‘Archer’s Last Stand, Hitchcockian ‘Afterparty,’ a Cheese ‘Dog’ Goes Camping, How to Live Long

Season Premiere

10/9c

With a gun in one hand and a tumbler of scotch in the other, suave but deeply silly international spy Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin) embarks on his final season of animated mayhem with his sometimes paramour Lana (Aisha Tyler) now running things at The Agency. Her mandate: “Missions that make us money and make the world a better place. No muss, no waste.” Try telling that to Team Archer in the first of two episodes, introducing a new Interpol agent, Zara Khan (Natalie Dew), whose beauty and moxie at first intrigues Archer—until he begins to feel threatened and decides not to trust her. When their assignment to take down a ring of jewel thieves becomes a competition to see who can take down the most bad guys, team member Ray Gillette (series creator Adam Reed) can only sigh, “Oh good, another mission based on spite.”

With only the finale and denouement of the stylish mystery-comedy yet to air, the focus turns to Isabel (the great Elizabeth Perkins, also doing fine work on Minx this season), the gin-swilling mother of the murdered groom. “Mine is a classic story filled with suspense, paranoia and a deep descent into madness,” she warns us at the start of an episode that pays visual homage to Hitchcock’s psychological thrillers with a dash of Douglas Sirk-style lush melodrama. With a bold Technicolor look and new twists in the tangled mystery, Isabel’s story plays like Gaslight by way of Mad magazine. Hard not to love a show where a son describes his mother as “madder than a mad hatter at a hat haberdashery.”

Echoes of the past haunt the present in a wonderful episode of the FX comedy about the quirky population of an Oklahoma reservation. After last week’s evocative flashback shed light on the elders back when they were the age of the restless contemporary Dogs, the “uncles” hope to keep history from repeating itself when they try to shake young Cheese (Lane Factor), who’s been isolating himself from his friends, out of his funk. Their solution: a camping and fishing trip that blends humor and heartbreak in the show’s inimitable style. Gary Farmer (Brownie), Wes Studi (Bucky) and Zahn McClarnon (Big) are tremendous as they open their hearts and souls to this young, confused yet unexpectedly insightful kid.

National Geographic’s Dan Buettner has traveled the world to locate so-called “blue zones” where local diets and traditions have sustained people who often live to 100 in unusually large numbers. In a four-part docuseries, he embarks on expeditions to Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Ikaria, Greece; Nicoya, Costa Rica; and Loma Linda, California to find commonalities that might explain this trend and inspire others to create “blue zones” of their own. As Spock might say: Live long and prosper!

Following last week’s exciting Season 2 premiere, the sci-fi drama reverts to slow-burn mode with another table-setting episode that jumps from Miami and London to Oklahoma and Paris, catching up with characters too restless to sit still as life goes on amid the alien invasion. “You never really came back,” observes the sister of former Afghan War soldier Trevante (Shamier Anderson), whose mind is miles away from Miami as he seeks answers connected to London schoolboy Caspar’s (Billy Barratt) prescient drawings. Back in the U.K., Caspar’s friend Jamila (India Brown) leaves the comfort of home to assemble a group of friends to search for their missing mate.

INSIDE WEDNESDAY TV:

• Superfan (8/7c, CBS): Country music’s Little Big Town takes the spotlight as five dedicated fans battle it out to prove who knows the group best.
• MasterChef: United Tastes of America (8/7c, Fox): Things get fishy in a two-hour episode of the cooking competition when chefs with immunity get to mess with their rivals’ fish selection. Then it’s on to preparing elevated stadium food with elements from their region, with one unlucky home cook assigned a five-minute timeout penalty.
• Design Down Under (9/8c, Magnolia Network): Australian husband and wife Richie Morris and Georgia Ezra specialize in modern home design for their Melbourne clients when they’re not tending to their four kids.
• Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland (10/9c, PBS): The historical docuseries concludes in the 1990s, when President Bill Clinton makes the controversial decision to invite Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, to the U.S. in 1994, the same year ceasefires ease tensions, leading to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
• Heart of Invictus (streaming on Netflix): An inspirational five-part docuseries produced by and featuring Prince Harry profiles service members from across the world who overcome physical or psychological infirmities to train and compete in the Invictus Games The Hague.