“Pirates work for shares, and since you became a pirate king there hasn’t been any booty, so—”
“I’m going to have to go ahead and disagree with you there buddy”
“…from pirated ships…”
Archer—everyone’s favorite self-centered, usually drunk, womanizing spy—returns for more hilarious adventures in this third season DVD set. The season picks up right where season two left off—Katya, Archer’s bride-to-be was murdered by Bionic Barry, and Archer has run away to deal with his grief. In the three-part premiere, “Heart of Archness”, Mallory hires a manhunter to find Archer, and bring him back to ISIS, but Archer has somehow managed to become a pirate king and doesn’t want to return.
I really enjoyed this entire season. Not only do we get some hilarious stories, but we also get to explore new, different sides of all of the characters. In “The Man from Jupiter”, Archer meets his idol Burt Reynolds, only to discover he is dating his mother. In “El Contador”, Cyril finally gets a chance to be a field agent. (I loved all of the Stargate references in this episode—who knew Archer was a fan?!) In “The Limited”, we learn a lot more about Cheryl’s past while the gang transports a terrorist on a train back to Canada. While in “Drift Problem”, we learn about another one of Pam’s strange hobbies when she agrees to help Archer get his stolen spy car back.
The eighth episode of the season, “Lo Scandalo”, had to be one of my all-time favorites. When a man is found dead in a compromising position in Mallory’s apartment, Archer and the rest of the ISIS crew try to figure out what happened, while also helping Mallory cover it up. This is such a fantastic episode—it is like watching a murder-mystery play. Much of it is performance and dialogue driven, taking place only in a couple different rooms. It really showcases the strength of the writing and the voice actors.
In the Justified-like “Bloody Ferlin”, we learn more about Ray’s past—Archer and Cheryl (as Ray’s beard) head to West Virginia to help out Ray’s drug farming brother (Jack McBrayer) who is being threated by the sheriff (Michael Rooker). In “Crossing Over”, Archer wakes up with a hangover, and is shocked to learn who he slept with the prior night (with whom he had the best sex of his life). To close out the season, in “Skin Game”, Dr. Krieger resurrects Katya as a cyborg; and the two-parter “Space Race” sees the ISIS gang training to go into space.
What I love about Archer is that it’s both a workplace comedy and a spy series. So much of the humor comes from the politics back at the office. You normally wouldn’t think of being a spy as a daily office job, but that is what makes the show so much fun. The series is also not afraid to offend—the jokes are crude, there is cursing and the series is totally politically incorrect. It’s so refreshing to see a show not worry about offending someone—and this show pretty much offends everyone! This is certainly an animated show for adults—it’s actually amazing what they are able to get away with on TV, and I’m always shocked at what makes it on the air. Pam is probably one of the filthiest, most disgusting and crude characters on TV! And I’m pretty sure every episode this season had someone mentioning an erection at least once!
Another great thing about this show is its attention to details and continuity. Unlike other animated shows where the world resets from episode to episode, Archer embraces what happens in each episode, and builds on it in the next one. If a character gets a tattoo in one episode, we will now see that on that character permanently. And for long-time fans, the series does a great job making callbacks to events, big and small, that happened in prior episodes and seasons. This season saw the return of Babou the Oscelot, and had a hilarious running joke about Archer’s answering machine.
I really enjoyed these episodes of Archer‘s third season—they have high replay value. The DVD looks and sounds great, but the extras are a little slim and disappointing (more on that below). However, based on quality of the show itself, this is an easy recommendation.
What’s Included on the DVD:
Episodes:
- All 13 episodes of the Third Season (282 min)
“Heart of Archness” (Parts 1-3), “The Man from Jupiter”, “El Contador”, “The Limited”, “Drift Problem”, “Lo Scandalo”, “Bloody Ferlin”, “Crossing Over”, “Skin Game”, “Space Race” (Parts 1 & 2) - Widescreen 1.78:1
- Audio: English DD 5.1
- English SDH, Spanish, French subtitles
Extras:
- Heart Of Archness Trilogy Enhanced (58:30)
All three parts of the trilogy edited together as one long episode. I couldn’t tell if there was any new material, but based on the run time, it is unlikely. - Book-on-Tape Fail (2:10)
Humorous video of Archer complaining at the audiobook recording session for his book “How to Archer: The Ultimate Guide to Espionage ans Style and Also Cocktails Ever Written” - Cooking With Archer (3:13)
Another fun featurette—Archer hosts a cooking segment with guest Alton Brown, to show how to make Eggs Woodhouse, a recipe from Archer’s best-selling book. - Gator 2 – Trailer (2:19)
Archer shows off his homemade trailer for a sequel to the Burt Reynolds film and tries to get his coworkers to invest in the film. The trailer is quite humorous, with Archer doing his best Burt Reynolds impression, right down to the laugh. - Archer Season 3 at Comic-Con 2012 (2:36)
The video that was shown at this past year’s San Diego Comic-Con panel. Archer makes some nerdy jokes, and tries to give some season 4 spoilers. While this is fun, it would have been nice if they had included the actual panel as well. - Commentary On Select Episodes
I was a bit disappointed with these commentaries as they hardly even discuss the episodes they are for—or even Archer in general! Adam Reed is constantly steering the actors off-topic, and if they do start to talk about the show, he seems to quickly change the topic.- Commentary on El Contador featuring Chris Parnell, Aisha Tyler and Adam Reed (21:28)
Adam talks about doing behind-the-scenes coverage of Stargate for Showtime. Then the conversation moves to helicopters, jungles, speaking Spanish, squat toilets, germs, and disgusting foreign foods. - Commentary on Drift Problem featuring Judy Greer, Amber Nash and Adam Reed (20:50)
They announce they are commenting from a bowling abbey. Judy gives a lot of Twitter shout-outs. Judy talks about her wedding, and Amber talks about her engagement and wedding planning. They also talk about iPads, travel and actually briefly talk about the show—the models for the characters, fan conventions, their dream guest-stars and who will be on in season 4. - Commentary on Lo Scandalo featuring Adam Reed and Jessica Walter (21:30)
They mention the true European story this episode was based on, but then Adam uses this as a segue to talk about Italy, New York Italians, postal services, working on Broadway, Arrested Development and seeing famous people on airplanes. They also briefly mention what will happen with Mallory in season 4.
- Commentary on El Contador featuring Chris Parnell, Aisha Tyler and Adam Reed (21:28)
Final Thoughts:
The third season of Archer was hilarious. I could easily re-watch these episodes over and over again and still laugh. The picture and sound look great. The season was originally aired on the HD FX channel and is also available on Blu-ray, but I was not disappointed with the quality of the DVD.
The extras, however, were a bit disappointing. The commentaries were worthless as they hardly provide any discussion about the episode or the series. I also couldn’t tell what was different with the “enhanced” Heart of Archness trilogy besides the fact that all of the episodes were edited together. So that only leaves a couple short but funny videos. It would have been nice to get some on-topic commentaries as well as some behind-the-scenes footage or outtakes, and the complete Comic-Con panel.
That said, the show itself is fantastic, and definitely worth picking up.
