Archer, "Coyote Lovely"

Archer is a show that's not afraid to experiment with plot and story, and "Coyote Lovely" is an interesting experiment indeed. I'm not entirely sure that it worked, but it was definitely an entertaining episode to watch. Both this and last week's episodes use framing devices to tell the story, although this week's framing device (Malory debriefing Lana and Cyril) was much less obtrusive than last week's celebrity chef show.

"Coyote Lovely" also spins the show in an unusually political direction. But then if you think about it, maybe the only unusual thing is that the characters don't typically have this kind of political discussion, given that they are usually involved directly in political missions. You would think that U.S. foreign policy would come up more often for a group of international spies. But then again, the ISIS crew is usually too busy bickering amongst themselves and trying not to die, so maybe it only makes sense.

Lana is cast as the voice of anti-illegal-immigration here, which seemed a little forced. Granted she's only arguing against illegal immigrants, not against immigration as a whole. But it seems like Cyril or even Ray Gillette would have been a better match for the lines that Lana gets in this episode.

Another experimental aspect of the episode is that a surprising number of the jokes take place entirely in Spanish. Here's hoping most viewers either have a basic grasp of Spanish (I took four years in high school but I can only call my Spanish skills "rudimentary at best") or are willing to pick up the jokes from context. Of course, it helps that about 80 percent of the jokes on the show are contextual. It's a skill I would expect most Archer fans to have by now.

(Speaking of contextual joke, Archer's reaction to the guy in the chopper talking about "some kind of spook" was my favorite gag of the episode.)

Both of the double crosses at the end were utterly expected, but that was part of the fun of the episode. Watching the ISIS agents lay it all on the line, knowing that their actions were utterly futile. Dark, but hilarious!

Image copyright Archer/FX Networks