'What's new and good on TV this fall?" is a trickier question than it seems.

But here's an answer: "Archer."

Because it's clever and flat-out funny.

"Archer" is a half-hour animated show that will premiere on FX sometime in the fall. It's more satiric drama  than sitcom, and it's about the people who work in a spy agency.

They don't do much spying, based on the pilot episode. They mostly hang around, pull guns on each other and deal with their dysfunctional lives.

So it's more like, you know, a relationship show.

It has a little "Arrested Development" and a little of "The Office" and maybe some "Mad Men," including a sculpted lead character whose name isSterling Archer.

Archer, who's voiced byH. Jon Benjamin, is the kind of guy who can jet around the world and find a way to artfully put it all on his expense account.

He's also the kind of guy who obsessively answers every phone call from his mother, even when he's in bed with his beautiful fellow spy, Lana.

"I can do both," he whispers to Lana.

Did we mention that his mother runs the spy agency? And that she's fond of phone sex with other spies?

As this might suggest, much of "Archer" is just wrong, terribly terribly wrong, beyondBill Maherwrong, maybe more like "South Park" wrong.

"You build that backdrop that's very familiar, like 'Mission: Impossible' andJames Bond, and then you just skew it really, really badly," creator/writerAdam Reedtold TV writers inPasadenalast week.

"This job is probably one of the most fun jobs I've ever had," said actressAisha Tyler, the voice of Lana. "I get to spend an hour and a half saying unacceptable things in a very tiny room with no air conditioning."
Tyler also said working in animation loosens a lot of the rules: "It's great how far you're able to push the scripted medium in animation."

"Animation cuts you a lot of slack in that you can have your characters do pretty bad things but people forgive them," said Reed.
"Like, these people are jamming guns in each other's faces all the time, but it's divorced from reality."

It's also hard to imagine two live actors getting away with the casual interracial porn joke that works just fine for Sterling and Lana.

That doesn't mean "Archer" is easy to make. FX says each episode takes about a month. But hey, what do we care how much time someone else has to spend to amuse us?

So if someone asks what's new and good on TV this fall, tell them "Archer." Then you might want to turn off your cell phone for a while.