Archer season finale starts tonight

The first episode in the two-part season finale of Archer airs tonight on FX Networks. I have mixed feelings, to say the least.

This has been an amazing season, and I will be sorry to see the end of it. And it is terrible to contemplate all the Archer-free months of summer to come. Intellectually I understand the cyclical nature of television, all things must come to an end, etc. But who cares? Serpentine! SERPENTINE.

Season 4 has found more depth in its characters than ever before. It particularly probed some of the darker corners of Sterling Archer's past, the events that made him the broken-yet-suave man that he is today.

It has also called into question the core mission of ISIS, in a way that toys with the convention of the spy genre. Are ISIS the good guys, or the bad guys? Or is ISIS just, like a toddler, so self-centered that the concept of "good" and "evil" is essentially null?

The fourth season is ending in a two-part episode. Having recently re-watched earlier seasons of the show, I was particularly struck by its willingness to take on multi-part episodes. Most animated shows rarely go beyond the occasional cliffhanger ("Who shot Mr. Burns" comes to mind) much less structuring an entire multi-part episode. I assume because they don't trust their audience's intellectual capacity enough to handle a two-parter. Who knows.

The season finale is called "Sea Tunt: Part 1" and 2. It introduces Cheryl's brother Cecil (voiced by Eugene Mirman) and his girlfriend Tiffy (voiced by Kristen Schall), which is pretty funny, given the Bob's Burgers cross-over from the season premiere. (I wonder….?) It also involves the Bermuda Triangle. I think it is safe to say, it will be pretty awesome.

Luckily, Archer has been renewed for a fifth season. SMOKE BOMB.

Image copyright Archer/FX Networks