The 14th and final season of Archer premieres Wednesday, August 30 at 10 pm ET on FXX, with episodes streaming the next day on Hulu.
FXX’s Archer has stayed consistently entertaining by repeatedly reinventing itself over the course of its long run, but for its 14th and final season, the writers are bringing the series full circle by returning to its original-spy-spoof-meets-workplace-sitcom formula. As the characters find new ways to fit into familiar dynamics in the first four episodes of the season, they demonstrate the ways they’ve evolved or stubbornly refused to change over the years – and the smart, absurdist humor that makes Archer so hard to say goodbye to.
After years spent experimenting with entirely different genres or with the main characters serving as a scrappy team trying to find their place in the changing espionage game, season 14 sees superspy Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin) and his coworkers back to operating in much the same way as they did in season 1, forced to balance spycraft with mundane office problems like renovations and employee evaluations. The biggest change is Archer’s ex-partner (in every sense of the word) Lana Kane (Aisha Tyler) taking on the job of leading the dysfunctional team, a role formerly held by Sterling’s mother, Malory Archer (Jessica Walter). Walter died after working on season 12; her character was then sent off into retirement, and much of Season 13 was dedicated to the agency trying to find a new equilibrium without her.
The season 14 reset provides a new way of looking at many of the characters, as Lana initially tries to be a different type of boss than the often abusive and drunk Malory, but quickly winds up replicating her behaviors – down to Tyler delivering a spot-on Walter impression. Much like Malory, Lana is a former field agent perpetually exasperated with the shenanigans of her underlings who often feels the need to don a catsuit to show everyone how it’s done while neglecting the child who was her motivation for taking a desk job. There’s a distinct feeling of history repeating itself that makes the story feel like it could continue forever – even as Archer winds down.
Mad scientist Dr. Algernop Krieger (Lucky Yates) has changed the least, but remains hilarious as he continues to blithely talk about growing test subjects with multiple heads or express frustration that he can’t carry bioweapons through airport security. Human resources director Pam Poovey (Amber Nash) and accountant Cyril Figgis (Chris Parnell) – who both became field agents as the show shifted towards more action – are now back to clumsily juggling their office jobs with their dangerous missions. Pam’s even returned to deflecting her incompetence with her signature goofy dolphin hand puppet while rules-following Cyril serves as the perpetual scapegoat. The throwbacks demonstrate the way Archer has always been true to who its characters are, even if their roles have shifted over time.
Malory’s former assistant Cheryl/Carol Tunt (Judy Greer) is the character that has evolved the most over the series’ run, revealed to be both entirely psychotic and incredibly wealthy. She fits in perfectly within the new hierarchy, serving Lana as both an aid and enforcer gleefully armed with sharpened knitting needles ready to puncture the throat of anyone who questions her new boss.
Lana spending most of her time behind a desk provides an opening for a new spy, Zara Khan (Natalie Dew). She brilliantly fills Lana’s role as Sterling’s foil in the field, but with more of the edge used by the recurring villain Fabian Kingsworth (Kayvan Novak) as she positions herself as a rising star as opposed to one who’s lost some of his luster due to age and a slew of serious injuries. But Zara also shares Sterling’s mix of hypercompetence and brashness, which only fuels the ridiculous competitiveness between them.
The writing remains sharp as ever, punctuating Archer’s endearingly silly antics with extremely smart jokes – in the first episode alone, there’s a jab based on anglerfish reproduction and an extended riff on Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado.” The limited animation style ensures that action sequences are always powered by dialogue, a chance for the characters to bicker amongst each other and mock their opponents as they come up with creative solutions to whatever predicament they’ve found themselves in.
Those plots are far-ranging, exploring the breadth of action tropes the show has parodied over the years. The first two episodes, which focus on Zara’s introduction as part of a highly convoluted mission to infiltrate a group of international jewel thieves, hews closest to Archer’s roots as a James Bond spoof. Episode four is reminiscent of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, giving an unusual nobility to Sterling's tendency to get beaten up by villains. It also delivers a stirring monologue on the nature of artificial intelligence, only to quickly brush the meaningful aside away with characteristic goofiness.
But episode three, “Plaque Removal,” goes in an entirely different direction with Lennie James playing a reverse Indiana Jones proclaiming “This does not belong in a museum” while stealing an artifact from the British with the help of Half Pint (Jordan Claire McCraw), a child sidekick who feels like he belongs in Oliver Twist. It both provides the opportunity for on-the-nose jokes while coming back to the regular Archer theme of questioning the morality of the team’s missions.
