Archer: The Complete Season Four

Sterling Archer (voiced by H. Jon Benjamin with a mix of machismo and frat-boy exuberance) has worked his way to the top of the spy game with a combination of arrogance, recklessness, hard drinking, womanizing, and nepotism: his mother, Malory (Jessica Walter), is the head of ISIS, the private intelligence agency that sends Archer around the world with weapons he should definitely not be trusted with. This animated spoof of spy movies and TV shows has become one of the FX network's biggest hits, thanks to the mix of action-movie parody, international intrigue, and cutthroat office politics. Part of the joke is that for all his adolescent behavior and pop-culture quoting, Archer has James Bond skills—just no intelligence, which leaves number-two agent Lana (Aisha Tyler) doing clean-up. The season kicks off with a surreal Bob's Burgers cross-over (for which Benjamin also does a lead voice), features Timothy Olyphant as a guest, and serves up an epic two-part finale at an underwater marine station with Jon Hamm as an eco-terrorist villain. For fans, this stretch heralds the end of an era: it's the final run with the characters at ISIS (the fifth season reinvents them as kingpins of a South American narcotics empire). Compiling all 13 delightfully raunchy episodes from 2013, extras include an original short and a live appearance by the voice cast. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)