From books, to shows, to podcasts, lots of stories want to be serialized nowadays. Even movies (I’m looking at you Marvel and your recent season finale of “Avengers: Infinity War”) wish to be in on the action. Yet sometimes a tale with distinct acts that wraps up nicely without a cliffhanger can be just as pleasing.

I prefer television shows to have narrative arcs and I find episodic procedurals that focus on the monster or criminal of the week to be dull and repetitive. But there’s a third option that’s a perfect compromise. This middle ground is the anthology series.

Anthologies have existed since the dawn of television when weekly or monthly programs adapted stage plays for the screen. But I’m not talking about those, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” and “The Twilight Zone,” or newer shows like “Electric Dreams” and “Room 104” where each episode is standalone. Instead, I’m referring to a show that has a whole complete season. It still changes tone, plot and cast, but not as frequently. 

This hybrid genre became popular with FX’s “American Horror Story.” There, familiar faces return each season in new roles and new settings, from asylums to circuses. Ryan Murphy took his miniseries-eqsue formula and adapted it for “American Crime Story,” which isn’t to be confused with ABC’s anthology “American Crime,” and “Feud.”

But “Archer” is different.

For one, the show is animated while the aforementioned titles are live-action. This gives the producers and writers freedom to experiment with people casted as animals or against gender and allows for absurd antics that would be too difficult on a low budget.

An illustrator’s pen and pencil can also do more than makeup. Voice actor H. Jon Benjamin can be a balding cook in “Bob’s Burgers” and a suave secret agent in “Archer” without a tremendous amount of effort on his part.

The other unique aspect of the show is that it didn’t start as an anthology. Way back in 2009 it premiered as a “James Bond” parody. “Archer” usually revolves around a dysfunctional group of secret agents and office support staff bumbling their way through mission after mission. The main trio is the titular Sterling Archer, his mother and agency director Malory Archer and his field partner Lana Kane. Supporting Archer are head of human resources Pam Poovey, accountant Cyril Figgis, scientist Dr. Krieger, bomb specialist Ray Gillette and Malory’s personal assistant Cheryl Tunt.

The end of the seventh season drastically changed things, however. Riffing off of “Magnum, P.I.,” the crew moved to Los Angeles and opened a private investigation agency. Their case involving a Hollywood starlet goes sideways though and the final episode shows Sterling floating in a pool after being shot. Each season since has taken place entirely within the mind of a comatose Archer.

Personalities remain similar in the illusory worlds, but creative liberties are taken. In the noir-inspired story Pam is a man, Cyril is a dirty cop and Krieger is a scientist that built bionic soldiers in World War II.

This season the genre shifts to an “Indiana Jones”-like romp on a French-occupied Pacific island. Archer and Pam are seaplane pilots, Mallory runs a hotel and Lana is a local princess.

There’s a golden idol somewhere in the jungle and a one-eyed Archer wants to find it before a plotting German Cyril does. Oh, and did I mention that Krieger is a parrot this time, just because he can be? It’s just as clever, funny, and engaging as before with the added bonus of storyline that could go literally anywhere on the island.

Along with the move to dream seasons, the length of each has shortened from 10 episodes to eight. This switch up keeps it fresh. Producers, critics, and fans agree that shows rarely get better the longer they’re on air. The standard of 22 episodes has made way to 13, which has been replaced by 10. Shorter seasons help intensify the writing. There’s no filler and no pacing problems. British showrunners know this and make most of their shows cap out at two tight seasons.

As the penultimate season this will likely be the last time that “Archer” experiments this way, which is both good and bad. Once Archer is free from his coma the show will return to some semblance of normalcy to give the agents the closure they need. Yet part of me yearns for additional twists on classic tropes.

The possibilities are endless when you have supercharged lightning in a bottle.