Malory Archer

Malory Archer runs ISIS, the spy agency where her son Sterling works, and she never lets him forget who signs the checks. Vain, imperious, and perpetually armed with a cocktail, she barks orders, belittles employees, and treats espionage as a family business she alone is entitled to control.

Jessica Walter plays monstrous self-regard with total conviction, so every withering put-down lands with comic precision instead of cruelty for its own sake. The mother-son sparring with Sterling gives the show its meanest, funniest engine, and Walter never softens her for likability, which is exactly why she's magnetic.