ago, Chris- said:

 

Other than The Simpsons or Futurama, I don't think there is a show with better one-liners than the first seven seasons of Archer. I still laugh anytime I think of, 'Babou, serpentine!' 

 

 

 

 

[Chairslinger]

Well that was unexpected.

 

Just days after the finale aired they have announced a 3 part special to air in December.  It will act as a new three part finale called Archer: Into the Cold.

 

Considering that the regular seasons have only been about 8 episodes each for years now, a 3 episode special out of no where seems like a pretty substantial surprise.....

 

 

Quote

Archer‘s globetrotting adventures aren’t done after all: FXX has ordered a new three-part finale for the animated spy comedy, just two days after what was billed as its series finale. The new finale, titled Archer: Into the Cold, will air Sunday, Dec. 17 at 10/9c on FX as well as FXX, and will stream the next day on Hulu.

 

[Greatoneshere]

9 hours ago, Chairslinger said:

Well that was unexpected.

 

Just days after the finale aired they have announced a 3 part special to air in December.  It will act as a new three part finale called Archer: Into the Cold.

 

Considering that the regular seasons have only been about 8 episodes each for years now, a 3 episode special out of no where seems like a pretty substantial surprise.....

 

It's not that unexpected if you had read my last post!  Archer fans were expecting some kind of announcement since the final season is just a series of adventures and wraps up nothing. From the reporting though I can't tell who is writing it - is it Ganek/Roller (the guys who took the show over after Reed didn't want to do it anymore) or Adam Reed himself?

[Kal-El814]

I know they ended on a cliffhanger, but I genuinely have no idea what there is to "wrap up." The fate of The Agency is allegedly in the balance but there's just no reason to care about that as an entity and it's not like the characters themselves have a lot going on themselves. I'm not mad about it at all it's just... weird.

[Greatoneshere]

32 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

I know they ended on a cliffhanger, but I genuinely have no idea what there is to "wrap up." The fate of The Agency is allegedly in the balance but there's just no reason to care about that as an entity and it's not like the characters themselves have a lot going on themselves. I'm not mad about it at all it's just... weird.

 

Yeah I agree there's nothing to "wrap up". But if we can make something with more character to it to end things would be nice.

[Chairslinger]

Just finished the show.

 

Archer is kind of unique in that the show's quality didn't really go down. All the moving parts could be as sharp as ever during a scene.

 

The problem is after 14 seasons and 150ish episodes you can only see "team goes on a mission that devolves into chaos" so many times.

 

That's why, despite some misses, I think the experimental seasons were a good thing overall. At least they tried some different stuff.

[Greatoneshere]

6 minutes ago, Chairslinger said:

Just finished the show.

 

Archer is kind of unique in that the show's quality didn't really go down. All the moving parts could be as sharp as ever during a scene.

 

The problem is after 14 seasons and 150ish episodes you can only see "team goes on a mission that devolves into chaos" so many times.

 

That's why, despite some misses, I think the experimental seasons were a good thing overall. At least they tried some different stuff.

 

Yeah, I agree with you. I think overall Adam Reed has such a unique voice that you can tell when you're watching an Adam Reed written season with the snappy, witty dialogue that just keeps on going and going. The Ganek/Roller seasons just don't have the same tightness, doesn't have that same almost like a Rube Goldberg-esque comedy structure for each episode. But they're fun and funny and becomes more like a "hang out" show with Archer and friends.

[Kal-El814]

1 hour ago, Chairslinger said:

Archer is kind of unique in that the show's quality didn't really go down. All the moving parts could be as sharp as ever during a scene.

 

Only Adam Reed could have written a gag involving the Archers of Loafcross, how dare you.

[Greatoneshere]

December 17th is when the series finale TV movie will air - I'm curious to see how things truly, finally wrap up now. Higher budget means even better animation so that'll be nice. Seems confirmed this is being written by Mark Ganek, which will have to suffice.

 

Fists Fly For One Last Mission in New 'Archer: Into the Cold' Trailer

COLLIDER.COM

---

The super-sized finale event airs December 17.

 

[Greatoneshere]

And that was a surprisingly great finale to the show - wrapped things up with enough heart but not too much while finding a good balance between jokes and nostalgia and plot. We even get a good sense of where things could go for all the characters going forward. I'll miss this show but glad this was made to cap off both the final season and the show. AV Club loved it as well, reviewer there has been reviewing the show since season 7. So for fans, it's worth it to get to the end I think.

 

Archer: Into The Cold is a fitting end to one of TV's best comedies

WWW.AVCLUB.COM

---

Hilarious, fast-moving, vulgar, and with 10 percent more feeling than you might expect, this finale event is classic Archer.

 

[Kal-El814]

This was a fun "episode." I don't know that the show needed an ending beyond what we got in the S14 finale, though I appreciate them acknowledging threads like Archer's dad, AJ, and Mallory here. S14 and this are probably the most interesting and funny the show's been since they decided to backslide away from the character development that happened right before and after the thematic seasons.

 

Lana saying she wished Archer said he'd miss hearing her thoughts on things ten years ago is perhaps a bit on the nose.  

 

I don't think the show's really had anything to say about the characters for a few years now, but they went out on a fun note and I guess they left the door open for other shenanigans if they really feel like it.

[Greatoneshere]

1 hour ago, Kal-El814 said:

This was a fun "episode." I don't know that the show needed an ending beyond what we got in the S14 finale, though I appreciate them acknowledging threads like Archer's dad, AJ, and Mallory here. S14 and this are probably the most interesting and funny the show's been since they decided to backslide away from the character development that happened right before and after the thematic seasons.

 

Lana saying she wished Archer said he'd miss hearing her thoughts on things ten years ago is perhaps a bit on the nose.  

 

I don't think the show's really had anything to say about the characters for a few years now, but they went out on a fun note and I guess they left the door open for other shenanigans if they really feel like it.

 

Yeah my feelings match yours about the show overall and this finale. I thought the final line he said to Lana was nice though since he was so specific about it rather than a generic "I'll miss you" but that's me. Curious what Reed will do next.

[Kal-El814]

7 hours ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

Yeah my feelings match yours about the show overall and this finale. I thought the final line he said to Lana was nice though since he was so specific about it rather than a generic "I'll miss you" but that's me. Curious what Reed will do next.

 

Oh yeah, I liked it as well, I just thought it was funny, too.