After thirteen seasons, Archer is taking one last trip to the danger zone. The long-running animated spy comedy‘s last season, Season 14, will premiere on August 30. The series’ official Twitter account revealed the news, tweeting out an image of Archer characters Sterling Archer, Lana Kane, Ray Gillette, and Cyril Figgis in a ticker-tape parade, telling us to “consider this the victory lap.”
One of FX‘s longest-running series, the show has undergone a number of changes over the years, from the necessitated-by-actual-events change of the show’s spy agency, ISIS, to the placement of the show’s main character in a coma for three seasons, resulting in a number of seasons where the show’s cast was put into a variety of different settings and time periods. The biggest change for the series, however, was the death of longtime cast member Jessica Walter, whose character departed the series in the show’s Season 12 finale.
What Is Archer About?
Premiering in 2009 and created by animated comedy veteran Adam Reed (Sealab 2021, Frisky Dingo), Archer takes place in an ambiguous time period when the Cold War still rages, but jokes about Dane Cook abound. It follows a private spy agency and its top agent Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin), whose spy skills are undermined by his overconfidence, alcoholism, womanizing, and the insecurity that comes from his mother Mallory (Walter) being in charge of the agency. His coworkers include the perfectionist Lana Kane (Aisha Tyler), nebbishy Cyril Figgis (Chris Parnell), deranged secretary Carol/Cheryl Tunt (Judy Greer), two-fisted HR director Pam Poovey (Amber Nash), perpetually unlucky Ray Gillette (Reed), and mad scientist Dr. Krieger (Lucky Yates).
Over the years, the show’s premise has changed and shifted — initially, a private spy agency, ISIS was later taken over by the CIA, then they became cocaine smugglers, then Hollywood detectives — which resulted in a truly bizarre shift, as that season ended with Sterling Archer in a coma. The subsequent three seasons, Dreamland, Danger Island, and Archer: 1999, put the characters into three different milieus — a film noir Los Angeles, a tropical island in the 1930s, and a grimy sci-fi future — which were all explained as Archer’s coma dreams. In Season 11, Archer awoke from his coma and had to adjust to a world that had left him behind, and soon after that, with the departure of his mother, Mallory. The last season saw the agency redubbed as “The Agency”, under the control of the sinister corporation IAA; at the season’s end, the long-suffering Lana became its new director.
Archer was originally slated to end with season ten, but has continued as a mainstay of FX, and, after season eight it moved to sister channel FXX. The series has been critically-acclaimed and has won four Emmys over the course of its fourteen-year run. Series creator Reed has stepped back from the series in recent years; originally the writer and director of every episode, he now executive produces and continues to voice Ray Gillette.
Archer‘s final season will premiere on FXX on August 30, with episodes streaming on Hulu the next day. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
via Collider