Tag: comedy

Archer

Matthew EilarLeave a comment

One of the most disappointing things that I’ve read recently is that Archer, FX’s new Adult Swim-esque show might get canceled. I’m not the world’s biggest fan of AS comedies in general, I sometimes don’t find the humor funny and I’m not a fan of deliberately awkward pacing, but I really think the Arrested Development comparison that people are making is a valid one.

Archer is a hybrid parody of both workplace comedies and secret agent tropes. This workplace is I.S.I.S., a governmental agency akin to U.N.C.L.E. and S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Sterling Archer is their best agent, albeit with significant liabilities associated with his weird (read: incest) relationship with his mother (head of the agency, Mallory Archer (played by Jessica Walter)), perpetual intoxication, complicated love life, and a sociopathic inability to care about the feelings of others. The center of the show is the fiercely competitive and deeply weird relationship between the Archers, and the cast is filled out by parodies of familiar characters: the weapons/gadget guy (in this show, a weirdo in the basement who manufactures his own recreational drugs and builds sex robots on company time [“The best part? He’s learning…”]) rival agent/token minority, pencil pusher/boyfriend of Archer’s ex, Moneypenny (think Joan Holloway if she liked rape fantasies and being choked, and the director of human resources (a serial sexual harasser who’s orientation is wide open). The plot is usually just a structure to hang sight gags, one liners, and complicated jokes that sometimes take a couple episodes to pay off.

This is why I think that the comparison between Archer and Arrested Development goes beyond Jessica Walter, although Mallory is an unleashed version of Lucille. They’re both feature a dense web of jokes that are purely visual, purely dialogue, and both. It also takes the outrageous, dry, caustic wit of AD and turns it to 11. Interestingly, I think that Modern Family also shares some of this lineage. It’s taken some of the structures and techniques of AD (including subtle sight gags and callbacks/callforwards) while moving the comedy to a more mainstream place.

The first two episodes of the show are available to stream on Hulu.com, so if you’re interested, or are already hooked and want to save the show, you should check those out.

New shows on my radar

Matthew Eilar1 Comment

1. Breaking Bad

breakingbad_1280x1024_02

This is a new show starring Malcolm in the Middle‘s Brian Cranston as Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher with lung cancer, a teenager with cerebral palsy and a wife with a kid in the oven that decides to use his considerable skills with chemicals to make really pure meth. It’s kind of a dark cross between Weeds and American Beauty. I have to stress that it’s very dark. After the second episode, I questioned whether I could handle the other five episodes (there have only been seven episodes so far). On a more meta level, it’s really nice to see AMC taking a risk with a new show after the success of Mad Men. They really have high quality shows coming out of their channel. It’s also nice that they are trying something that is not ripping off or trying to emulate the success of Mad Men.

It is also nice to see a cable company trying a more British approach to shows. Instead of creating a good show then flogging it to death, they seem more willing to create shows with a constrained, almost telenovela-esque arc.

2. Top Chef

I won’t even put a picture. I know how late I am to the party on this one. I’ll only say that I used to be a fan of Hell’s Kitchen, but now can never go back.

3. Summer Heights High

Summer Heights High is a really funny show out of Austrailia which has been around for a while (it has finished its second first season) but has only popped up on my radar now. It is written by and starring Chris Lilley as three characters in a suburban Austrailian public school. Chris Lilley is kind of an Austrailian Ricky Gervais, and it really got me thinking about whether we have an American equivalent. Steve Carrell is doing the same schtick with The Office, but that’s based on a British TV concept. I’d love to hear any ideas in the comments.