Sex, violence and idiocy - not to mention bigotry and Oedipal issues - have made "Archer" a taboo-trashing cult hit for FX. "Archer's" hard-on-related showdown sums up the warped sensibility of show creator Adam Reed, an unpretentious wisecracker who's pushing the boundaries of taste in adults-only animation. "I like to think of Adam as the Aaron Sorkin of dirty cartoons," says "Archer's" producer, the confident, bespectacled Matt Thompson, comparing his longtime creative partner to the creator of "The West Wing" and scripter of The Social Network. Sorkin and Reed both specialize in running jokes and rapid-fire banter, with long memories for defining details about their characters. But Reed tends to write more Kenny Loggins references and penis jokes. In its second season, "Archer" has built an increasingly loyal following among FX's male viewership, and made unexpected inroads with the ladies. Produced at Atlanta's Floyd County Productions, the show's success illustrates how Atlanta continues to be a hub for animated shows whose simple visual styles belie boundary-stretching scripts.
And "Archer" adds to a coarsely funny conversation currently running through pop culture about what constitutes appropriate male behavior. Reed and Thompson, who met as young production assistants at Turner Broadcasting in the early '90s, rose through the ranks at Cartoon Network to achieve late-night notoriety with the trippy Adult Swim shows "Sealab 2021" and "Frisky Dingo." Where their competition used to be 1 a.m. Infomercials, now they're up against the likes of "30 Rock" and "Jersey Shore" in Thursday's prime-time 10 p.m.
0 kommentar(er)
