When doing press for season four, creator Adam Reed talked about focusing on larger seasonal arcs for the employees of ISIS. They’ve been sprinkled in the first three episodes, and continue in ‘Midnight Run’, road trip episode with lots of upstate New York references people like me (who grew up in said area) can appreciate. Although it jumps to some conclusions at the end, ‘Midnight Run’ is consistently funny, and takes some important steps in establishing where Archer is going emotionally this season.
Ron and Archer’s bonding adventure across the border is typical Archer fare: train jumping, a violent gang of tranny gimps, and multiple Cadillacs with screeching tires is fine entertainment. What’s interesting is Archer ‘accidentally’ bonding with Ron, a guy whose last name isn’t Cadillac, and whose life isn’t as boring as Malory and Sterling want to believe. Archer’s eventual acceptance of his stepfather comes on a little quickly – and it’s a little odd to see Archer embrace anyone in such a whole-hearted fashion – but it’s all a part of Archer inching towards emotional maturity.
As Ron points out, Archer has never liked anybody who was involved with his mother (for many, many disturbing reasons), but if he really wants to find peace in his life, having a relationship with some sort of a father figure is a big step. For Ron, finding peace in his life is a little more overt: he’s getting robbed by a former member of his car robbing gang (which apparently was at its prime somewhere between 1920 and 1940). The events of ‘Midnight Run’ did make one thing clear, however: Ron Cadillac is a lot more epic than he initially lets on.
‘Midnight Run’ is noticeably thin on its plot – it’s main focus is building a relationship between Ron and Archer, and to introduce a few other things I think we’ll see later on in the season (notice how none of his former gang ever appears?). Despite some shaky execution, it’s still a solid episode of Archer.
Grade: B+
Other thoughts/observations:
– There isn’t much going on in the office this week – there isn’t any Kreiger or Cyril at all, with Pam and Lana only poking their heads in for a couple jokes here and there (and Ray laughing on the phone with his robotic legs relaxing on the desk).
– …”them Democratic queers in Congress!” Archer: “… or whatever.”
– Master P/making it rain references are funny, but feel oddly out of place shoved into a rushed joke about Carol’s eerily-accurate gypsy (something else to pay attention to, I’m sure we’ll hear about that again).
– “Shut your poutine hole!”
– Archer doesn’t quite grasp the idea of the butterfly effect.
Discover more from Processed Media
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.