Archer Interview: H. Jon Benjamin Explains Archer Vice
The fifth season of Archer is shaking things up Miami Vice style. We sat down with lead actor H. Jon Benjamin to explore why.
Archer had a major makeover last night during the Season 5 Premiere, when it became Archer Vice: The show about a group of former bumbling spies now playing as bumbling cocaine dealers. How did we get here?! For answers on that and other pressing issues we turned to Sterling Archer’s vocal doppelganger, H. Jon Benjamin. Besides being the smooth tenor behind the Agent Formerly Known as Duchess’ voice, Benjamin first made hay in the quirky animated world in the progenitor for so many of these shows—Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. He has since done work on Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Upright Citizens Brigade, Home Movies, Bob’s Burgers, Family Guy, and many more of hilarious shows. Yet for so many fans, he will first and foremost be the most impressive superspy who ever donned a turtleneck. Thus, we were ecstatic to be able to sit down with him last week during a conference call and have him shed light on the new direction of Archer…Vice. I watched all the shows last night. I was blown away. H. Jon Benjamin: Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. I haven’t seen any yet, so I’m glad that you were blown away…No. I’ve seen the first episode. So I know what you were saying. I was wondering; do you know why they decided to go in such a completely different direction this season, sort of changing so many things? Well, I think there’s a lot of changes and a lot that stays the same obviously, but I think Adam Reed probably got very drunk one night while he was writing on his computer. Watched too many episodes of Miami Vice late at night or something? Well, I assume he’s of the age where he grew up on that show. I know I was, maybe, right, mid-40s. I don’t want to give away his age in case he’s been lying to people. I mean I’m not exactly sure why is the real answer, but I assume it has something to do with wanting to kind of change the environment a little bit. But, the good thing is the characters are pretty much the same dynamics. They’re the same. It’s just more confusion, more of the same confusion. More craziness. Yes. What was your reaction when Adam first broke the news to you about how dramatically the series was going to be changing"> Google+, if that’s your thing!
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David Crow is the movies editor at Den of Geek. He has long been proud of his geek credentials. Raised on cinema classics that ranged from…