My friend Kashi piqued my curiosity with her description of “The Americans”, and on the off chance it might be something I wanted to watch, I checked out a clip on youtube to see if it grabbed me. The clip I saw DID interest me, sadly, it was a clip from season 3 of Mom Elizabeth ordering daughter Paige to spy on some priest, so the surprise of the kids finding out that their parents are Russian Spies was spoiled for me, LOL.
So anyway, I was intrigued enought that when I saw someone on ebay selling a set of Seasons 1-3 on DVD for 25 bucks, I bought it. I have to say that at first, the show did not grab me the way I hoped. By the middle, I was really losing interest and was thinking I was going to pass on the rest of the series. But the last three episodes of season one REALLY blew me away, so much so that I went to Amazon and ordered seasons 4 and 5!
I think I didn’t like the writing of the first half episodes:
For example, when FBI agent Stan Beeman moves in next door, I liked how Elizabeth and Phillip acted, instead of acting guarded, they were very friendly and outgoing. And when Stan wants to borrow jumper cables, instead of hiding the car from him, he invites Stan into the garage and even opens the trunk in front of him.
So I was bugged when Stan tells his wife, “something’s fishy about that couple”, like, What??? They didn’t do anything to warrant suspicion and I hate when he says he has “instinct”.
And when his FBI boss tells him “the Russians could be anyone”, he thinks “OH DAMN, IT’S MY NEIGHBORS I GOTTA BREAK IN THEY’RE KEEPING THE PRISONER IN THEIR TRUNK”, I’m like who in HELL would come to that conclusion just becasue they have the same kind of car?
I alos noticed that each episode’s writer had a different idea of what kind of personailty Elizabeth should have, so in some episodes, she was romantic and wanted the marriage to work, in others she was a strong soviet agent, nonetheless, it always seemed like they were writing reasons for marital squabbles to fill the show up and after the 5th episode I was getting irritated.
And those episodes where the head of FBI announces that they are going to kidnap and kill any KGB agents they find, I was like WTF! This is like a 4th grader wrote this, this is liek reading comics! If they’re just gonna kill anyone they want, what’s the point of ANY intricate sleuthing, spying, etc? Just go out and shoot everyone.
I was ready to give up watching, but two things kept me interested in the show:
One: I really love the Russian girl Nina, out of all of the show’s characters, she seems the most complex and multi-layered. Her character was the one that grew the most in the first season, and the season’s finale where she confesses to the Russian Boss that she is the mole and becomes a double agent was AWESOME!
Two: The fake romance and marriage between Phillip and FBI secretary Martha Hanson. I always liked wherever the story went to this subplot. I really liked the Martha character (am I crazy to think that this lady is sexy???LOL), sadly I once again shot myself in the foot when I went online to look up “actress that plays Martha in the Americans”, and the first article that came up said “ACTRESS ALISON WRIGHT TALKS ABOUT HER CHARACTER MARTHA HANSEN’S DEATH IN THE AMERICANS”
D’OHHHHHH!
Anyway, So by episode 10 I was pretty much watching on autopilot, and then…the last three episodes of Seasons 1 came on, and DAMN! these were so awesome, it was what I was hoping to see from the beginning: Tense cat-and-mouse games between the KGB and the FBI, awesome spy action and a great car-chase, and even fat old KGB Lady Claudia shows she’s badass by tazing that guy and slitting his throat. And like I mentioned before, the turning of Nina into a double agent was like the coolest turn ever, NOW I’m invested and can’t WAIT to dig into Season two!
