| Season Number: | 8 |
| Bgcolor: |
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| Network: | FXX |
| Num Episodes: | 8 |
| Prev Season: | Season 7 |
| Next Season: | Season 9 |
| Episode List: | List of Archer episodes |
Archer: Dreamland is the eighth season of the animated television series Archer, created by Adam Reed. The first season to air on FXX since the series was moved from FX, consisting of eight episodes, and the first part of the "coma dream" trilogy (followed by and Archer 1999), it aired from April 5 to May 5, 2017.
FX renewed Archer for three more seasons with each season consisting of a total of eight episodes.[1] On January 12, 2017, it was announced that the series would relocate to FX's sister channel FXX, beginning with Season 8 onwards.[2]
This season was notable for portraying Sterling Archer in a more sympathetic light than all previous seasons, i.e. far less narcissistic and irritable, while Dave Willis and Jeffrey Tambor were promoted to the main cast as new incarnations of Barry Dylan and Len Trexler.
After the success of the hidden scavenger hunts in Seasons 6 and 7, animator Mark Paterson devised an augmented reality mobile phone app called Archer, PI to run side-by-side with the show. It featured 8 interactive cases, one for each episode, that could only be accessed by viewing the episode through the phone's camera, "something that had never been attempted in the history of television" according to the creator. The app won two Clio Awards in 2017 and was a finalist for several awards in 2018.[3] [4]
The episode "Auflösung" (German word for "resolution") is dedicated to George Coe, who was the voice of Woodhouse in the first four seasons of the show and died on July 18, 2015, before the episode aired.
This season resolves the cliffhanger from the previous season, which ended with Archer floating lifeless in a swimming pool after being shot several times. It is revealed that Archer survived but has been in a coma for three months, trapped in a 1947 noir-esque Los Angeles setting called Dreamland.[5] It also reveals the fate of Woodhouse (whose original voice actor George Coe died in 2015), the heroin-addicted valet of Archer dying shortly before the season premiere.
In this season, Archer appears as a freelance detective who seeks to find justice for his murdered partner Woodhouse. Malory Archer is "Mother", the owner of the nightclub "Dreamland" with a henchman named Zerk and a rival to mobster Len Trexler. Detective Figgis is a corrupt Los Angeles police detective who is secretly working for Trexler along with the right-hand enforcer "Dutch" Dylan (played by Barry Dylan). Figgis' partner is a male Detective Poovey (played by Pam Poovey) who is also crooked but still has some sense of honor. Krieger is Dreamland's bartender but secretly carries out experiments with bionics in an underground laboratory. Lana is an undercover agent with the Treasury Department investigating Mother who gets a job as the featured lounge singer at Dreamland. Charlotte Vandertunt (Cheryl Tunt) is a ditzy heiress who wants to escape her "quasi-incestuous family".
See also: List of Archer episodes.
On Rotten Tomatoes the season has an approval rating of 86% based on 14 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10.[6] On Metacritic the season has a score of 72 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[7]