‘Archer’ returns as a private eye in a big sleep
As the eighth season of “Archer” begins, the words “O death, where is thy sting?” from “1 Corinthians” are being intoned over the grave of superspy Sterling Archer’s manservant Woodhouse, but Archer himself remains oblivious in a hospital where he has been in a coma for three months.
His mind, however, has been transported back to the late 1940s, where Archer (voiced by H. Jon Benjamin) is a private eye taking cases from sexy women while irritating the LAPD. It’s like this faux James Bond has become a faux Philip Marlowe.
In this scenario, Woodhouse was Archer’s murdered partner, and the PI, a WWII army vet with flashbacks, is out to find the killer. Meanwhile, he is hired by Mother (Jessica Walter), a mob boss in the ‘40s (and his mother in the show’s real world), to keep an eye on a rival, mob boss Len Trexler (voiced by Jeffrey Tambor).
For this season, titled “Dreamland,” the series has been shifted over to FXX.
All the characters in Archer’s life are back in one form or another. On-and-off girlfriend Lana Kane (Aisha Tyler) has morphed into a sultry nightclub singer who does a sizzling version of “Fever.”
Archer falls for her immediately, but she shrugs him off with, “I’m going to leave you here between hope and despair,” a classic-sounding noir line, which the private dick doesn’t get. He’s a little dense sometimes. The bartender then grossly enlightens him on what she meant.
The series has always moved between clever parody and outright silliness, but this year “Archer” seems to be paying more attention to the plot along with the jokes. Like Marlowe, Archer juggles cases, including one from a manic heiress to a publishing fortune, CharlotteVandertunt (Judy Greer), who asks him to kill her. The dopey PI almost takes her literally until she informs him it’s part of a scam.
As kind of a combination of the sisters in ”The Big Sleep,” Charlotte is trying to escape a “quasi-incestuous” relationship. To take the case, she offers Archer $100,000 and herself.
“Do your worst,” Charlotte says.
This looks like the best season of “Archer” yet.