I think this past season has shown his decline, it was after all the shit that happened with Lana that he started to careen off the deep end. Now he's always sweating and taking pills.
The implication from the recent episode is clearly that Cyril has always been an idiot, loser, and incompetent, not that it's anything recent, or solely stemming from his break-up with Lana.
That could just be because he's not in his element for the first time. At least I can't remember ever seeing him having to do shit out of the office. He's a paper pusher, not a field agent. All the incompetence I saw was with stuff in the field agent work, like shooting, etc.
Cyril is specifically shown as being incompetent in the office setting, because when he offers to fix the computer bug, Sterling and Mallory both tell him to go away, as he will only fuck things up worse. (Even Krieger is assumed to be way more reliable) For me, that came out of left field, because there was no indication during the previous 15 episodes that Cyril was such a worthless employee. Also, he has never been portrayed as an outright moron before; certainly not enough to believe a shady stranger who knows that he's a member of ISIS, and happily install a computer virus for him.
I think that was more of a "Why the fuck would the accountant be qualified to fix an extremely complex computer problem that the more qualified people can't solve?" type situation than Cyril being completely useless. The Archers have been pretty consistent in the way they talk down to him, too. As for being easily manipulated, that's been a theme for a while.
Decent points, but in the ISIS workplace, there doesn't seem to be any clear delineation when it comes to the jobs of office employees. For instance, Krieger is a crazy, Q-esque scientist who works in a lab all day, and yet, he is called upon to fix a computer bug, not Cyril, who presumably does work with computers as his regular job. Ideally, it should have been Ray (gay analyst) who was asked to fix it, and that was right there. You're right about Cyril being naive and trusting with Sterling on a few occasions, but that was at least moderately believable, not him essentially handing over every piece of company intel to a weird stranger. One is being easily manipulated, the other is just being a completely incompetent moron.
You do make a good point and while I don't really think his change has been quite as drastic as you make it out to be, his change in this episode was a bit jarring. Aside from that though, he has been shown to be fairly bumbling, naive and incompetent outside of his job as an accountant. For instance, the episode where Lana is sent to assassinate the fat guy on the yacht and he cheats on her with Carol for the first time, and the episode where they go on strike and he buys Lana that cheap, brown diamond ring. It seems that the only people that are portrayed as being truly competent at what they do is Lana and Ray, although I do find it pretty funny that when they show Archer doing real field work, he truly is pretty good at it.
Finally got all caught up on the first six episodes of this season, and I like where it's headed. The swamp episode was slow, but worth it for the Archer/Lana heart-to-heart. The expansion of Woodhouse's past and exploration of Mallory's manipulative nature have also been great for the show. I can see where the Cyril-as-incompetent thing came suddenly, but not distractingly so. For the other minor characters, the writers gradually took the time to build toward the current level of sexuality and absurdity. Each character started as a little crazy, but is now full-blown insane. Pam: gossipy/talking dolphin -> heavy bisexual libido -> door-open pooping while watching Cyril fuck Cheryl Krieger: didn't talk at all -> fister roboto -> gay pill -> trash bags full of his "hopes and dreams" Cheryl: identity crisis -> raw meat as come-on -> choking fantasy -> death fantasy Woodhouse: door mat -> gay -> heroin addiction brought on by homicidal rage Even Cyril had shown susceptibility to manipulation in the past ("Did you say Faggis?", "When they're dead, they're just hookers", cooking the books, etc). It was just the transition from office stepping stone to consensus-fuck-up-scapegoat that came suddenly, and even that might be the result of FX airing the episodes out of order. Either way, the show is better with the increasingly psycho characters.
A friend of mine told me about this show last week and I decided to check it out yesterday. I was planning on watching an episode or two and seeing what I thought of it. I'm all caught up on the 2nd season.... Such a hilarious show. The dynamic between Woodhouse and Sterling is the greatest thing ever.
Besides a couple of good one liners, from Krieger especially, I thought last nights episode was pretty mediocre and the low point of season 2 so far.
What? That episode was hilarious. Yes, it ran out of steam towards the end, but the first 3/4 was brilliant. Mallory being a bitch, Kriegers lines ("goodbye Pigley"), Seamus getting a tattoo, Archer being drunk and let's not forget that montage. I'll watch that thing again and again. (Boo-hoo-alert But maybe the episode resonated with me because my sister recently got diagnosed with cancer and my grandfather died because of it. So a lot of things were recognisable to me (although not as bizarre), but still made me laugh my ass off.
Krieger seems to have a ton of animal references: Mallory: You’d think he was half fainting goat. Krieger: Aw, goatly. I enjoyed this episode, and found it to be a solid 7/10 or so.
Finally got caught up on the last two episodes. Episode 7- Hilarious first half. Really, really hilarious. They seem to have finally embraced the fast-talking, rapid delivery, and fundamental, extreme insanity of all the characters. Loved it when Cyril told Mallory the black guy in her script couldn't be called "Cassius". (As in, the former first name of Muhammed Ali) Sadly, the ending was very weak, predictable, and not particularly funny. Three great separate plotlines, and they're all duds by their conclusion. Episode 8- Not awful, but probably one of the weakest episodes this season. Several jokes they had were good, but too much time was spent on exposition of the story. Mediocre. Overall, I would say the show during the second season has been pretty up and down; some episodes as good as or better than anything in the first season, and others average at best.
As good or as 'meh' as these episodes may be, and overall I say pretty good, really the thing I like best about Archer are the quick jokes, the delivery of the one-liners and the subtle little references. So far I would say this season has not disappointed. Krieger: "That'll do pigly. That'll do."
Yeah, I would say that overall, the show is roughly the same quality as it was during the first season; pretty good, but nothing amazing.
I find it entertaining, which is more than I can say for just about any of the other shows on right now. There are some classic Archer episodes that are pure gold, but for me, even the "meh" episodes are only "meh" on the Archer Scale, and worth watching.
Agreed; I think that's largely because they did a good job with the characters. They're the right blend of caricature, weirdness, and stupidity/intelligence for a comedy series.
That and the voice actors aren't just phoning it in. The voice-work is great all around, and they do better than most animated shows at creating the illusion of a group of people talking/arguing. Plus I really like what they did with the art direction/setting. It's a pretty great mix of mid-century design, politics, and office tech and modern pop culture and gadget references. As far as I know that's a pretty unique setting especially for an animated show. Archer has a lot going for it so I hope FX continues it for awhile and it has a chance to turn into something great. A lot of classic animated shows weren't consistently amazing in their first 2 or even 3 seasons (South Park comes to mind) but they evolved and matured. I'd say Archer has the best chance of doing that than any other show like it right now if it last long enough.
I watched the Woodhouse backstory episode again just cause the bits with wee Baby Seamus were so hilarious. Between him being an alcoholic in the making and the little lines Archer had to him, just awesome. "Whats the matter with him?" "He might have just a bit of a hangover." "Its like if Steve McQueen and Jet Li had a baby...and that baby was you!"