What started out as a goofy spy series has almost backdoored -- phrasing -- its way into becoming a limited series, with a new adventure and setting every season, like some sort of Ryan Murphy show. That's pretty cool.
A show this funny could be content to rest on its humor, but "Archer" has upped its game, showing that Adam Reed and his team's ambition isn't just limited to comedy.
Archer has always had a nostalgic appreciation for the antic paces of screwball comedy, and going back in time gives the show permission to alter its tone somewhat so as to follow that muse.
There's no expansion or even mutation of the noir style beyond an increase in humor and a moderate amount of self-awareness, neither of which is strong enough to override how plodding and unadventurous this all feels.
What seems, at first, like a complete clearing of the board, quickly reveals itself as a brilliantly surgical excision, cutting away the show's accumulated baggage and leaving behind only those things that work.
Where Archer: Dreamland improves upon the formula is its story. I wouldn't be surprised if Reed and his writers carefully plotted out each beat of the season before getting started as the ongoing film noir detective story is satisfyingly rich and twisty.
