• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, April 5, 2017

OK, FX marketing department -- the many promos you've been running for “Archer” during “FEUD: Bette and Joan” every Sunday night got my attention.

The result is this Wednesday TV Blog heralding the arrival of the eighth season of this animated, graphic-comic comedy. Well, better late than never, right?

As I understand it, this show has aired for seven seasons on FX but is now moving to co-owned FXX -- which FX Networks is trying to establish as a comedy brand.

For most (if not all) of the show's seven seasons, the lead character in “Archer” -- a man named Sterling Archer, voiced by H. Jon Benjamin -- had been some sort of spy involved in stories of international intrigue.

In the new eighth season -- titled “Archer: Dreamland” -- Archer is transformed into a 1940s private eye in L.A. At the end of the seventh season, Archer was in a coma. In this new season, the 1940s detective storyline is taking place in his head.

The new milieu seems entirely appropriate for Archer, whose very name occupies a hallowed position in the canon of 20th-century detective fiction and film noir.

Miles Archer was Sam Spade's partner in “The Maltese Falcon.” Lew Archer was the detective character created by Ross Macdonald.

Like Spade, whose partner was murdered at the outset of “The Maltese Falcon,” Sterling Archer's partner is also murdered in “Archer: Dreamland.”

And somewhat like “The Maltese Falcon,” Sterling Archer's investigation ranges far afield of just this murder investigation.

However, this is where “Archer: Dreamland” and any discussion of serious post-war detective literature part company. “Archer: Dreamland” exists entirely for comedic purposes. And in this pursuit, it is entirely successful.

The two episodes of “Archer: Dreamland” that I previewed in advance of the season premiere were pure pleasure to watch. The show is hilarious, the voice characterizations are spot-on, and the artwork on this animated series is breathtaking and stupendous.

Credit goes to Benjamin as Archer, and also to the show's other cast members -- Jessica Walter, Aisha Tyler, Judy Greer, Chris Parnell, Amber Nash, Adam Reed and Lucky Yates. Adam Reed is the show's creator.

Just the fact that a show like this even got produced, much less lasted seven seasons so far, is a tribute to the effort that apparently goes into the production of this series. The effort shows in every scene.

The end result is a weird, unique, top-drawer comedy series -- the kind of comedy that only cable TV does well today. I have written this before here: For all the problems besetting basic cable these days, the development and creation of original comedies is not one of them.

Basic cable -- be it FXX, TBS or TV Land -- is the place where TV comedy is thriving now. I only wish I had paid attention to “Archer” for the last seven years. But, hey, as I often say: Even a TV critic who makes his living watching television doesn't have time to get to everything.

The eighth-season premiere of “Archer” – titled “Archer: Dreamland” – airs Wednesday night (April 5) at 10 Eastern on FXX.