One of the hallmarks of a good Archer season (they are all fairly good) is enough snappy dialogue, and action set pieces to keep the viewer interested as the plot flows from one scene to the next. Traditionally this was done through seasons that took place outside of Archer’s head in the ‘real world’. Now after his coma however, the last two seasons have taken place in fantasy lands Archer himself has created. On Danger Island, there’s still explosions, gun fights, and insults being flung left and right, but we get get a setting akin to an Indian Jones movie. There are seaplanes, lost idols, and of course, native cannibals. Like the last season, its more of the same Archer, in a new skin.
I’ll admit, the last two seasons have not been the absolute best. In some instances the plot seemed to spin its wheels, and the characters we’ve come to love (while technically the same in these dream worlds) have been put on the back burner, and we are still left wondering what has happened to the real Archer. Again most everything is the same, but the plot and character progression we have been invested in for seven seasons seems to have been completely scrapped for a more inconsequential and gong-ho experience. Comparatively though, this doesn’t seem to be the biggest travesty. While we want to know what happens to Archer (fingers crossed the 10th season will bring us back) we are still getting the base formula that seemed to make the other seasons so enjoyable. I found it easy enough to get invested in the story this time around, and the plot was interesting enough to keep the episodes enjoyable, however hardcore fans may feel frustrated with the direction this season, and Dreamland took. The hardest change to get used to is that our favorite characters, while still relatively the same, take up new roles we haven’t seen them in. Cyril is a Nazi and Krieger is a parrot. Its hard to adjust to the change at first, but by the end I was enjoying the show like I would any other season.
Overall Danger Island contributes more of the same action and witty comedy we’ve grown to love from the rest of the show. While these episodes are enjoyable, they do little to further the progress of the original plot, and now that we are on our second season of dream-like worlds, we are left wondering when we will get a conclusion to the cliffhanger ending of season seven. Its an enjoyable enough romp, but leaves the viewer wanting a conclusion to what happened to the real Archer going on almost three years ago now.
