“Television! Teacher, mother, secret lover.” - Homer Simpson, The Simpsons
I consider myself a connoisseur of the ’moving pictures box’. If somebody actually awarded people for the amount of TV they watch then the award would have my name. The issue in this day-and-age is that there is no shortage of things to watch and kill time with, and it seems that TV is the only medium that is not affected by the fundamental capitalist concept that competition and variety should produce quality products.
The increasing number of shows out there makes the quest of finding a new show that is good, and worth watching very difficult; you can’t watch the pilot of every new thing out there, let alone watch a few episodes to get a feel for something. So what happens is that you stay with the shows you are already watching, even if they start to go downhill (or were never that good to begin with).
That’s where I come in. In situations of such life altering dilemmas you can turn to your friendly internet Reviewer for guaranteed* viewing pleasure.
(*guarantee only applies if you possess identical neural pathways as me at the time of viewing.)
The show that I want to introduce, although based on its ratings will probably be no great unknown, is Archer.
Archer is a funny, edgy, and extremely entertaining show. The premise of the show, that of the macho, self-centred, superspy that would make James Bond quiver in his well fitted pants, working for the global espionage agency ISIS, which is run by his oversexed, parentally challenged mother, while having to work alongside his insanely violent, emotionally repressed ex-girlfriend, and other colourful colleagues, makes for a highly enjoyable 25 minutes. There are many things that can be pointed out relating to why the show is so popular: the witty, fast paced comedy, the hilarious re-envisioning of cliqued spy situations, to the weird and exaggerated, yet still plausible relationships and dynamic that the characters have with each other, etc. (<- watch the show to find out what they are).
The show is already in its second season following the great success of the first, and during in this time it has managed to maintain the same level of comedic excellence throughout every episode; humour that is reminiscent of shows like Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law or Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast (two other great shows that you should see when you have the time if you haven’t already).
I’m am not in the habit of making exaggerations regarding how good or bad something is for the sake of sensationalising it (calling me cynical by nature is an understatement, I mean my blood type is B-Negative! Get it? Really, no one is laughing?), so a review like this one will probably be very rare on this site. At the moment there are only about two or three other TV shows that I hold in just high regard (and I’ll get to those in upcoming reviews). I simply felt that it was best to start [It’s in your TV] with a ‘[the] Reviewer Seal of Approval’ so that you can start watching something decent while I discuss the plethora of horrendous shows out there that you should avoid or stop watching altogether. Enjoy the show and be careful entering the "Danger Zone!".
