Archer 5.3, Archer Vice: A Debt Of Honor Review

rating: 3.5 stars

You would think that the remnants of an international espionage agencies would intuitively know a thing or two about street crime and drug dealing. Unfortunately for the crew of ISIS, that doesn't seem to be the case. A Debt of Honor picks up pretty much exactly where A Kiss While Dying left off, with the ISIS crew trying to figure out what to do with the $1 million in counterfeit money they got for their 20 kilos of cocaine. Pam ends up using it to by amphetamines from the Yakuza, with whom she has a longstanding history, as documented in the third season episode Drift Problem. Therefore, like A Kiss While Dying, the antagonist of this episode is a repeat from an earlier season. I'm sure there are some new faces in store for this fifth season of Archer, but it's a somewhat bizarre decision to use repeat antagonists in back-to-back episodes of the first two proper episodes. I always like it when Archer revisits old rivalries and acquaintances, but with the show's new start, new characters practically write themselves; seeing old faces isn't nearly as stimulating. The ISIS team is bumbling things even worse than ever before, and in this case, their mistakes are sort of unforgivable. There's always been a level of incompetency pervading the organization, but the utter stupidity displayed by the characters so far in this season is flat-out silly. For instance, in this episode, just when you think Archer has gotten back to the cool, razor-sharp, man-of-the-moment action hero he was in earlier seasons, he suddenly gives away bricks of the ISIS cocaine stash to a man he had held up at gunpoint. That really isn't funny to me €“ it's frustrating, actually. Archer has always been kind of madcap, with random nonsense happening and characters acting without what might be called sensible motivations. But between Archer giving away drugs at the end and Pam blowing all the counterfeit money on amphetamines, the characters in this season seem to just be acting with utter frivolity. Still, I get the point. Team Archer sucks at dealing cocaine. Presumably this season will have a narrative arc where the team just falls and falls until they, hopefully, get their act together. With so many failures under their belt already in just a few days of in-continuity drug dealing, there's bound to be a big shift soon. Actually, this is probably the biggest problem with the season so far. For all the fuss made about Archer Vice and the new drug dealing format, not a lot has changed €“ the characters just all seem to have gotten stupider. Somehow, eventually, hopefully, at least some of the characters need to be reborn with new resolve. I'm trying to view these episodes in the context of this wider arc, imagining the kinds of scenarios they are building towards. On their own, they have so far not been remarkable. They haven't been bad, exactly, just "minimally exceptional." The laughs are fewer and further between than previous seasons, and there is a reliance on several of the same gags. At least two such gags stick out in this episode. The last joke is very similar to the joke that ended the Honeypot episode, and Malory's shrugging indifference to Pam's fate has been played before, although that could just be called a character trait. It's also definitely become a much more inside show. While there were always ongoing storylines (and that's one of the big things the show really has going for it), the references to past episodes have increased. Then again, there are a lot more past episodes now to draw from, so it's up to you whether that's a good or a bad thing. The characters who haven't been as prominent this season seem to have the most interesting things going on, and are the ones I'm most looking forward to seeing develop. Ray is gaining complexity. The scene of him peeing in his underwear while passed out in his wheelchair is one of the most poignant of the series so far, even if it's played largely for laughs. And one would think the enormous Tunt Manor would afford all sorts of new uses for Woodhouse, but he's spent the season so far locked in various rooms. I hope this isn't a new gimmick for the character €“ like coming up with a new way to kill Kenny each week on South Park, devising a new trap for Woodhouse to fall in. It's pretty funny, but it's a waste of a good character. Cyril actually seems to have the best untapped chops for drug dealing with his knowledge of the law and of different backdoor money tricks. It's he who suggests the possibility of selling the counterfeit money for $.15 on the dollar, an option the team should have pursued if only he'd have mentioned it sooner. I'm also glad to see Ron Cadillac taking another prominent role in an episode. Ron Leibman does a great job voicing the character, who is a perfect foil for Malory. He also has a more advanced understanding of the criminal world than most of ISIS, so hopefully he is utilized more in future episodes. Archer is still in a transitional phase. Truthfully, nothing has changed too radically. I'm looking forward to seeing the team settle into their niches and start being productive. I'm also excited for Sterling to get in the face of the drug-dealing community, change his wardrobe, and really buy into the Archer Vice concept. I expected that by this third episode, they'd already be fully ingrained, but perhaps the setbacks are necessary to push the team where they need to go. It's still an entertaining show with several good laughs, including Archer's Price is Right failure ringtone and Cheryl's story of her crazy uncle who hoped to catch fugitive slaves by building tunnels underneath Manhattan... in 1890. Judging by the trailer at the end of White Elephant, there is a lot more action to come than we've seen so far. The team has been getting beaten up by old enemies, Ron has been shot, Pam has become addicted to cocaine, Ray is at rock bottom, and Archer seems to just be getting sloppy. As far as I'm concerned, it won't be until all these things turn around that Archer Vice truly begins, and I'm still confident that the creative team is leading us there. It's going a little slowly, but there's just too much potential in this new direction for it to stagnate for long.