Archer/Analysis

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The Main section rightly deals with the totality of tropes in the show. However, as the show has evolved (continues to evolve), the range of tropes used in different seasons have changed. This is most evident in regards to the transition from episodic story-telling in seasons 1-4 - where episodes are more or less self-contained with continuity between episodes and seasons but lacking an overall arc - to attempts at serialisation - from season 5 onwards. It is especially worth noting that seasons 8 and 9 (and very likely season 10) are coma dreams, which are able to play with different tropes based on the writer's interests, allowing for radical changes to the characters, their relationships with one another and, most importantly, with Archer himself - since they are now all in his head. Such an artistic ruse is, according to show creator/writer Adam Reed:

"probably use[d] as a crutch...to get out of logic jams. Which is, on one level, extremely lazy, but it’s also pretty liberating."

There is arguably no greater 'logic jam' than dealing with the death of your eponymous protagonist at the end of a 7 season run, only to have the show renewed for another 3 seasons. As artistic boredom combines with the inherent limitations of it's original format (James Bond meets Arrested Development), Seasonal Rot kicks in and a trip to Dream Land beckons.

Analysis by Season

• Season 1
• Season 2
• Season 3
• Season 4
• Season 5: Archer: Vice
• Season 6
• Season 7
• Season 8: Dreamland
• Season 9: Danger Island
• Season 10