‘Archer’ May Be off in Space, but the New Season Is a Return to Form

Archer has worn a lot of hats ever since its titular character fell into a coma way back in 2016. But for its latest set of episodes (and possibly showrunner Adam Reed’s final season), Archer isn’t taking any major swings. Archer: 1999 is the same bunch of brutal, inconsiderate, quip-loving jerks you’ve grown to love and you may have missed over the past couple of years. The only change is that this time those jerks are stuck in space.

Archer: 1999 marks the third season of the FXX series removed from the main Archer storyline, and though it’s visually the most distinct of the three, it’s tonally the most similar. The spy comedy could have probably talked about phrasing and counting bullets forever if creator Adam Reed didn’t decide to mix things up at the end of Season 7. “Deadly Velvet: Part II” ended with Sterling Archer (voiced by H. Jon Benjamin) in a coma. The following seasons — Dreamland, Danger Island, and now 1999 — have all taken place in the unconscious Archer’s imagination, and for the most part they’ve wildly broken the show’s typical form. 1999 is the first season in a while to throw off later seasons’ serious underpinnings and return to Archer‘s typically irreverent, weird, and raunchy self. And if feels great.

Oddly it’s Cheryl (voiced by Judy Greer) who yanks the Archer ship back on its comedic track. In 1999‘s sci-fi world Cheryl plays a fighter pilot for the M/V Seamus, a glue-sniffing ditz who’s great at her job but hates doing it. Watching co-captain Lana (voiced by Aisha Tyler) and later the disembodied robot Malory (voiced by Jessica Walter) try to make Cheryl do her job reinserts some much-needed friction the coma seasons have been missing. The funniest parts of Archer are not the series’ fight scenes but its push and pull between spy thriller and vulgar office comedy. In Archer: 1999 the main cast is all on the same terrible team, and everyone is funnier for it.

There are certain space-specific gags that feel richer and put a fun twist on what used to be a fairly predictable comedy. Framing Ray (voiced by Reed) as space courtesan much like Morena Baccarin’s Inara on Firefly makes for some excellent one liners, mostly because he’s so bad at his job. Also, despite fans’ hesitation about making Pam (voiced by Amber Nash) a giant space alien, she delivers. An especially great running joke about the smell of Pam’s boners makes up for all the “sploosh” jokes we’ve been missing.

For the first time in a while, it feels like Archer is finally back to its normal, constantly joking self. It’s been interesting to see Reed experiment with different genres and relationships over the past couple of years, but watching Archer knowingly piss off then flirt with Lana feels like a more natural return to form. It’s weird this return is happening in space. But hey, we’ll take it.

Archer: 1999 premieres on FXX Wednesday, May 29 at 10/9c.

Watch Archer: 1999 on FXNOW and FX+