Archer: New Animated TV series on FOX

Archer is a new animated TV series on FOX, that according to its creators should be a mix of James Bond meets Charlie Sheen. The simmilarities with the famous secret agent aside, Archer is a playboy of 'epic' proportions according to his own oppinion, and the show does a pretty good job making fun of both the stereotypes of the 007 thriller and the infamous 'player' and womanizer.

The running gags in the show are pretty standard for the format, we've got the mad scientist that's aquired a but of a darker taste for disturbingly unnatural experiments, we've got the nymphomaniac secretary and the gossiping head of HR. Also a nerdy accountant, that somewhat resembles Wilson from House MD. And of course we have Archer whose mother is the head of the agency - somewhat of an Anna Wintour character that's drunk with power and a habitual drinker.

Every episode is a deconstruction of the tropes that build up action thrillers, Archer usually gets himself in some sort of trouble, because he's too obsessed with his own macho image to care about his work. Then his empowered female counterpart has to get him out, while every now and again she proceeds to shoot him in the foot when his chauvinistic ways get the better of him.

The show is set in today's world so the characters go through a lot of the motions you'd expect from a bunch of 2012 people trying to keep up the appearance of an 80s secret spy agency. In one of the episodes the characters go on a strike with regards to a cost of living adjustment to their salary, in another the agency almost gets sold to a rival.

All in all it's a nice show if you're tired of watching the usual FOX round-up of Family Guy, American Dad and the Cleveland Show. It's definitely something new, the visual style reminds me more of a graphic novel, than the usual cartoonish look of the above shows. I'll definitely keep watching even if only to take my mind off of Seth McFarlane doing everything he can to run Family Guy in the ground. 

Ally McBeal: A Sitcom for Lawyers, Who'd Have Thought?

Ally McBeal is a TV series from 1997, about a bunch of lawyers working together at a small private law-firm. Most of them are friends from childhood, and Ally joins them shortly after a scandal with her former boss, only to find out later on that her childhood love is working for the same firm. The story is trivial, they'd known each other forever, and hit it off around high-school, but had to part ways for college. Now she's single, but he's married. Ally proceeds to go through it with equal  parts of denial and manic-depressive. The rest of the series revolves around the equally quirky office environment of the law firm, with strange cases, and an even stranger couple of senior partners, who run the place.

The New Girl: TV series

The New Girl, is a relatively new TV series in the US, focusing on the life of a twenty-something schoolteacher, who finds out that her boyfriend is cheating on her, and in the haste to find a new appartment ends up living with three guys. So yes, it's another sitcom, but somehow adapted to our times, which can be both a positive and a negative. 

Everybody Loves Raymond: TV Series

"I was acting!" One of the best moments in TV.

Here's another one of my favourite old shows. This and Alf used to be just about the only TV shows worth watching back then. Everybody Loves Raymond, and everybody loves Raymond bloopers. So enjoy and if you haven't seen this show you're definitely missing out.

Also Ray going: "They don't pay me enough to... oh wait a minute, they do! I shouldn't have pants on for... (what they pay me)"

Mirror, Mirror (1995) TV Series

Mirror, Mirror is a 1995 TV series, filmed in New Zealand about a bunch of kids who find a magical mirror, that when placed in the house where it originally was and aligned perfectly with its former self, can transport people between the present day (well 1995) and nearly a hundred years in the past. Time-travel hilarity and drama ensues as the characters explore both the old colonial world, and respectively the new futuristic world, from the perspective of the children on the other side of the mirror. 

Classic time-travel moment. "I'm in naa-tee naan-teen?" *gasps*

In present day the series is a depiction of modern day New Zealand, with the kids involved in some school projects like archeology, history etc. In the past though some serious historical events are unfolding with the involvement of a young Russian monarch, treason, betrayal, all in all it switches between slice-of-life and period drama, whenever someone touches the mirror.

At one point the couple (hardly so, but heavily shipped throughout the whole series) end up in a sort of purgatory, a timeless place in 'reality?' where they're stuck until someone saves them. And a lot of the rest of the series focuses on moving the mirrors from one place to another so for example someone from the future can enter a locked jail cell, by placing the past mirror through the bars.

Time-travel is played with in all ways possible. People see their graves, or their great great grandparents, as kids their age, time is not what it seems to be since you can leave a groceries note in a tree trunk for the future folk, and ten minutes later someone will pop out of the mirror, asking you if you want your OJ with or without the pulp.

I remember watching this series ten or more years ago, and it was one of my favourite things to watch. It's clever, it's exciting, Mirror, Mirror is all in all one of the great memories of my childhood along with Pokemon (the Gameboy version) and my Nintendo 8bit.