Archer (S.1)

Archer is crass and vile, but it knows it. With a show that has nothing disingenuous about it, a show that knows that the gold ages of television have come and passed, a show that revels in its unimportance, it's hard not to love "Archer". Telling about the sexcapades of a momma's boy secret agent named Archer, the show consists of essentially spy-movie spoofs and gratuity. Drawn cleanly, the animation is still vaguely realistic, although occasionally choppy and pasty. But such an analysis does not even suit "Archer". Its genius relies not on its premise nor even its great characters (sex driven peons and sex driven agents who talk shit). Rather, "Archer" is a one-of-a-kind show because it knows dumb comedy well. It lets out a line, and then continually returns to that line, or situation later on in the show: contrasting its own "of the moment" hilarities with the ones from earlier. Archer himself, a Bondsian machine of insults, bad one liners, and sex stamina, acts as a tying force to many of the looser, lazier parts of the show. Occasionally shrill however, the first season suffers from a languor inherent to its type of comedy: essentially, hit or miss comedy. Despite this, this is a seemingly lazy effort from what must have taken a lot of work. This, however, is a perfect match to the kind of laziness required from television: as if the Kardashians were intentionally dipshits, rather than just actually being so.
Archer: ★★★1/2