Even though show runner Adam Reed already said Archer season five would be “unrebooted” when season six airs this spring, it’s still fun to think about what other shows Archer could do season-long homages to (or in Pam’s case, season-long coke binges), if they ever felt the need to escape ISIS headquarters for a dozen or so episodes again. Here are five shows we’d love to see Archer transform into for an entire season:
Archified
Instead of Archer putting on a white suit and heading down to Miami – what if he put on a cowboy hat and went to Kentucky during Archer season five instead? Archer‘s already got some light Western sensibilities, and the ability to bring back old foes in a new setting such as Justified‘s would be fantastic – Pam could go back to working on a farm, making potatoes so Malory can produce and sell her own homemade vodka… the possibilities are endless, and I haven’t even thought about showdown with a Cowboy Robot Barry yet!
Archer Peaks
Ok, this would probably take the death of a main cast member to pull off – but who wouldn’t love an Archer psychological thriller? There’s so much potential here: Cyril as an idiotic version of Dale Cooper, with the rest of the Archer crew hanging around being weird. That’s really all it would take to make a fun Archer version of the recently revived cult show. Hell, I’d even watch a completely incoherent Archer Peaks: Fire Walk With Me if Reed and company are down to make one.
Orange is the New Archer (or alternatively, Archer Break)
This one is almost too easy: riffing off the idea of Archer season five, Orange is the New Archer is basically “White Elephant” without the ending – instead of finding a huge coke stash and fleeing south, Sterling and company end up with extended prison sentences. This would obviously lead to Pam becoming a prison bully (making Cheryl her “prison wife”), Archer constantly defending Cyril from the horrors of prison – and Ray turning into the prison’s drug lord, the prime antagonist of the season. Of course, the season would have to end with a complicated escape; there’s nothing funnier to me than the image of an Archer, covered in tattoos of the prison blueprints, trying to run away from crazy, drugged-out federal agent Barry, with the rest of the Archer crew in tow.
Boardwalk Archpire
Take Archer season five, trade the coke in for booze, and shift the setting from modern-day Miami to 1920s New Jersey; although it would transform Archer into a completely different kind of show, I could get into a version where Sterling ruthlessly murders gang leaders all in pursuit of a selfish quest for power – and even brings his wife Lana along for some of the murdering good times, while Krieger lays in the background, appearing near the end of the season as a German businessman looking to change the booze game, once and for all. I leave you with one image: Cyril Figgis in a Richard Harrow mask.
What other shows would you like to see Archer homage? Let us know in the comments below!
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