Spy 'toon 'Archer' season finale likened to James Bond in OHMSS

21-Apr-2011 • Bond Style

In a review of the second season finale of the popular small-screen spy, Archer, EW reviewer Darren Franich compares the adventure to OHMSS:

Archer started its second season finale with an unexpected image: Sterling Archer in love. Katya Kazanova, the Russian spy who saved his life in last weekâs episode, swore that she had fallen for him at first sight. Perhaps because she looked remarkably like January Jones in X-Men: First Class, Archer felt the same way. Mallory and Lana were immediately skeptical. Sheâs Russian! Sheâs hot! Clearly sheâs a double agent! This was vintage Archer, combining a cocktail of refurbished spy cliches with pleasantly pathological emotional issues. By the time the Anxious Mother and the Jilted Ex-Girlfriend were both holding guns on the Suspiciously Buxom New Girlfriend, it felt a little bit like we looking at a candy-colored diagram of relationship malfunction.

There has been a lot to enjoy about the second season of Archer. Seemingly throwaway characters like Ray and Krieger have developed fascinating, terrifying inner lives. The show has expanded its world to include a whole network of spy agencies, most of them commanded by ex-boyfriends of Mallory Archer. Pam has become a pseudo-Chuck Norris figure â itâs no longer surprising when she says things like âI got ripped at a bar last night, and I was trying to beat my record for cramming pool balls in my mouth.â

Last nightâs season finale had a pleasantly zig-zag plot: While the agents of ISIS plotted a take-down on Sterlingâs new lady-friend, Nikolai and his Russian pals gave Barry the Six Million Dollar Man treatment and sent him to kill the traitorous Katya. The ISIS plotline ended in a shootout â Dr. Freud would note that this is the second straight season finale in which Sterling and Mallory were shooting at each other â and the stage was set for a spy-wedding. Archer, the terminal spy bachelor, seemed to have found the true love of his life. It was just like On Her Majestyâs Secret Serviceâ¦

â¦and just like in that awesome-besides-Lazenby James Bond film, it was doomed to tragedy. Bionic Barry attacked mid-ceremony and nearly strangled Archer. Mallory proudly proclaimed that she had one bullet left, and fired itâ¦and of course, it bounced off Barryâs metallic frame. âWhat part of âIâm a cyborgâ are you people still not getting?â he asked, exasperated. Katya sacrificed herself, tackling off the building. Of course, her sacrifice was pointless â Barry, who youâll remember is a cyborg, had no problem with the fall.

And so, the second season of Archer ended in sad, pointless madness. Archer was crying for his lost love; Krieger, uninterested, was crying because his totally awesome tinted-window van was completely flattened by Archerâs lost love. It was all weirdly funny, although from another perspective it probably looked depressing. Archer could be the bleakest comedy on television, but wow, Iâm excited for season 3.