Product Details

• Actors: H. Jon Benjamin, Jessica Walter, Chris Parnell, Aisha Tyler, Judy Greer
• Writers: Adam Reed, Boswell Cocker, Matt Thompson, Tony Carbone
• Producers: Adam Reed, Casey Willis, Craig Hartin, Craig Horton
• Format: Dolby, Color, Animated, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• DVD Release Date: December 28, 2010
• Run Time: 308 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (226 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00475B0G2
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,283 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Archer: The Complete Season One" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Smart, literate, cheeky, profane, and frequently laugh-out-loud funny, Archer is one of the hippest animated comedies to come along in some time. That's hip in a retro kind of way; writer-producers Adam Reed and Matt Thompson, whose previous collaborations include Frisky Dingo and Sealab 2021 (both also animated, and both seen on the Adult Swim channel), have given these 10 first-season episodes a secret-agent vibe straight out of the Sean Connery James Bond '60s. At center stage is Sterling Archer (voiced by H. Jon Benjamin), top agent for an outfit known as ISIS, which just happens to be headed by his domineering, sex-starved mother, Malory (Jessica Walter). Others on the team include agent Lana Kane (Aisha Tyler), Sterling's once and no doubt future lover, nerdy company comptroller Cyril Figgis (Chris Parnell), Lana's current boyfriend, and some colorful supporting characters. But this is mostly about Sterling, who, in addition to his fancy spy chops, is an irresponsible liar, ne'er-do-well, and wastrel (he spends an entire episode breaking into the agency's mainframe so he can blame someone else for his outrageous expenses). His missions, in which he's often joined by Lana (the better to hurl flirtatious epithets at one another), are fairly stock: Cuban missile submarines off the Florida coast; an arms dealer peddling stolen weapons; a bomb threat on a luxury airship. And the animation, while effective, is limited and unlikely to remind anyone of a Pixar movie. It's the writing that really makes this show shine, as Reed and Thompson revel in an unending stream of hilarious puns, insults, and bons mots: a shirt retrieved from an Indian dry cleaner "smells like Indira Gandhi's thong," karate is "the Dane Cook of martial arts," a particularly bloody shootout is "a Charles Whitman sampler." It's definitely not for kids, but Archer is a hoot. Extras include a version of the pilot episode with an "alternate" lead character, and an interesting making-of featurette. --Sam Graham

Product Description

Suave secret agent Sterling Archer is the world’s most dangerous spy, but political intrigue and global crises are nothing compared to the sexual tension and human resources crises at the intelligence agency where he works. Archer must deal with his over-bearing, over-sexed mother--who is also his boss--and his femme fatale ex-girlfriend who seems to be sleeping with everyone except him. Embezzlement, mind control, hangovers, and demented double crossings--they’re all in a day’s work in this outrageously raunchy comedy!

Episodes on disc one:

• Mole Hunt
• Training Day
• Diversity Hire
• Killing Utne
• Honeypot

Episodes on disc two:

• Skorpio
• Skytanic
• The Rock
• Dial M for Mother

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

161 of 169 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars BRILLIANT! October 29, 2010

By Theo

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

You know, I don't normally put my review titles in all caps. But what can I say? This show is... well, BRILLIANT! I've always thought that there are far, far too many five star reviews here on amazon. But if there ever was a show that genuinely deserved a rave, this is it.

Archer is a wonderfully absurdist frolic for strictly adult audiences. Fundamentally this show is a giant spoof of 1960s spy thrillers; a spoof made for decidedly 21st century sensibilities. It's the show Get Smart would have been had all the characters been perpetually high on crystal meth.

In fact, the characters on Archer are all selfish, petty, and utterly and completely venal: the three great ingredients from which comedy is made. They seem to think and act more like deranged adolescents than grown-ups. Deranged adolescents with access to firearms. Add all this together and you get some idea of the flavor of the show. Archer is very much in the spirit of the original Williams Street adult swim cartoons, but is never merely derivative of them. Which of course is exactly what you'd expect, given that this show is produced by Adam Reed, whose previous producing and directing credits include both Sealab 2021 and Frisky Dingo. Indeed, Reed's voice credits go all the way back to the original Space Ghost Coast to Coast.

But while a similar sense of humor can be found throughout, Archer definitely has a flair all of its own. Visually it has kind of a pseudo-realist "ligne claire" (clear line) style that matches perfectly with the creatively anachronistic world the characters inhabit. Cell phones and other contemporary technologies may abound, but jet-age fashions still prevail, and the KGB and the Soviet Union remain major adversaries.

But the first thing long time hard core animation fans will notice is that voice of H. Jon Benjamin brings its own uniquely laconic comic genius to the title role of "Archer" himself. Many of us remember Benjamin best as Coach from Home Movies. Others may recognize his voice from various bit parts in Family Guy and the Venture Bros.. But wherever you know him from, I for one am overjoyed that a suitable vehicle has finally been found for this great talent.

Better yet, Benjamin is complemented by scarcely lesser talents such as Aisha Tyler, a standup comedian who plays Lana Kane, another top operative at the same spy agency; and Jessica Walter, who plays the head of the agency - who also just happens to be Archer's mother. However, I should stress that this rather unusual combination of relationships is never reduced to mere sit-com hijinx. Archer is the kind of show were things get genuinely disturbing. In fact, this is one of those rare shows where the entire cast is incredibly strong - and backed up by an equally strong writing team, too.

What more can I say? See it!

Theo.

54 of 69 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Great show, DVD extras suck January 14, 2011

By mofolotopo

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

I love Archer, it's one of the funniest shows on TV. I was really excited about getting the DVD because of the "previously unaired pilot" and behind the scenes material. If those are your main reasons for purchasing the DVDs, skip it. The "pilot" is just an episode with Archer replaced with a dinosaur, which is funny for about thirty seconds but goes on for an entire episode. The behind the scenes stuff has some interesting concept art in it, but most of the actual information isn't even narrated - it's printed on the screen in letters too small to be read from across the room on my 48 inch HD TV. I'm still happy with my purchase of the discs because the actual show is so good, but PLEASE Archer people, do better than this on the next release!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious July 22, 2011

By user123

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Wow, FX has definitely done it again. When I first saw commercials for this show I thought it looked horrible. After watching an episode, I realized the only thing that is horrible is FX's method of advertising. I quickly bought the first season on DVD to catch up on the whole thing in order. It has one of the best pilots I've seen in quite some time. The jokes are extremely crude, vulgar, sexist, racist, etc so if you're easily offended I would definitely stay away from this series. I'm looking forward to buying season 2 as well!