Archer: Season 1

I've said before that 2010 was a banner year for new TV shows, at least on cable. Boardwalk Empire and The Walking Dead made for great dramatic television late in the year, the summer gave us Louie and Rubicon, and Justified premiered way back in the spring. But my favorite new show of all was Archer, an animated series on FX that ran from January through March. I've always loved Sealab 2021, an irreverent Adult Swim comedy from the earlier part of the decade. When that show died after four seasons, a certain void opened up in my TV viewing schedule, and that void was finally filled by Archer, which was made by the same team that did Sealab 2021 in the first place. It's hard to place what it is that makes Archer such a funny show. The animation is so true to realistic human form and movement; none of the humor derives from the way the show is drawn or sequenced. Instead, the humor is largely dialogue-driven. But it's not just the lines themselves that work, either. It's their delivery. I have to give credit to the voice actors for truly selling most of the lines beyond the mere point of using different voices to convey different feelings. I could type, right now, that "you look like some kind of cattle rapist," and it'd be somewhat funny, I'm sure. But putting the line on paper (granted, out of context) doesn't do justice for the disgusted malice with which Jessica Walter complains about her son's appearance. I could type, "that girl was like the Pelé of anal" without conveying the aroused delight with which H. Jon Benjamin sells that metaphor. Every episode teems with snappy dialogue and angry insults. The rewatchability and quotability levels are extremely high for Archer; I've seen every episode at least twice, most of them thrice, and some a full four or five times, and yet I could watch the season from start to finish at the drop of a hat if someone else were to propose the idea. Season 2 begins in just under 47 hours and I couldn't be more excited. Danger zone!