My Pick: Archer

This series will feature one show every month in which I will pick my favorite character, or the one that I relate to most.

One of my go-to shows is Archer, an animated comedy show on FX. The show, named for the central character, Sterling Archer, revolves around the staff of a spy agency called ISIS. Even though it's a cartoon, it has more than enough to keep an adult audience thoroughly entertained. However, appreciating Archer requires the viewer to suspend reality an incredible amount.

I started watching Archer not really knowing what to expect. Seriously, doesn't an adult cartoon spy show ridiculous? Well, obviously I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. Archer manages to allow for enough long-term character arcs through side stories, but each episode has the ability to stand by itself as a piece of unique and tasteful humor. Each character in the show has its own flaw, but in a way it humanizes what would otherwise be a run-of-the-mill spy show full of egotistical superhumans. Sterling and his mother, Mallory, share the same twisted manner of showing love for each other and watching the other characters navigate their relationships is one of my favorite things. None of the characters are "normal" by any means, which makes the show even funnier to watch.

My favorite character is Cheryl Tunt. (In some episodes she goes by Carol or Cristal.) When one thinks of a spy agency, or really any corporate office environment, we would think that the people who work there are highly-trained, well-qualified adults. Cheryl, seems to be none of those things. As the show progresses, we learn that Cheryl is a descendant of the Tunt family, related to Cornelius Tunt who was a railroad tycoon. My fascination with her is that the audience often times sees her as a filler character who doesn't deserve to be at ISIS, but she is a character that I can, sometimes, relate to. Having a privileged childhood, Cheryl's sense of money is skewed and she often has no sense of what large amounts of money mean to people who don't have a rich family. She seems kind of innocent about how the world works, yet she has an abundance of wild sexual fetishes. The juxtaposition of her naivete against her impulsive nature to set things on fire and be turned on by pain makes for a hilarious character.

As I watch shows, often times I look for recurring themes regarding gender and race. There is an episode called "Diversity Hire" in the first season, where Mallory needs to hire someone to meet a diversity quota. After watching all the episodes of the show, going back and watching that made me realize that there is a high imbalance between the portrayal of white characters and non-white characters. Mallory's referring to Conway Stern, a black Jew, as a "diversity double-whammy!" made me cringe a little bit. On the other end of the equity spectrum, there's a strong and healthy portrayal of women in the show. It's obvious Mallory has made sacrifices for Archer's benefit, but she still ends up as the CEO of ISIS. Even the sexual freedom that Cheryl and Pam Poovey continually display parallels that of Archer and Cyril Figgis, all these characters being equally comfortable with objectifying the other gender.

Archer is an over-the-top satirical show, and each character's extreme quirk has made me fall in love with it time and again.