Is there anyone who would like the TV show Archer, who hasn’t watched it? 

People who consider The Simpsons and Family Guy as edgy animated shows, then they may never have found Archer on FX.  The series finale just aired, but it’s streaming on ABC, FXNow and Hulu.  There were a couple of slow seasons in the middle, but Archer is nearly a perfect show.  9.5/10.

Rolling Stone interview with the creator of Archer explains the show.  A few aspects of the interview are of interest.

Adam Reed was searching for inspiration. He’d just sold his stake in the production company he co-founded, 70/30 Productions — responsible for his animated series Sealab 2021 and Frisky Dingo…

Both of those animated TV shows are very funny.  Sealab 2021 is an absurd adaptation of the 1972 show Sealab 2020.  Frisky Dingo is about an alien who came to Earth to destroy us, but virtually nothing happens that like you’d expect. 

Archer, centered on a profoundly narcissistic, idiotic, and effortlessly suave spy, Sterling Archer (voiced by H. Jon Benjamin), who does espionage for the International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS, more on that name later), his mother Malory’s (the late Jessica Walter) spy agency.

The main character, Sterling Archer, is what a Brit might imagine as an American James Bond.  Archer is handsome, talented, upper class and a total smart-arse.  H. Jon Benjamin also voices Bob from Bob’s Burgers.  They did a crossover episode at the start of season 4. 

“I was trying to write Archer as the biggest bastard I possibly could,” explains Reed. “Working on the pilot, I was reading all these Flashman books, and Harry Flashman is the worst guy in the world, but you still kind of root for him.”

I have listened to the Flashman books.  The first novel was published in 1969, but the premise of the series is that the books are the collected papers of Harry Flashman, a military man from the 1800’s.  Harry Flashman is a coward and a womanizer who stumbles into several historical events and comes out seeming like a hero.  The language is unbelievably racist and sexist.  In spite of that, Flashman is likeable because he amusing and honest with himself.  Sterling Archer is much like that.  He is witty and a talented spy, but he is an absolute jerk.

With Jessica Walter and Judy Greer, were you inspired to cast them in this by their characters in Arrested Development? Because the characters they play hew close to the ones in that show.
They do very much. Certainly, at the beginning, I had pitched it as “Arrested Development meets James Bond.” I didn’t want to stray too far from that at first, and then we found ourselves in new and strange territory with those characters. The main reason — if not the only reason — that Judy had agreed to be on the show was that Jessica had already said yes. We shamelessly splashed [Jessica’s] name to all the VO agents.

Arrested Development is another TV show worth watching.  All of these shows are funny and bizarre.

Archer Vice was probably the most divisive season of the show because it was such a departure from previous seasons. Looking back on that, how do you feel?
[They were] infuriated! I think that also coincided with the whole ISIS thing. Part of it was, I was feeling a little burned out. I thought Archer would be on for four seasons, so when they said, “Hey, let’s do another season!” I was like, “Oh, shit.” I talked to my agent about it and he was like, “That’s a terrible idea,” and I talked to FX about it and they were like, “That’s a terrible idea.” One of the first rules of TV is: if something’s working, don’t fix it. But I just thought it would be really fun.

Season 5 is when the show wasn’t it’s best.  For a couple of seasons after that, the Archer characters were in a completely different setting.  Those aren’t great seasons, but better than most shows on TV.

The interview is worth reading if you are a fan of Archer, and if you aren’t, then give it a try.  One or two episodes is enough.  There is continuity, so it’s best to start at the beginning.