Fear of Committing

Archer used to be one of my favorite TV shows.  It was a fun blend of action and crude humor.  At its core the show was a spoof of spy movies/shows.  The semi-titular character was super-spy Sterling Archer.  He had the ladies man part of being a super-spy down, but not necessarily the other parts, though he usually did get the mission done in a half-assed fashion with plenty of collateral damage.

While there were plenty of spy-type missions a lot of it was also an office comedy with a whole cast of characters:  His mother, the head of the agency; Cheryl, the crazy secretary; Pam, the gossipy head of HR; Cyril the accountant; Krieger the demented scientist; and Lana, the other main agent who Sterling had a fling with, though at the start of the series she’s with Cyril.

The first 4 seasons kept to this premise.  Then creator Adam Reed decided to literally blow it all up when the FBI raids the agency and they go on the run with a literal ton of cocaine they try to sell.  Part of this was motivated by some real world awkwardness in that the agency was called ISIS and then all the sudden a real terrorist group called ISIS came on the scene.  This “Vice” season was pretty lame as they make bumbling attempts to first sell the cocaine and then some weapons.

Season 6 got back on track as the unnamed agency was now a contractor for the CIA.  It was fine until Reed again decided to blow it all up (less literally) and have them lose their contract with the CIA.  So in Season 7 they open a detective agency in LA.  It was meh, but there was potential.  Except at the end of the season Archer is shot and winds up face down in a pool.

The next season starts off with him in a coma.  The entire season then is an 8-episode coma fantasy set in a 40s noir version of LA.  And I think, well OK one wasted season is fine, but he’s going to wake up and we’ll get back to business, right?  Nope.  Season 9 is another coma fantasy, this time on “Danger Island” involving Nazis, cannibals, and the search for an idol.  As an additional screw you to fans there’s nothing at all set in the actual universe of the show.  Well, OK, you’ve had 2 coma fantasy seasons but with one season left you’re going to get back to reality, right?  Nope.  The next season is set in space in an Alien-type ship.

Watching “Danger Island” on Hulu recently, it occurred to me that Adam Reed had a fear of committing to his own characters.  The characters he created.  Through most of the first seven seasons the characters developed back stories and new relationships.  Archer hooked up with Lana and got her pregnant with a daughter they decide to raise together, though they don’t get married.

With these coma fantasies it seems like Reed deciding he didn’t want to take the next steps with Archer and Lana especially, so to run out his contract he’ll just do these fantasy seasons.  That way he doesn’t have to worry about developing characters anymore because none of it matters.  You don’t have to worry characterization or consistency or growth if you’re going to reboot every season.

It is the ultimate cop-out and screw you to the fans.  It’s even worse than the recent “wedding” of Batman and Catwoman that was set up for over a year only to have her leave him at the altar.  It’s saying, I don’t want to think about what’s next for Archer, Lana, and their daughter--or any of the others--but I signed a contract with FX, so fuck it I’ll just make three seasons that don’t matter and then I’ll be done.

In which case, like I said about that fake wedding, why set something up for almost 18 months to cop out at the end?  Why did you build these characters and relationships for 7 years only to cop out at the end?

A lot of mush heads on critique groups like to talk about how their character came to life and won’t do what he/she tells him/her to do.  Which is utter bullshit.  You’re the author so of course a character will do what you tell him/her to do.  It’s just that when you do so it might not make sense to you.

It seems something like that happened with this show.  At the outset Reed might have wanted just a silly spy spoof but then inadvertently he wound up creating all of these flawed, three-dimensional characters.  He just wanted to have fun making dick and fart jokes and sometimes blowing shit up; he didn’t want to deal with issues like child-rearing or how Archer and Lana can continue their dangerous occupation while they have a child.  Or how Archer can commit to a family instead of getting drunk and fucking everything with tits.  Whoa, man, that’s way too heavy!  So let’s just quit.  But I have three seasons left on the contract, so, hey coma fantasies!  That’ll be fun and there are no consequences for the characters.

It’s a perfect solution--except for people who were actually invested in the show and its characters.  We’re left with 24 hollow, soulless parody episodes.  Hooray?  The only good thing is they cut the seasons down from 13 to 10 to now only 8 episodes so at least there’s not much of this shit to deal with.  It took only 3/12 hours to binge “Danger Island” on Hulu, so there’s not much of a time investment anymore.

Unfortunately now there’s no hope at all that the show will ever get back to form and deal with the issues raised.  Which is great if you’re the creator afraid to commit to your own creations, but it sucks for everyone else.

The lesson for writers should be obvious:  you have to commit!  Or at least have the balls to kill your characters off if you don’t want to commit to them.  Don’t leave them on life support for three fucking years, toying with your audience.  Or you probably won’t have an audience for long.