Archer Seasons Guide: 14 Seasons, 145 Episodes, One Clear Path

Seasons 1 to 4: the original agency (2009-2013)

Season 1 has 10 episodes and ran on FX from September 17, 2009, to March 18, 2010. The pilot, "Mole Hunt," aired as a test screening, and "Skytanic" is among the season's notable episodes. Season 2 has 13 episodes and aired from January 27 to April 21, 2011. It includes "Placebo Effect" and "El Secuestro." Both seasons are about the daily mess of the agency and the people in it.

Seasons 1 and 2 are also the two on which the show tested its audience. The pilot was shown as a test screening, and the second season came after a gap of about ten months. If the first ten episodes land with you, the 39 episodes of seasons 2 to 4 are more of the same.

Season 3 has 13 episodes, aired from September 15, 2011, to March 22, 2012, and stretches the show into longer stories. "Heart of Archness" runs in three parts, and "Space Race" in two. Season 4 also has 13 episodes and aired from January 17 to April 11, 2013. Its premiere, "Fugue and Riffs," is a crossover with Bob's Burgers in which Sterling assumes the identity of that show's protagonist while in a fugue state. It also has the two-part "Sea Tunt."

Together these four seasons make 49 episodes, and the series plays them as a single stretch with one setting. ISIS in New York is the workplace, and the missions give the group something to argue about. The two- and three-part stories in seasons 3 and 4, "Heart of Archness," "Space Race" and "Sea Tunt," show the writers stretching the format to longer arcs, and Rough Cut Review finds that willingness to stretch the best argument for starting at the beginning.

Rough Cut Review treats these four as the foundation. The jokes are quick, the cast is established, and a viewer who finishes them knows what Archer does best. The later seasons use that knowledge.

Season 5, Archer Vice, and seasons 6 and 7: the resets (2014-2016)

Season 5 is the first of the show's reinventions. Subtitled Archer Vice, it has 13 episodes and aired from January 13 to April 21, 2014. The U.S. government reveals that ISIS was never sanctioned and disbands it, and the staff turn to a life of crime. They try to sell a large stash of cocaine, and the serialized storyline follows their attempts. The season includes "White Elephant" and the two-part "Palace Intrigue."

A note on the network change helps here. Seasons 1 to 7 aired on FX from 2009 to 2016, and seasons 8 to 14 aired on FXX from 2017 to 2023. The move coincides with the shift to shorter seasons: the FXX seasons run 8 or 9 episodes, with only the last one longer, and its length comes from the three-part finale.

The first two reinventions are worth noting for how different they feel. In Archer Vice the whole group has been cut loose from the agency, and the plot is a crime story instead of a spy story. In season 7 they are private detectives in Los Angeles. Rough Cut Review finds season 5 the more daring of the two, because it removes the agency itself.

Season 6 returns to spy work. It has 13 episodes and aired from January 8 to April 2, 2015. The agency, which had been called ISIS, was renamed after the acronym became associated with a jihadist group, and the team takes on missions that range from jungle expeditions to a romantic getaway that goes wrong. Notable episodes include "The Archer Sanction" and the two-part "Drastic Voyage."

Season 7 has 10 episodes, aired from March 31 to June 2, 2016, and was the last season on FX. After losing their CIA freelance work, the group relocates from New York to Los Angeles, where Cyril Figgis launches a Hollywood private investigation firm. Cyril nominally runs the business, his colleagues keep undercutting him, and Malory continues to take charge. "The Figgis Agency" and the two-part "Deadly Velvet" are the notable episodes.

Seasons 8 to 10: three universes (2017-2019)

Seasons 8, 9 and 10 aired on FXX and are three self-contained universes. Season 8, Archer Dreamland, has 8 episodes and aired from April 5 to May 24, 2017, in a 1940s film noir setting. Notable episodes include "No Good Deed" and "Auflösung." Season 9, Archer Danger Island, has 8 episodes, aired from April 25 to June 13, 2018, and moves to the interwar South Pacific. "Strange Pilot" and "A Discovery" are the notable episodes.

All three universes are new settings for old faces, and each season has its own plot and its own logic. The short runs of eight and nine episodes suit the format, since each story has to be told without much room for side plots. That also makes them the fastest way to see how much the show can change while the cast and the humor stay recognizable.

Season 10, Archer 1999, has 9 episodes and aired from May 29 to July 31, 2019. Its setting is a retro-futuristic space opera. Notable episodes include "Bort the Garj" and "Robert De Niro." A 2017 augmented reality app, Archer P.I., was tied to season 8.

These three are a good test for a viewer who is not sure about the show. They share the cast and the humor but not the world, so each can be sampled alone.

Seasons 11 to 14: back to the agency (2020-2023)

Season 11 has 8 episodes and aired from September 16 to October 28, 2020. Sterling wakes from a three-year coma and returns to his spy career in New York. His team, now called The Agency, has changed in his absence, and Archer struggles with a world that does not need him. Adam Reed stopped writing episodes starting this season. "The Orpheus Gambit" and "Cold Fusion" are among its notable episodes.

Season 12 has 8 episodes and aired from August 25 to October 6, 2021. After saving the world from a nuclear catastrophe, Archer and his colleagues are nearly broke, and a new backer, Robert, sends them on a string of international missions, from a rescue in Moldova to a chase through London and a job protecting an ex-MI6 agent in Japan. Season 13 has 8 episodes and aired from August 24 to October 12, 2022. IIA, a large international spy organization, acquires the Agency, and Archer and his crew work out who they are now.

The closing seasons each have a clear premise of their own: a coma and a changed agency, a broke crew with a new backer, a takeover, and a new boss with an Interpol agent on the team. Rough Cut Review reads them as a return to the missions and the office politics of the early years, with the later formats left behind.

Season 14 premiered on August 30, 2023. Lana Kane becomes the agency's new head and teams Archer, Ray and Pam with Interpol agent Zara Khan to take down the Vanguard, a crew of thieves. The three-part finale, "Archer: Into the Cold," aired on December 17, 2023, and this guide does not describe it.