Archer

I want that to be trolling...

Huh.

Well, that's... unexpected. Definitely interesting, though. I binged all four seasons of Archer some time ago, and yeah, it was getting a little stale at the end of things. I'm plenty interested to find out how well they can spin this.

I do worry that their ambitions might outgrow their budget.

It did get to the point where everybody was either a field agent or dead/fired.

I really like the Reality Ensues idea that you can't just privately own an intelligence agency. The idea that from there they turn to drug dealing a bit less so.

edited 9th Jan '14 3:57:09 PM by Wackd

The most surprising part about this is that they get to do this in the first place. I mean, imagine how that conversation with their execs would have gone: "So, boss, you know our show, that's fairly popular and consistently making money? We want to spend a whole bunch of money to change everything about it."

They must've had one hell of a pitch to get the OK.

It all seemed mostly aboveboard. I mean, it's been clear from the beginning that this is a private contractor (it's why ODIN is more of a threat to them than the KGB), but they were contracting from the US Government. I guess that whole industry is a black market that some heroic whistleblower just threw into the public eye.

They could get some mileage out of an Edward Snowden expy getting them shut down.

edited 9th Jan '14 4:29:06 PM by TParadox

No love for Archer Vice?

At first I wasnt sure if it was just a dream sequence or an actual preview. now i know.

I have to admit, Archer Vice is looking pretty awesome.

But still, why can't they ever use all the other ISIS Employees? Any Cartel needs a support structure and they are all out of a job so...

And there are actually a ton of field agents that we never see according to the wiki. Agents with badass names like Cross, Holloway, Mason, Walker and so on.

edited 13th Jan '14 10:40:47 PM by Mr.Didact

Personally, I'm excited for Archer Vice. This is the kind of change I felt House needed in its fifth season (if not earlier). Plus, I think it shows a drive to keep things fresh instead of latching onto a good idea and sucking it dry over the course of many seasons.

However, if some of the naysayers are adamant, it could just as easily be returned to normal after half a season or what not with a handwave like: "it was a major undercover sting operation to fight the cartel" or something.

Not only that, but after that awesome montage at the end showing Archer finally getting a pet frigging tiger you have to be crazy not to give the new season a change!

They just threw out all their stock backgrounds and had to start from scratch. This isn't exactly the time to be designing new characters.

At the start of the show, ISIS felt like a full-size spy agency. But then they downsized, killed, or fired a lot of people (remember the support people who sat in a mission control area in HQ and did support stuff? Whatever happened to them?), and gave half the administrative characters that rose to the top agent status so they'd have a reason to go on a mission. The accountant went agent, the HR director went agent, the secretary turned out to own pretty much every location they went to and didn't need agent, Krieger just shows up anyway. I thought that Ray was support gone agent just in time to lose his legs until I went back and rewatched season one.

Well, that was a plenty good episode, though I have this nagging suspicion they gave away all he best jokes of the new season in the preview segment.

How did they get back into the building unsupervised, after it was seized and signed over?

I want to know who Malory called to get all of those charges dropped.

They could tell you, but then they'd have to kill you.

That preview for the season ahead looks interesting but I have to ask; what about Barry? And Other Barry? He said he had this huge revenge scheme back near the end of season three and it was brought up again in season four. Are they going to continue that plot thread or what?

I think they said they were dropping pretty much all of the plot threads weighing them down. Barry may not be able to find their forwarding address.

I wanted the FBI interrogators to be puzzled by them referencing the KGB, or at least "you know the KGB is still a thing?"

edited 14th Jan '14 12:08:02 PM by TParadox

Personally I was wondering about ODIN. Though IIRC wasn't ODIN HQ'd in another country? Or maybe they don't whore themselves out like ISIS.

ODIN HQ is in Europe. Paris if memory serves. And I think ODIN is professional enough to actually make sure the government is okay with their secret agent crap. Kind of curious who's in charge of it now since the old boss (who may or may not be Archer's father) had his brain surgery. One plot point that may have made it into this season is Archer's unknown father. Or at least Archer made a reference to the fact that he doesn't know who his dad is so I'm hopeful.

Did someone say in an interview or something that this would be the last season of Archer? Because the total up-ending of the status quo and the fact that they seem to be moving from episodic format to a more serial approach is the kind of thing you do for your last hurrah.

edited 14th Jan '14 2:46:51 PM by WillKeaton

Wait, Archer Vice is real? It's not a dream sequence?

I can't wait to see Pam's antics, considering it looks like she gets addicted to the product.

I hope it's not the last season. That would suck royally. Maybe the show will make another change next season. And yeah, I would actually like some closure on Archer's real father and Barry's "Master Plan" maybe now the ISIS crew can finally get rid of ODIN since they are basically criminals now anyway.

And again it's really grating how they basically ignore the support staff even though they made a point of making an episode about them.

edited 14th Jan '14 5:54:14 PM by Mr.Didact

The Archer Vice sequence is a preview snuck in as a dream sequence. Or rather, it's a preview that's played as a preview and then followed by a tag that uses it as a dream sequence.

I thought ODIN was American-based.

Adam Reed did an interview with the AV Club addressing a lot of this crap—they do want to bring back some of the old support staff characters, Barry will be back in season six (if only to finally resolve his plot thread), and, as indicated by the previous comma, the show's not leaving anytime soon.

I was going to call shenanigans on Cyril also being a lawyer on top of him being an accountant, but after I thought about it for half a second I realized the two occupations are actually not that far apart. Its not like he's, say, a special effects expert and a navy swimming champion. That would be stupid.