Archer has a new boss but some great, classic energy in its 13th season premiere

Well, that was a relief.

Look, it’s not like I was expecting Archer to just completely collapse in the wake Jessica Walter’s death—especially since a decent chunk of last year’s run of mostly-fine episodes seem to have been produced after her untimely passing, not before. But a new season of this show can always be a bit of a fraught thing, with a tendency to swing for some maybe-unearned emotions and lean on some overly broad character notes to sell the jokes. (Or, y’know, it can have a three-season stint in Coma Land.)

But “The Big Con” doesn’t fall into any of those traps, even as the various members of The Agency fall directly into Fabian’s. That’s Fabian Kingsworth, of course (Kayvan Novak, whose creative output now thoroughly dominates my professional life), who slips easily into the role of the leader that these dysfunctional assholes hate only marginally less than they’d hate having to go get regular-people jobs if he found himself killed or kidnapped.

That latter scenario is exactly what ends up happening in the midst of ClandestiCon, the setting for tonight’s premiere, and a big networking opportunity for Archer et. al’s new parent company, IIA—which is trying to brand our favorite superspies/admin staff for superspies as a “boutique,” hands-on alternative to the company’s usual ruthless bureaucratic efficiency. After Fabian gets grabbed by some mysterious gun-toting baddies, Archer, Lana, Pam, Carol/Cheryl, Ray, Cyril, and Krieger are forced to split their already eternally fractured attention, with the field agents focused on winning the convention’s skills competition to impress potential clients, while the B-team bumbles their way into trying to save a boss they only sort of don’t want to see dead.

From a plot point of view, this is a very minimal season premiere: Archer and Lana breeze their way through the competition, obviously, and Fabian faked the kidnapping in any case as a way to show off how good he is at manipulating his employees to do whatever he wants. The biggest plot development is the reveal that Lana’s ex Robert (Stephen Tobolowsky, applying the character’s bountiful calm to far creepier purposes than usual tonight) is going to try to fight her for custody of her and Archer’s daughter, A.J., citing the safety of the child, and definitely not just a creepy urge to continue controlling the woman divorcing his ass. (His little arm grab introduction on Lana is a perfectly skeevy bit of work from the animators.)

Which is heavy, sure, but writer Mark Ganek doesn’t let the domestic drama bog down an episode that is mostly about three things: Serving up good jokes, tossing a few fun action sequences into the mix, and laying out the basic running themes for this season.

To take those in reverse order: It’s genuinely exciting to see Archer find a new angle to play in its long-running blend of spy action and workplace sitcom; watching these barely controlled personalities attempt to operate under the straitlaced and rigid IIA promises to be a lot of fun. (Cyril and Ray are managing the best, of course, while Krieger is deeply stifled by the lack of on-the-clock sex guns he’s being allowed to build.)

More importantly, the corporate drudgery element is grounding in a way the show has desperately needed for a while now. Over the last several years (and even before the coma seasons), Archer had come to feel at times like it was about a small crew of weirdos existing in their own wacky bubble, completely divorced from the actual world. (Note, for instance, the way the Agency’s offices got sparser and sparser across the seasons.) By giving the crew a demanding, smug, obnoxious boss who’s the face of a big, faceless, soulless corporation, Archer provides its stars with a much-needed dose of relatability for those of us watching at home, and a common target for everybody’s comedic gripes. I’m very excited to see how this dynamic plays out through the rest of the season.

As for the action stuff: It’s become rote for me, at this point, to note how good Archer’s animation looks after a baker’s dozen’s worth of seasons on the air. Even so: All three of the big action sequences tonight—the hall of mirrors, the skydiving fight, and the train battle—looked, well, genuinely great. This is a team that’s gotten very good at animated action over the last decade-plus on the air; we’re a million miles away from the stiffness of those early seasons at this point.

None of which would matter, as ever, if the jokes weren’t there. Luckily: The jokes were there. Fabian, especially, gets some great lines; nobody’s ever going to replace either Malory Archer, or Jessica Walter, at deploying a perfectly aimed put-down at a subordinate. But lines like “No, you’ll be a thin piece of fabric with my hand up your ass,” or noting that Archer’s liver “absorbs alcohol and excretes luck,” are at least reassuring for anyone who needs their Mean Spy Boss quota filled for another year.

Beyond all that, though, there’s just the feeling that always seems to set in a few minutes after I sit down to review this show after several months away: A genuine appreciation for what funny, smartly written, perfectly performed characters these all are. The world of pop culture isn’t so filled with amazing fictional folks like Pam Poovey, Ray Gillette, and, yes, Sterling Archer himself—who, after playing around at maturity, ends tonight’s episode with a pledge to be even less responsible than usual going forward—that we can take their brilliance for granted. When Archer works, it still really works, and tonight’s premiere suggests a show that’s in fine working order as it cruises through its second decade on the air.

Stray observations

• We’re all cool just calling it “The Agency” now, right? It’s so much easier than “the folks who used to be ISIS, like, 10 years ago.”
• That’s podcasting impresario Jesse Thorn as Archer’s easily bested competition in the cold open; as a long-time fan of Jesse (who’s a long-time fan of the show), it’s nice to see him pop up in the part.
• Got a little sad seeing the intro be de-Malory’d.
• Pam, on the topic of Kermit The Frog: “Yo, you think Miss Piggy is abusing him? I know she plays rough, but…
  Carol/Cheryl: “I get the feeling he enjoys it. Who wouldn’t, roughed up by a pig in jewelry?”
• “Authenticity. That’s what you’re all there. To fake that.”
• Archer, taking his mom’s death permanent retirement better than we might have expected: “I do feel a responsibility to keep my mother’s legacy alive. But on the other hand, now I don’t have to worry about being yelled at by the one person in the world who scares me.” (Thank you to folks in the comments for reminding me that the show made the very smart move to not burden Sterling with grief over his mom’s death at the end of last year.)
• “Oh, is that why you nailed that skank, for A.J.? What, were you looking for a parenting book between your piss-flaps?”
• The competition proctor has to come back at some point, right? It seems wild that they’d cast Shohreh Aghdashloo for a one-off.
• Archer knowing how to handle Lana’s A.J. issues is genuinely sweet. “It helps that I never moved past emotional adolescence.”
• The “knifelight” got a laugh out of me.
• “Fine, let’s go save a jerk’s life, thus making the world a worse place.”
• I’ve missed H. Jon Benjamin’s laugh before Archer does something really explosive/stupid.
• Yay, Ray’s in charge! “In my defense…I did not know he was going to tell everybody.”
• Reference watch: Archer goes heavy on the pop culture stuff tonight: He calls out lighting the fires of Gondor early on, and drops references to Point Break’s Johnny Utah and The Neverending Story’s Falcor during the skydiving challenge.
• Line of the episode: Fabian takes down Cyril’s yes-man tendencies: “And why are you standing there nodding? I said I wanted leadership. You look like a bobblehead they give away to raise awareness for diabetic librarians.”