Archer Review: Some Remarks on Cannibalism (Season 9 Episode 6)

On Archer Season 9 Episode 6, Archer and Pam escape from the cannibals while Ray, Lana, Malory, and Charlotte follow right on their heels.

This episode doesn’t focus much on Fuchs and his gun-happy german soldiers, and I actually think the episode was the better for it.

Reed has written Cyril to be a much flatter character than he usually is, as I touch on in my review of Archer Season 1 Episode 4. Because Cyril is stereotypically the villain this season with no particularly redeeming qualities, focusing on him has become incredibly boring.

Unless it’s a fight scene between Archer and Cyril, Archer: Danger Island can keep Cyril in the background.

Other amazing aspects of this episode include:

1. LANNAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
2. The many references to past Archer episode
3. David Cross
4. Archer and Pam banter

Archer and Pam’s constant arguing actually… worked this episode.

I know what you’re thinking: didn’t you just spend 200 words worth of space in your review of Archer Season 9 Episode 5 to say how tiring and annoying their arguments were getting?

Yes.

But did Reed actually make their banter work this episode by not having Archer be a raging a-hole for absolutely no reason?

Also, yes.

The way Pam and Archer poked fun at each other back-and-forth reminded me a lot of Archer and Lana’s arguments in previous seasons, sans the sexual tensions.

Which… has anyone else noticed them trying to make Archer and Pam a thing? It’s kind of cringe-worthy.

Archer and Pam work as best friends, they do not work as love interests. And yet, here we are, with another sexual/romantic moment between Pam and Archer.

Last episode, when they had the two in the mud and Archer actually asked Pam to marry him, I simply ignored it.

Whatever. Archer would chalk it up as a joke, which they did. Yet, later in this episode, Archer gets a hard-on and it was less funny and more… ehck.

No. I just can’t see it. I don’t want to see it. Please, Adam Reed, don’t make me see it.

Speaking of seeing, or not seeing because you’d rather have a spoon shoved in your eye, David Cross was a wonderful treat!

I was just watching Archer Season 3 episodes, Heart of Archness, so it was so exciting to see an old face! They made Noah the exact same, inability to sense immediate danger and all.

Watching Archer and Noah play off of each other was incredibly refreshing. Now that Archer has been flattened a bit himself as this raging, a-hole pessimist, having a quiet, sweet optimist to balance him out does wonders for the episode’s tone.

More David Cross, please! Here’s to hoping he’s here for a 3-episode arc like he was for Archer’s king-of-the-pirates stint.

I actually thought Adam Reed would also poetically have Lana and Rey save Archer and Pam like they do at the beginning of season 3, but alas, Reed rather have us watch them walk in circles.

At least he gave us the priceless comparison of Pam to Lenny, like we get in Achub Y Marfilod (Season 6 Episode 11), and he even threw in the detective agency allusion (Season 7).

We got a lot of things from Archer past, except more Lana.

I’ve held off on sounding the alarm at the lack of Lana in this season, because last season, her arc didn’t really come until the last three episodes.

However, this is episode 6 of an 8 episode season, and we’ve gotten a collective two minutes of screentime from someone who used to be the leading lady of the show.

I currently have no complaints about Pam. BUT when Lana gets less screentime than Charlotte or Malory — we have some problems.

You can’t just write around a character like Lana Kane. If you try, you fail. And that’s what we’re seeing in this season, and that’s what we saw in the last season.

Okay. Okay. Season 9 of Archer is exponentially better than season 8; HOWEVER,  it could be so much better with more Lana and inevitably more action because, since Lana is always trying to beat someone up, violence is bound to follow.

Honestly, if this season just had more Lana, especially in the last two episodes, I’d put it in the Archer reboot success pile. We’ve gotten a lot of good scenes this season and I’m actually not disappointed with the result.

9 season is a long time to try and keep the same characters fresh without defaulting to slapstick humor, and with this season plus Archer Vice, Reed has shown he knows how to shake things up and still tell an Archer-full story.

What did you think of Archer Season 9 Episode 6? Do you miss Lana as much as I do? Did you notice any other allusions to past episodes I may have missed? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Archer airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on FXX.

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