Archer
- The Complete Season Four
(2013/Fox Blu-ray)
Picture:
A- Sound: B Extras: C Episodes: A-
Hands
down one of the best animated series (perhaps even better than most
live action for that matter) on television today Archer
in its Fourth
Season remains
one the funniest, inventive, and utterly ridiculous series out
there... and I mean OUT THERE!
For
those uninitiated Archer:
The Complete Season Four continues
to follow the daily happenings of Sterling Archer (voiced by H. Jon
Benjamin) and his crew of fellow ISIS [International Secret
Intelligence Service] team members. Acting more like a band of
misfit children with guns, drinking problems, and licenses to kill;
the members are ISIS are moderately controlled and overseen by
Archer's overbearing mother Malory (voiced by Jessica Walter). The
ISIS members are well trained, but with their overwhelming personal
issues taking center stage it is amazing that anything gets done.
Every episode has ISIS mixed up in a tale International espionage
that like a Rube Goldberg device ALWAYS starts in seemingly unbridled
chaos, but always ends up on top. When I say on top that does NOT
mean they got the job done; it just means they came out alive...
well most of them.
Season
Four hosts
the same kind of inner turmoil that we have come to know and love
from Archer,
but every season seems to outdo the last. In Season
Four the
team is tasked with stopping a Papal assassination, homicidal
cyborgs, get mixed up with a reality cooking series, and even find
themselves in the depths of an undersea laboratory in a brilliant
spoof (homage?) to Sealab
2020
(2021?).
Whereas
we see the ISIS team face many enemies head on, as always, their
biggest enemy are themselves. With constant bickering, near
fatal injuries, liberal gun use, liberal alcohol use, liberal drug
use, liberal sexual advances and enough debauchery to make Nero blush
the tasks assigned to ISIS are merely a loose framework to foot the
bill and get their rocks off. And it is fantastic!
The
series is so, so smart! What may seem like a smattering on vulgar
humor and fart jokes to the untrained eye (which there are plenty of)
is actually a brilliantly orchestrated action comedy with
overwhelming wit and humor. Show creator Adam Reed assembled a
brilliantly talented voice cast including but not limited to Aisha
Tyler, Amber Nash, Chris Parnell and so many more that catapult the
series to the next level as they execute the material with
astonishingly controlled chaos.
Archer:
The Complete Season Four on
Blu-ray again goes above and beyond in terms of video quality. The
1080p 1.78 X 1 Widescreen presentation is again astounding as image
is nearly pristine. The blacks continue to be deep and inky which
frame the bright, bold color palette perfectly. Previously I had
criticized the series due to the lack of texture due to the flash
video stylings of the series; I will back track to say the smooth,
crisp lines and awesome detail make up for that lack of texture; plus
it is just the style. The sound on Archer
is
again excellent in its 5.1 DTS HD-Master Audio lossless track that
uses the whole speaker range as Archer and crew attempt to save the
world and concurrently destroy it. Panning effects blast across the
whole speaker range and dialogue is spot on; well done.
The
extras are disappointingly scant as they only offer 2 special
features. Extras are as follows:
Archer
is a
wonderful series that viewers can jump into at any point with ease;
though to get the best understanding of the characters and story
development I recommend starting with Season
One.
-
Michael P. Dougherty II
