It's taken four episodes, but the fifth season of Archer seems to be hitting its stride. House Call is not a flawless episode by any means, but it's the best episode since the shift in setting. For one thing, it's the first episode that clearly demonstrates the show is going somewhere. The first episode established that ISIS was no more and that the team would be selling off its cocaine stash to get by, but the next two episodes after that sort of shuffled their feet in place with the idea. I worried the show might not make the adjustment. House Call lays most of my apprehensions to rest. The entire episode takes place inside of Tunt Manor, which, as I said in a previous review, is a much more interesting headquarters than the ISIS building ever was. The house as much of a character as the cast. Its sprawling corridors and hidden passages are explored in-depth, and there's a tremendous amount of detail and creativity put into it. It genuinely seems creepy in its Gothic trappings. Most importantly, there is significant character development. Krieger gets one of his most prominent turns in an episode yet, and it's all to great effect. Here, he improves upon his mind-control chip ("The one that made Len Trexler think he was a lettuce?"). This gives us the rebirth of Cheryl as Cherlene, the country starlet we were promised at the start of the season. I guessed Cherlene would be an alter-ego for Cheryl, but it looks as if this is a new, full-time character. For such an important scene, the reintroduction is actually a little awkward, but it's at least refreshing to know even a mind-controlled Cheryl is still crazy as a loon. Archer and Lana share their most significant heartfelt moment to date. It took me by surprise when Lana confessed to Archer that she could never leave him. It's a testament to the talent of Jon Benjamin and Aisha Tyler that these characters, who spend so much of their time quipping and bolstering their tough exteriors, can come across as so meaningful and sensitive when the time is right. You've got to hear Tyler's delivery in this scene; she truly sounds in love. Actually, all of the cast get impressive turns, including perhaps especially Cyril and Woodhouse. Pam's weight loss is a hilarious touch, especially the way it's revealed. She still looks like Pam from the chest-up, so when she's sitting behind a desk you don't know any different. When she stands up and reveals her skinny waist, well, there isn't a single male detractor in the room. We also get an answer to a question I've had all along: why can't Krieger just fix Ray's legs again? Answer: he can, he just hasn't gotten around to pushing the button yet. Which is sad, because Ray is truly in the doldrums of despair. I hope Ron and Malory's split isn't permanent, though, because Ron works great with the rest of the cast. Best of all, the jokes are back. One of my favorite moments is Lana's justifiable bewilderment at how Archer has never tried yogurt. Another is Archer's reference to Popeye Doyle who, in The French Connection 2, becomes addicted to heroin and spends a good chunk of the film drying out in a French holding cell. Both of these jokes, incidentally, take place during the cold open, which just might be the best cold open of the series so far, with nobody taking Cyril's charts seriously enough to overlook their phallic resemblance. But it isn't all laughs from beginning to end. While the show has always relied to some extent on characters thinking out loud and not always being perfectly coherent, that's never been one of my favorite humor devices and it's used extensively here. Also, explicit references to the show's catch phrases become annoying. Archer wonders out loud if they're still saying "phrasing" whenever someone makes a double entendre, and quite possibly dooms that otherwise repeatable zinger forevermore (at least in this episode). This season of Archer is clearly a whole new ballgame for the show, not just in terms of the new setting but in terms of the way their stories are structured. It's always respected continuity, but it's never been crucial that you see one episode before seeing another. Now, story threads are actively and explicitly ongoing. Characters frequently make references to episodes past, whether they be from last week or several seasons ago. In fact, this episode's antagonist is investigating the house because of the Yakuza shootout from the last episode. Sadly, he isn't much of an antagonist a rather bland FBI agent named Holly who isn't given any funny lines. But it's the whole arc that needs to be taken into consideration. One episode might treat a character like a one-note punchline (as this episode and actually, in a good way does with Ray) while the next might thrust that same character into a worthy starring role. I'm happy to say now that the way things are shaking up, I am excited all over again to learn what's going to happen next. House Call goes a long way toward turning the fifth season around from its rocky start.
Kyle Schmidlin is a writer and musician living in Austin, TX. He manages the news blog at thirdrailnews.wordpress.com. Follow him at facebook.com/kyleschmidlin or twitter.com/kyleschmidlin1.
