Plaque Removal

The final season of Archer is here and it's already off to a bad start. After viewing the first three episodes we have a serious problem in the form of the new character, Zara Kahn. It appears Mark Ganek and the rest of the staff that took over writing the show's material from Adam Reed haven't been paying attention to the negative reception for the past eight years.

For those of us who have struggled to watch the poorly written, one-dimensional female characters such as Rey Palpatine from the "Star Wars Sequel trilogy," or Helena Shaw from "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" would know that a character like Zara Kahn is unacceptable.

For those who have not watched the final season so far here is some background information. Archer, Lana, and the team are tasked with working with Kahn, who turns out to be a former Interpol agent who has gone rogue and joins their agency at the end of episode 2.

Now that we've established the story of this season why is Zara Kahn such a problem, you ask?

First off, if you want people to get engaged with a new character or season, the first impression is important. When we're introduced to Kahn, she is already presented as this "perfect, highly skilled, flawless" fighter (Rey Palpatine). This would be fine, except Kahn immediately exhibits a series of very unlikable qualities. She has an arrogant, abrasive, and disrespectful attitude, specifically towards Archer who is THE reason we're watching the show. The writers have Kahn besting Archer in every category while she disrespects his age and years of experience (Helena Shaw). This material would work on a show like Archer, except it's written without the charm and humor that has made the show such a success.

Also, this needs to be mentioned many times. Adam Reed already created a character that challenges Archer in a similar way. Her name is Lana Kane and her dynamic with Archer of butting egos has worked perfectly ever since the show first aired. Instead of creating a redundant character like Zara Kahn how about focusing the final season on Lana's troubled relationship with Archer. If you've watched the show up until this point, you would know that there is a lot of unresolved drama between them, creating room for humorous material.

Another problem with this season is that the other characters seem just fine with Zara's behavior. As an avid viewer of the show, characters such as Lana, Cyril, Cheryl, Pam, Ray, and Krieger would NOT just open their arms to someone like Zara Kahn. These are well rounded, deeply flawed characters who all share a long history together. Zara Kahn is just a guest on their show who wears out her welcome quickly.

What the writers have done here is create an extra character that exists only to cut down the main character of a beloved series. Not only is Zara Kahn unlikable, but she also has serious flaws in her character that need to be addressed on the show. Hopefully, in the future episodes the writers will fix this problem. Do not hold your breath though.

Update 3/14/25: After viewing the entire last season of Archer (Including "Into the Cold") Zara Kahn is still one of the most unnecessary and unlikable characters ever written for television. She serves no purpose in the entire final season besides being incredibly annoying and out of place with the other characters. She accomplishes nothing of importance for the story, except waste our time cutting down Archer with her toxic tone of voice and grating presence. What should be a funny character instead drains the show of its usual upbeat comical flair.

Thankfully in the series finale (Into the Cold) the writers had the good outlook to put Archer, Lana, and the team back in the spotlight for their last adventure. They even managed to incorporate Katya and Barry (What's left of him). It did make me long to have Adam Reed come back and fix some of the problems of this season.

I love Archer. My wife and I constantly quote the show from "Lana, Lana, Lana...Danger Zone" to "Phasing". Our german shepherd is named Krueger. It's always been a favorite go to whenever I need a laugh but this season after 3 episodes just isn't funny. It might be the introduction of a new character or missing the irreplaceable Jessica Walter. I understand 14 years is a really good run for any show but would it have killed them to throw in a rampage or two? Or a Pampage? Hopefully things will get better as the season goes on because if not this will shame to go out on such a poor note. Wait...I had something for this!

This episode sealed the deal for me. It feels like the series is doomed. The writing is just too bad. I hope as the season goes on, it gets better. But this episode, you really feel like the writers are completely out of ideas and they are just trying to milk the series for money. The characters are just not behaving like they have been written out previously. I understand that most people feel that the dynamic between Archer and Zara feels like a letdown to the previous lore of these characters, but to me, the characters that feel the most awkward are Pam and Lana. They feel completely wrong, and the (new?) writers just do not understand their personalities well enough or seem to understand why people watch this show. I have watched Archer for 13 years; this episode was low-key the worst one amongst all 14 seasons.