MovieChat Forums > Archer (2009) Discussion > Zara - Season 14

Zara - Season 14

posted 10 months ago by Ace_Spade (9658)
2 replies | jump to latest

I'm finally watching S14 of Archer and I'm two episodes in. Zara is so annoying. She's kinda sucking the fun out of the show. I've been a big enough fan of this series that I've found enjoyment throughout the previous 13 seasons - even if it did diminish in quality over the years - but seriously, Zara is such a pill that I might wind up finishing the show just to say I did it. She's just kinda right all the time. She doesn't have any of the quirky fun that other characters have, she's just a know-it-all who the writers seem to allow to win all the time. Does it make sense for her character? No. Is there anything interesting about her other than "she's the best all the time"? No. They're using her to annoy Archer, but that side of Sterling is revealed far better in previous seasons with characters like Conway Stern (which might or might not be his real name) or Lana, but Zara is just awful.

She's basically Randy from That '70s Show, is what I'm saying.

[–] willjbeau (885) 8 months ago

I just finished the final season, and while I wouldn't say she's awful, she doesn't gel well with the rest of the crew. Maybe if she had had more episodes to develop it would have worked out better, but as it is, she's always the new girl who lacks a shared history with the others. In the final episode everyone has to rapidly explain to her Archer's history with Katya, which comes across as lame. As for the character herself, her only personal flaw is gambling addiction, which comes up exactly twice, otherwise she's too "perfect" a character to belong in the Archer world.

[–] Ace_Spade (9658) 8 months ago

I really despised the character. It felt like what they were going for was to give Archer a version of himself (he finds her annoying in the same way his co-workers are annoyed by Archer, but she is also super-competent) to kinda give him a taste of his own medicine, but if that was the goal then they removed all of what makes Archer work as a character.

They also toyed around with some alcoholism for Zara, but they didn't really go into it. It felt like they were flailing around for flaws that didn't contradict the impossibly perfect character they crafted for the first two episodes of the final season.

The core problem, I think, is that Zara feels like she was invented by the writers to be "just the awesomest," which is why we get Pam and Ray fawning over her for two episodes while Zara gets the last word in *every* battle of wits, *every* contest of skill, and *every* step of the story/plot/plan.

As I finished the final season, I did enjoy it more and more, but Zara was always a bummer. I found most of her lines - especially her "comedy" - to be forced, obnoxious, and eye-rollingly bad. Even during great episodes, any time Zara "contributed," it would kill the momentum that had to then be pulled back up. And you're right: the flaw they try to give her feels tacked on and poorly integrated, so it doesn't really feel like it's there or has consequences.

They should have left her out entirely. I firmly believe that almost every episode would be improved by diminishing or removing Zara entirely.

The only time she was close to watchable was when she developed an inexplicable respect for Krieger, and even then, the fact that this impossibly perfect person doesn't notice that Krieger is INSANE strained suspension of disbelief.