So the spy game is going to take over from all that drug cartel business that made up Archer Vice, but it's not going to be exactly as it once was. For the first four seasons the characters all worked for ISIS, a fictional intelligence agency based in New York whose initials stood for the International Secret Intelligence Service. Fun! Unfortunately, in the downtime between the fourth and sixth seasons the real world has seen the rise of a very real, and much less fun, group with the same name. ISIS has been all over the news this year not because the Archer hype machine was groaning into life a little earlier than usual, but because the name was adopted by a terrorist group called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (also translated as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), who've been up to all sorts of horrible, humans rights-abusing violence in the Middle East. Not something you really want to associate your comedy cartoon with. Apparently they briefly considered commenting on the connection between the fictional and real-world ISIS groups, but really, making light of the real ISIS felt a little in bad taste. So whilst the cast of Archer will be returning to their old spy activities, they'll be doing it under slightly different auspices: the sixth season will see them working as, basically, independent contractors under the direction of the CIA.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
