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Jan 27, 2014 By Jim Scott Web Exclusive

How many successful shows would dare reboot in season five? Archer has gotten its laughs from never making complete sense, so the decision to have the feds crack down on ISIS in the season premiere for running operations that not only were not sanctioned by the government, but in some cases flew directly in the face of the country’s best interests (a situation that has come up more than once over the course of the series) is par for the course.

Instead of spending a season rotting in federal prison (one wonders whether series creator Adam Reed toyed with this idea—Archer enjoys nothing more than poking fun at the limited circumstances in which they’ve placed their characters), the former agents of ISIS form a drug cartel in the form of Archer Vice. Like the collection of misfits that populated Arrested Development or Seinfeld before it, the characters on Archer are all almost completely id-driven. The concept of consequences rarely—if ever—crosses the minds of Sterling Archer and his compatriots, and so giving them a stockpile of cocaine and freeing them from the constraints of the spy game gives the series new life. Not that it was floundering at all, but there was a certain circuitousness to the plotlines that Archer Vice not only interrupts, but short-circuits completely. (www.fxnetworks.com/archer)

Author rating: 7/10